Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on his department's efforts to fast track solar energy development on federal public lands. The hearing in late January was part of the Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee's examination of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs by expanding the use of solar energy, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Representatives from the solar industry and the senior scholar at the Institute for Energy Research also testified.

"The great promise of solar energy and other renewable resources has led us at the Department of the Interior to change how we do business," stated Secretary Salazar. "For the first time ever, environmentally responsible renewable energy development is a priority at this Department. During the past year, we offered new areas for oil and gas development, but instituted reforms to ensure we are offering leases in the right places and in the right way. Importantly, and relevant to [this] hearing, we have also opened the new renewable energy frontier?not just for solar power, but also for wind, geothermal and hydropower?on America's lands and waters that will help power our clean energy economy."?

According to Salazar, the Interior Department could clear as many as 34 renewable energy projects, 14 of which are solar projects, by December 2010, making them eligible for economic stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Bureau of Land Management has identified 23 million acres with solar energy potential and is currently processing 128 applications for utility-scale solar projects on 1.2 million acres of public land. By the end of the year, solar projects in California, Arizona and New Mexico that would provide over 5,750 megawatts of power could be permitted for construction creating tens of thousands of jobs, the Secretary testified.

In addition, the Secretary noted that getting the power produced in remote areas to population centers will require a substantial increase in transmission capacity. The department has identified and designated more than 5,000 miles of transmission corridors on federal lands. It is processing more than 30 applications for major transmission corridor rights-of-way, with 7 applications in Idaho, California and Nevada that could fast-track in excess of? 1,000 transmission miles this year.

The new push for renewable energy is creating jobs and rebuilding the economy, according to proponents. Senate EPW Committee Chair Barbara Boxer pointed to an analysis of clean energy and energy efficiency jobs in her home state of California, which found green jobs increased by 5 percent?whereas total jobs declined by 1 percent?from January 2007 to January 2008. "Clean energy and energy efficiency jobs continue to be one of the bright spots in the California economy," she stated. Robert Rogan of eSolar, a California-based concentrating solar power producer, agreed stating that the Solar Energy Industries Association projects the American solar industry in general will generate 882,000 related jobs by 2020.

However, others argue that the benefits of the renewable energy sector on the economy may be overstated. Andrew Morriss, Professor of Law and Business at the University of Illinios, and a senior scholar at the Institute for Energy Research cautioned that, to assess green jobs fully the net job increase must be considered rather than just the gross increase. He also urged caution in evaluation of the multiplier analyses: "Shifting energy production away from existing forms of energy will destroy jobs in those areas just as investing in new forms of energy production will create jobs in the new areas. Only by assessing the net job creation can you effectively weigh the employment merits of a proposed investment." Morriss also observed that the renewable energy industry must increase the labor efficiencies of new technology and suggested that it is risky to build a "sustainable" energy sector based on public subsidies rather than based on success in the marketplace. (jas)