Oct 27 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Monica Chen The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.


Stronger federal climate legislation could create up to 65,000 jobs in North Carolina by 2020, according to a new study from the University of California at Berkeley.

The study, conducted with the University of Illinois and Yale University, said that all states can grow on the demand side as a result of legislation tightening energy efficiency, renewable energy and a cap-and-trade program. The country as a whole could gain 918,000 to 1.9 million jobs by 2020, the study concluded.

States can accelerate growth by promoting "greenhouse gas mitigation via market oriented restrictions on total carbon pollution, energy efficiency and renewable energy development," the report stated.

In North Carolina, stronger federal climate laws could create up to 65,000 jobs by 2020 and increase average household incomes by $1,159 per year, the report's authors said.

"The stronger, more comprehensive the national policy, the greater the growth for individual states," said David Roland-Holst, the report's co-author and a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

In a conference call on the report, Michael Lemanski, managing partner for Greenfire Development, said that while commercial real estate has suffered during this recession, green businesses and green building have been bright spots.

"It's been a challenging market to do business in, but one of the sectors we see great potential in is green buildings," he said.

Other North Carolina business owners also spoke in favor of the report's findings.

Maria Kingery, co-founder of Southern Energy Management in Morrisville, an energy efficiency and solar energy company that went from Kingery and her husband in a living room to 50 staffers, said business had grown because of North Carolina legislation.

"We're confident that if we have a comprehensive, national policy that supported these policies, that we would be able to extend that," she said, and spoke in favor of workers' training programs for corporations.

"Improving energy efficiency cuts costs for transportation, heating, cooling and other energy demands," Roland-Holst said in an announcement. "Money saved on energy puts dollars back in household bank accounts, and gives consumers the freedom to spend on things they want."

The conference call was hosted by Ceres, an environmental organization and network of public interest groups and businesses. The report was also released by E2 and the Clean Economy Network.

(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services