Report: U.S. Senate's Inaction on Climate/Energy Bill Costing U.S. 1.9 Million Jobs, Including 600,000 in 10 States With Worst Unemployment Topping 10 Percent

With U.S. Falling Behind by Over $200 Million a Day in Clean Energy Investments, China is Clear Winner Due to Senate's Failure; More Than Half a Million Jobs Forfeited in 10 States With 10 Percent Unemployment or Higher; Analysis Highlights Impact of Senate's Failure on 20 States:  AR, CA, FL, IL, IN, MA, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NH, NJ, NV, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, and VA.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- China and other leading nations have gained more than $11 billion in job-creating clean-energy investments – with the U.S. losing an estimated $208 million every day – since the U.S. Senate abandoned comprehensive clean energy legislation in late July, according to a new analysis from Small Business Majority, Main Street Alliance, American Businesses for Clean Energy and We Can Lead.  

The analysis shows that, if left unremedied, the Senate's failure to act will cost the United States 1.9 million jobs – including 600,000 in the 10 states with joblessness in excess of 10 percent.   The report documents that, in the nearly two months since the Senate failed to act, clean energy investments already have started shifting away from the United States to China and other nations.

Other key findings include the following:

• Nearly 600,000 of the unrealized jobs were lost where they are now needed most -- the 10 states with unemployment rates over 10 percent: Nevada (17,000 jobs); California (226,000); Rhode Island (8,000); Florida (78,000); South Carolina (36,000); Mississippi (19,000); Oregon (26,000); Indiana (45,000); Ohio (61,000); and Illinois (68,000).
• Even states with lower unemployment levels lost hundreds of thousands of urgently needed new jobs, including more than 300,000 jobs in the following states: Arkansas (25,000); Maine (12,000); Massachusetts (40,000); Minnesota (38,000); Missouri (29,000); Montana (13,000); New Hampshire (7,000); New Jersey (11,000); Pennsylvania (78,000); and Virginia (50,000).
• The lost jobs forfeited by the U.S. Senate include major categories of employment that could have put Americans to work immediately with little or no additional training or education – since a large portion of clean energy jobs require widely-held skills that millions of Americans already have.  
• The Senate's failure to take action will have even wider negative economic consequences on American families, including Americans missing out on an increase to annual household income of up to $1,175 per year, and a boost to America's gross domestic product (GDP) of up to $111 billion – with these huge economic benefits flowing across all 50 states.

American Businesses for Clean Energy Spokesperson Chris Van Atten said:    "The clean energy race will go on with or without the United States. It will not wait if federal lawmakers decide to sit out the next year, three years or a decade. In the near term, the prospects for new jobs and other economic benefits from clean energy remain on the table.  The U.S. Senate has already cost the United States billions of dollars in job-creating clean energy and climate-related investments.  The question must be asked:  How much further behind China and the rest of the world will the Senate allow America to fall in the global clean energy race?"

Small Business Majority Founder and CEO John Arensmeyer said: "Opinion polling of small business owners we conducted confirms widespread support for a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill.  In this tough economy, small business owners are doing their part to reduce energy costs, invest in new technologies and create jobs, but they can't do it alone. They need the Senate to act quickly and pass clean energy policies that will reignite economic growth and put millions back to work."

Main Street Alliance Field Coordinator Jason Collette said:  "These are jobs that can't be outsourced and will provide the foundation for a small business customer base and healthy local economies.  There is no excuse in this tough economy for the Senate's failure to act and its failure to create these jobs."

Speaking for We Can Lead, Tim Greeff, political director, Clean Economy Network, said:  "Business leaders across the United States are in a global race to lead the clean energy economy.  The Senate's failure to enact comprehensive climate and energy policy has left American businesses at a competitive disadvantage, which grows with each day that we delay enacting meaningful policies that will create millions of American jobs and put Americans back to work."

Thousands of U.S. businesses – including small firms in all 50 states – have gone on record as supporting comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation as the best way to maintain American competitiveness with China and other nations, and to help kick start the struggling the U.S. economy.  For more information, go to www.AmericanBusinessForCleanEnergy.org and www.WeCanLead.org.

CONTACT:  Alex Grodin, (571) 344-0085 or [email protected].

EDITOR'S NOTE:  A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.americanbusinessforcleanenergy.org/en/blog/page/abce_press_release_sept_14_2010  as of 6 p.m. EDT on September 14, 2010.  

ABOUT THE GROUPS

American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) is an initiative to demonstrate large and small business support for Congressional enactment of clean energy and climate legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ABCE's goal is to create a single place on the web where individual companies and business organizations can register their support for Congressional action, and to demonstrate the depth and breadth of business support for this legislation.

Small Business Majority is a small business advocacy group founded and run by small business owners to focus on solving some of the biggest problems facing small businesses today. The small business community is vast, diverse and dynamic. It includes 6 million small employers with 43 million employees and 22 million self-employed people, with varying political points of view. But they have at least one critical thing in common: Together, these entrepreneurs and other small business owners create jobs, innovate and grow the economy.

The Main Street Alliance is a national network of state-based small business coalitions. The Alliance creates opportunities for small business owners to speak for ourselves, advancing public policies that are good for our businesses, our employees, and the communities we serve.

We Can Lead is a nationwide coalition of more than 1,000 business leaders - innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, manufacturers and energy providers - who support comprehensive, forward-looking energy and climate policies in the United States which will catalyze and grow a portfolio of new and existing energy sources, create new American jobs and end our boom/bust energy cycles. The network includes small and medium sized companies to large-scale energy providers, Fortune 500 companies and leading consumer-facing brands.

SOURCE Small Business Majority, Main Street Alliance, We Can Lead, and American Businesses for Clean Energy