The Missing Link in Clean-Energy Policy

Andrea Buffa is a senior writer and policy associate at the Apollo Alliance.

What would it look like if the United States had a long-term national economic development policy—including an industrial policy—to grow the clean energy economy?

As the Senate debates comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, and the issue of green jobs becomes increasingly important, now is the time to also consider developing comprehensive economic development and industrial policies. Because whether we’re talking about lithium-ion battery producers or wind turbine component manufacturers, the industries of the clean energy future need clear direction—and support—from the U.S. government if they are to compete and thrive in a low-carbon global economy.

In a new article by the Apollo Alliance, a clean energy, good jobs coalition that includes the AFL-CIO and union, environmental, business and community groups, Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, describes why a strong Buy America component is critical to these efforts.

Writing in “Economic Development: The Missing Link in a National Clean Energy Policy,” Baugh says a key policy essential to a clean-energy economic development policy designed to support a domestic clean-energy manufacturing industry is a local content requirement. Without such a requirement—also called a “Buy American” policy—most clean-energy manufacturing companies will likely locate overseas.

First and foremost, we actually have to put a serious Buy American/domestic-content policy in place. It matters where you make things. In the case of wind turbines and solar, 70 percent to 80 percent of the cost itself is in the product, not the installation. That means you have to have a strategy and a policy that says you’ll do it here.

Brian Sager, co-founder of Nanosolar, a solar power technology company, explained the need for an economic development policy that promotes domestic manufacturing as inextricably linked to the potential for clean energy innovations:

If we don’t have clean energy manufacturing in the U.S., we’ll lose our competitive advantage in the long term. Building a solar plant can’t be  outsourced—you have to build it where the power is needed. And when you have your manufacturing engineers near your R&D engineers, that’s the key to innovation. Physical proximity is extremely important. The innovation cycle is slowed down when these people are thousands of miles away from each other.

Read the full article here.

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