Hello Readers,
The initial committee hearing about the Pennsylvania Solar Jobs Bill (HB 1580) was canceled today. Theoretically, it will be rescheduled; however, it is very likely that the bill will not be discussed in committee prior to the end of the year. This is extremely unfortunate, because the longer the bill is delayed the more solar jobs will leave the state (whether to the unemployment line or to other states).
Of course, there has been virtually no media attention drawn to the floundering of this bill and the Pennsylvania solar industry. And why should there be? Everyone knows it is a fledgling industry, right? It doesn't even employ that many people, does it?
In fact, it does! Or rather it did before the PA SREC market crash went unaddressed for an entire year. In 2010, the National Solar Jobs Census ranked Pennsylvania as the number two employer of solar industry professionals in the country. The best estimate was that approximately 6,700 people were directly employed in the solar industry in Pennsylvania during 2010 (before the SREC market was allowed to crash). To put this in perspective, The US EIA estimates that there were approximately 8,000 people employed in coal mining in Pennsylvania in 2009.
In 2010, there were nearly as many solar industry employees in Pennsylvania (one of the top three coal states in the country) as there were coal miners!
Yet there has been no legislative action to correct the job losses that are being caused almost entirely due to a legislative issue. As a result, the 2011 National Solar Jobs Census is estimating that there are now only about 4,700 solar industry jobs in Pennsylvania: a year-on-year decrease of 2000 jobs. (Even though, the country as a whole added 7,000 solar industry jobs.)
Pennsylvania is losing out on good jobs, because the legislature is failing to act. If 2000 coal mining jobs could be saved through legislative action that involved no taxpayer revenue, how quickly would such legislation pass (or at least be brought to the floor)?
Frustratedly yours,
Sean Diamond
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