Renewables Job Count Passes One Measure of O&G Employment

Published Jan 12, 2016 8:07 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Solar Foundation reported Tuesday that the solar power industry provided over 200,000 jobs in 2015, surpassing the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate of 185,000 positions in the U.S. oil and gas exploration and development sector.

The Solar Foundation figure does not include employment provided by other “green jobs” sectors. American hydropower adds another 200,000 to 300,000 jobs as of 2015 – with potential upside for growth to 1.4 million over ten years, according to the National Hydropower Association. And the wind industry currently provides “73,000 high-paying jobs . . . in all 50 states,” says AWEA spokesman David Ward. Looking to the future, he added that “the U.S. Department of Energy reported last year that wind power could support 380,000 jobs [by 2030].”

In the DOE study Ward cites, offshore wind is expected to create 85k TWh of capacity by 2030, versus onshore's 769k TWh. Assuming a rough parity, offshore wind could create 10 percent of the new employment, or about 40,000 jobs.

Offshore wind still faces a long list of regulatory approvals in the U.S. and accurate forecasts of its future are difficult, analysts say. But Europe's experience with offshore wind suggests potential for significant growth. According to the International Economic Development Council, the industry supported 100,000 jobs in the E.U. in 2009, with as many as 150,000 forecast for 2020.

The offshore wind industry also has the potential to reemploy skilled maritime labor as offshore oil and gas declines with the fall in oil prices. Offshore supply and subsea construction firms like Solstad Offshore and Ocean Installer have recently reoriented part of their sales efforts towards competition for offshore wind contracts, with some success. Ocean Installer's latest contract has the subsea construction vessel Normand Vision on site at Germany's Gode Wind 1 farm, where she will work on connecting shore transmission cables to the farm's offshore substation.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) responded in a statement that the BLS statistics cited in media reports do not include hourly employees and contractors, pointing instead to Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis data suggesting nearly 900,000 in oil and gas jobs in 2013. API adds the NAICS subcategories for employment in drilling and support activities for a total of 1.1 million employees in oil and gas, even before the inclusion of pipeline and refinery jobs and broader economic impacts.

Separately, on Tuesday API president Jack Gerard called on President Barack Obama to avoid excessive regulation of the oil and gas industry. He suggested that a lower compliance burden would help create more oil and gas jobs. “Instead of pursuing a barrage of job-crushing new regulations – many of which are duplicative and unnecessary – President Obama has the opportunity to seize the initiative and embrace policies that recognize the value of the energy resurgence.”

National Ocean Industries Association President Randall Luthi echoed his statement. “A slew of new federal regulations threaten to stifle oil and gas activity, particularly offshore. [The President could show] support for a true all-of-the-above energy strategy that strengthens America's economy, creates thousands of new jobs, and enhances our energy and national security,” he said.