Could a Renewed Focus on Energy Drive our Economy?

With the New Year upon us, and President Obama entering his second term, it got me thinking about our economy and what the next four years will bring.

One of my clients is the Tennessee Valley Authority and I have been learning a lot about energy, nuclear power and overall renewable energy such as wind, solar and clean coal. The company is the only public power company in the US and is a quasi- government agency. It was started in 1933 by President FDR to bring affordable energy to areas in the Tennessee Valley that had been hardest hit by the Great Depression. (As a history buff, I love working with these kids of clients!) Its mission is as clear today as it was 80-years ago, to bring clean and affordable energy to all!

We have definitely seen that in the past, energy has been a way to alleviate poverty in our own country like in areas of the Tennessee Valley, but also more recently in developing countries like Haiti.

Former President Clinton has stated that distributed solar generation could help farmers and other impoverished people avoid high electricity rates and lack of grid access. Others have said that a focus on renewable energy is the surest way to create jobs, cut the trade deficit by up to 50 percent, and fight global warming. America has enormous capacity to generate energy from clean sources and, now more than ever, to take advantage of the large number of entrepreneurs, innovators, and financiers committed to a clean-energy future.

I read in other research findings that every billion dollars invested in a new coal-fired plant yields 870 new jobs. The same amount invested in solar creates 1,900 jobs; in wind, 3,300 jobs (if the turbines and blades are made in the country where they're put up); in big building retrofits, 7,000 in home retrofits, up to 8,000 jobs.

Here in my home city NYC, the Empire State Building completed a comprehensive energy overhaul. The project put 275 people to work, doing things like changing the heating and air-conditioning system, putting new, more efficient glass in the windows; and installing new lighting.

I hope that we can get it together and realize the impact that this can have on our environment, our workforce, our economy and our people.