Progress Illinois

How big is the so-called green economy? That's the question the Pew Charitable Trust set out to answer in a study released yesterday. The report attempts to define the clean energy economy and then calculate the actual number of jobs, businesses, and investments associated with it.

But embedded in Pew's data (PDF) was a surprising local statistic: While Illinois' green economy employed 28,395 people in 2007 (making us one of "the nation's largest clean energy economies"), the job growth in this sector actually declined by 2.5 percent between 1998 and 2007. Considering that the green economy grew 9.1 percent nationally during that same period, it's worth asking: What's going on here?

For starters, Pew admits that their estimate is conservative. From the study's methodology (PDF): 

First, we developed a stringent definition of the clean energy economy; second, we used a new, labor-intensive methodology that counted only companies that we could verify online as being actively engaged in the clean energy economy; and third, we counted businesses and jobs supplying products and services generated by the clean energy economy, not the companies using these products and services to make themselves “greener” (i.e., we counted only companies and jobs on the supply side, not the demand side, of the clean energy economy).

Digging a bit deeper into the figures, it looks like the study may have short-changed the wind industry.

Of the 28,359 jobs in Illinois, 69 percent are found in "conservation and pollution mitigation" sector, which includes recycling, waste treatment, and water management. Meanwhile, only 6.2 percent -- or 1,760 jobs -- fall into the "clean energy" sector (defined as the production, transmission, and storage of renewable power).

Wind For Illinois' Kevin Borgia disputes that statistic. In the past six years, he says, the wind industry has created around 5,000 jobs in the state. That doesn't include other "clean energy" industries like solar, low-impact hydro, hydrogen fuel cells, geothermal, or small-scale biopower energy sources, all of which also qualify under Pew's analysis.

Part of the discrepancy could be the study's timeline. In August of 2007 -- just as Pew's data set ends -- the General Assembly passed a bill requiring the development of an electricity procurement plan for utility companies serving over 100,000 people. Included in the legislation was a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, which stipulates that 25 percent of the electricity sold by 2025 must be generated by renewable energy sources. This was a boon to alternative energy producers, who for years had been forced to compete with cheaper, dirtier sources. Even so, it's unlikely that all of the job growth Borgia describes occurred after the REPS, in part because the minimum standards rise over time. (By June 1 of this month, for example, only 4 percent of the power generated had to be renewable.)  Furthermore, three wind-related bills we highlighted in April were approved by both chambers before the spring session recessed.

When Pew next updates its study, it seems likely will see more growth from the wind sector in Illinois.