By Lewis Diuguid
The Kansas City Star
Missouri has to continue to plant strong roots in the green economy.
A new report from E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and MEI (the Missouri Energy Initiative)shows that nearly 40,000 people in more than 4,400 establishments in the state are employed in green sectors of the economy.
“This number is roughly double Iowa’s clean energy and transportation workforce but less than half the workers in Illinois and Massachusetts, suggesting room for growth,” the report says.
Missouri’s green industry includes renewable energy, energy efficiency, advanced transportation and greenhouse gas emissions management and accounting.
The energy efficiency sector has 32,576 clean energy workers. That’s 83 percent of all clean energy jobs in the state, the report notes. Renewable energy companies account for 15 percent of clean energy employment, or 6,050 workers — 3,715 of them are solar employees.
It is unfortunate that the Missouri Public Service Commission isn’t doing all it can to feed the growth. The commission recently rejected a Texas company’s plan for a $2.2 billion, 780-mile transmission line to carry electricity generated by wind farms from Kansas across Missouri to power grids in the East. The project was viewed as a step forward for renewable energy.