PUBLISHED 11/12/08 -----

California leads the nation in the creation of “green jobs” — employment tied to the emerging fields of alternative fuels and nonfossil energy production. That means California is a leader in environmental stewardship.

It also means the state is making sensible workforce decisions with realistic economic potential.

Energy policies that require cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions, such as AB 32, the state’s groundbreaking environmental law, will mandate energy-efficiency improvements that could mean 403,000 new jobs earning a cumulative payroll of $48 billion, according to UC-Berkeley researcher David Roland-Holst.

But California’s energy policies won’t merely bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs, Roland-Holst says. They will drive the economy in many unrelated but far-reaching ways, contributing another $76 billion in gross state product over 12 years.

That’s an even more optimistic outlook than the governor’s predictions. The state has said AB 32 could create 60,000 jobs, but Roland-Holst says that model fails to factor in the effect of innovations likely to result in secondary and tertiary jobs.

The difference is in resource reallocation: When people use less energy, they spend less on energy, and therefore have more money to spend on things like consumer products. The outcome: greater economic growth and job creation.

“If you can save money for households on their electricity bills,” the study’s author told the San Jose Mercury-News, “they will spend that money on more customary spending, like espresso drinks and haircuts.”

Alternative energy production is a bandwagon the Central Valley should and has jumped on. The Kern County oil industry has already created a culture attuned to energy production, and the local, burgeoning wind industry has already stoked the appetite for innovation.

The first solar thermal power plant built in California in nearly two decades went online in Kern County earlier last month when a Palo Alto-based solar developer launched a 5-megawatt test facility about 10 miles north of Bakersfield.

Cal State Bakersfield has jumped into the fray with a new commitment to solar energy in the form of panels expected to produce 30 percent of the campus’ needs, and Wasco State Prison is participating in a solar power project targeting six state prison facilities.

Statewide, three decades of emphasis on energy efficiency has already created 1.5 million jobs and $45 billion in payroll. Nationally, the incoming Obama administration seems likely to be supportive of alternative energy innovation.

AB 32, enacted two years ago, requires the state to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. It emphasizes energy efficiency and renewable energy, and includes the establishment of a market to trade pollution credits.

Perhaps most important, it provides a model for the rest of the nation. As California goes, so goes the rest of the U.S. In an era of climate change and overreliance on foreign oil, the state’s leadership is needed more than ever.