Guest commentary: In Colorado, more jobs, less carbon

Earlier this month, a new report titled "Winds of Change" highlighted the major positive impact Colorado's booming wind energy industry is having on our economy. The report, which was rolled out by the national nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) at the Alliance Center in Denver, found that Colorado is home to nearly 10 percent of the entire nation's wind energy workforce, with more than 2,500 jobs announced in the state's wind sector the past three years alone. These are good jobs at 22 manufacturing plants and nearly 30 wind farms. They're jobs at wind turbine servicing companies like the Boulder-based business that I co-founded. They're jobs running financial analyses to maximize private-sector profits. Jobs like these have led to nearly $5 billion in investments in the state, and they help generate nearly $8 million in annual lease payments for Colorado farmers and ranchers who increasingly think of wind energy as a new cash crop. But the 6,000-plus wind jobs aren't here in Colorado by accident. They're here because we have some of the most sensible energy policies anywhere in the United States. Recently, for example, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a bill giving "enterprise zone" tax credits for renewable energy. This bill is expected to increase clean energy investments and expand rural Colorado's tax base. And our pioneering Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) was one of the first such standards in the nation when it was enacted in 2004. The RPS has created jobs by ensuring Colorado's investor-owned utilities get 30 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like the wind and sun by 2020. We're on track to meet this standard, but it's scheduled to expire in five years. So it only makes sense to plan ahead by extending and expanding the RPS. The sooner we establish a firmer, long-term policy, the sooner our state's leaders can give clean energy job creators the market certainty they need to keep their investment capital flowing far into the future. Another policy poised to help grow our state's economy is the federal Clean Power Plan. By mid-summer, this plan will set the first-ever carbon pollution standards for power plants. Colorado is expected to be required to curb power-sector carbon emissions by 35 percent, helping drive an increase in the development of clean, renewable energy projects across our state while creating thousands of jobs along the way. The Clean Power Plan will also drive more investments in energy efficiency — which lowers our electric bills by cutting energy waste — and again, creates more jobs. Despite the obvious economic and environmental benefits of policies like the Clean Power Plan, a few powerful politicians want to hold Colorado and the rest of the country back from moving forward on clean energy. Last month, for instance, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged governors across the country — including Gov. Hickenlooper — to ignore the Clean Power Plan. In a response letter to Sen. McConnell, Gov. Hickenlooper criticized the suggestion, saying it would be "irresponsible to ignore federal law." Since Gov. Hickenlooper is chair of the National Governors Association, the letter sent a powerful message. As someone who's been in the clean energy business for more than two decades, I have witnessed the private sector's ability to innovate. Technological advances in the wind and solar industries, corresponding cost declines and financing mechanisms like community solar projects and power-purchase agreements for wind farms have all led to a major increase in clean energy projects in Colorado and beyond. Last year, 47 percent of all the new electricity-generating capacity installed in the U.S. was powered by the wind and sun. Over the past three years — 2012, 2013 and 2014 — more than 40 percent of all new electricity-generating capacity that's come online nationwide is from wind turbines and solar panels. During the first four months of this year, those two sources provided more than 80 percent of our new capacity to generate electricity. And in April, all our new electricity-generating capacity came from wind and solar power. None of this surprises me. My career has spanned the wide range of opportunities in our industry — including working in wind turbine manufacturing, at the trade association of investor-owned electric utilities, in power marketing and trading, as a project developer, and now in my current role providing operations and maintenance services. I've seen first-hand how the private sector is ready and willing to innovate and to create jobs to help meet an expanded RPS and the Clean Power Plan's standards. Michael Rucker is president of Boulder-based Harvest Energy Services and a director of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a national nonpartisan business group that advocates for policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment.