In study released in 2009 and prepared by University of Massachusetts, Amherst economic professors, researchers try to prove an inconveniently elusive hypothesis: that the green tech and industry boom will actually create jobs and pull Americans out of poverty. And it won’t just create any old job, but high-paying jobs, and lots of them.
UMASS department of economics professors Robert Pollin, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier teamed up with the National Resources Defense Counsel and Green For All, two industry proponents, to measure and determine in practical terms the actual potential for job creation in the green industry, if there is any at all.
The report basically concludes with two very big projections. The first is that government’s investment in the clean tech and energy boom, both by direct spending and attractive tax credits, will lead to the emerge of a massive industry. The forces that are going to be driving the demand among the government and U.S. citizens, among many more, include the mounting collective desire to ween ourselves off of foreign oil.