The May issue of Chief Executive Magazine contains the publication’s annual ‘Best & Worst States’ survey that asks CEOs to rank states on business conditions including job growth potential. Connecticut’s slip from 38th in 2009 to 45th in 2010 was the second biggest drop of any state.
The cost of electric power has a lot to do with it.
In no state in America, with the exception of Hawaii, do electric power companies charge more for electricity than in Connecticut. Rising unemployment was another reason for the state’s poor ranking.
A new energy bill just approved by state lawmakers after long debate aims to reduce the cost of electricity and create thousands of clean energy jobs. This important legislation is currently awaiting Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s signature of approval.
For starters, the bill moves the commercial solar industry from one that is wholly dependent on ratepayer-funded rebates to a market-based incentive program relying predominantly on the value of solar renewable energy credits, or SRECs. SRECs are an accepted pay-as-you-go method used by several states to finance solar PV projects while still providing an incentive to lower the cost of solar projects. The bill requires electric power suppliers to begin meeting their clean energy obligations by investing in clean energy projects in Connecticut instead of sending ratepayer money to out-of-state wind and hydro power projects.
As a result, more Connecticut businesses, public schools, and government buildings will get solar projects installed on their roofs. These projects will create jobs and reduce electric bills paid by private businesses, homeowners, and local taxpayers.
Right now, solar companies in Connecticut are treading water. More and more are relocating out-of-state and creating solar jobs in clean energy friendly states like New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and New York. These companies should be here putting Connecticut residents to work.
We need to latch on to this kind of economic activity because there are troubling times ahead.
The Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis reports that Connecticut could lose 40,000 more jobs through 2011. That would bring the total number of Connecticut jobs lost during this recession to more than 100,000. Construction and electrical worker jobs have been among the hardest hit. More than one in four workers in these sectors has lost a job in the past year. Passage of the energy bill would revive the solar industry which employs these workers.
By signing the energy bill into law, Governor Rell recognizes the potential for clean energy jobs to help with an economic recovery and begin the process of lowering electricity prices.
One of Connecticut’s biggest employers, United Technologies, understands the economic value of a clean energy job market. UTC Chief Executive Officer Louis Chênevert recently told Industry Week Magazine that the company’s shift into the wind energy business is helped because wind turbines draw on many of the same technologies the company uses in its jet engines and helicopters.
“It’s a high-growth segment and it allows us to leverage our expertise in blade technology, turbines and gearbox design” Chênevert told Industry Week.
Aetna recently hired a Connecticut business to install a high-profile solar system on the side of their headquarters in downtown Hartford. The existence of a state incentive program (now dormant) played a significant role in Aetna’s decision to move forward with an energy saving solar project.
Dozens of schools are waiting in line hoping the energy bill passes so they can install solar systems on their roofs to cut their electric bills paid by local taxpayers. These projects save schools money and educate children on the importance of clean energy.
The positives in this bill are overwhelming.
If Governor Rell rejects the energy bill, there will be no new clean energy jobs to counter the expected job losses in other areas and no attempt made to deal with outrageously high electric rates. We’re already the 45th worst in terms of business operating conditions. This bill is an opportunity to change that.
We need this bill. And we urge the governor to sign it.
Michael Silvestrini is president of Greenskies Renewable Energy, LLC, in Middletown. Michael Trahan is executive director of Solar Connecticut in Higganum. Reach him at mtrahan@solarconnecticut.org.