California could see the creation of 16,000 jobs and consumer savings on gas and power bills of about $1.85 billion by 2020 if Congress passes a national renewable energy standard. The jobs and savings would add to benefits realized from existing state goals, according to the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which released a report earlier in July.

Separately, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit alternative energy study group recently projected up to 40 million jobs created by 2030 throughout the United States when combining the economic potential of both renewables and energy efficiency programs, which carry much bigger multipliers than green energy projects

“Excluding the renewable development from full compliance with state standards [renewable portfolio standards, or RPS], the national standard would generate more than 16,000 new jobs in California,” according to the UCS report. It looked at the nation as a whole and 20 individual states, including California.

Renewables can help consumers and businesses of all sizes save money on their energy bills while the nation gains by cutting air pollution and advancing the fight against global warming, said Alan Nogee, director of UCS’s Clean Energy Program. He called the renewable push a “down payment in the fight against global warming.”

The group urged the U.S. House of Representatives in its current debate about new energy issues to enact a national RPS. The group estimated an additional 185,000 jobs and $25.6 billion in economic benefits by 2020 in various business sectors.

In the national study, released July 12, there were the usual caveats about future social policy in the report estimating that the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors combined could create 40 million jobs in the United States by 2030. The same study concluded that the two main parts of the alternative energy field support 8.5 million jobs and nearly $1 trillion in revenue currently.

The American Solar Energy Society commissioned the study by Washington, DC-based consulting economist Roger Bezdek. The report was released at a national solar energy conference, SOLAR 2007, in Cleveland. It was billed as the nation’s “first-ever comprehensive report on the size of the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries.”

In California, the national standard could help the state get big portions of the estimated $14.89 billion in new capital investment and $1.41 billion in income to farmers and ranchers “who produce biomass energy or lease their land to wind developers,” said Katherine Doehring, a coordinator for the Sacramento-based advocacy group Environment California.

The UCS estimates are based on a national standard calling for all power supply portfolios to be 20% renewable-driven by 2020, while in California the talk now is to increase the state’s goal in 2020 to 33%.

For its proponents, the national assessment by Bezdek’s Management Information Services, Inc. previews a coming “boom” in renewable energy in the United States.

The study defined the current renewables ($39.2 billion) and energy efficiency ($932.6 billion) sectors as creating 194,000 and 3.49 million direct jobs, respectively, and 446,000 and 8 million direct and indirect jobs, respectively. Biomass (ethanol, biodiesel and biomass power) represents the most current revenue and jobs among the renewables ($23.6 billion and 135,000 jobs).

In three scenarios — base case, moderate and aggressive — $4.5 trillion and 40 million jobs are projected for 2030 under the aggressive case, compared to a base case of $1.9 trillion and 16.2 million jobs.

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