David Victor Comments on 'Cost-Effective' Green Job Generators
Promise of Jobs from Solar, Wind Power a Hard Sell in the Desert
08/29/2011
Coral Davenport,
NationalJournal
It’s easy to find Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s house in his tiny desert mining hometown. “You looking for Dirty Harry? Just look for the house with the wind turbine in the yard and the big solar panels on the roof,” said a patron at the Searchlight Nugget Casino bar.
Reid’s passionate personal commitment to the promise of renewable energy-–often subdued when he is in Washington–-is visibly evident throughout his home state. In the scorched desert 20 miles outside of Searchlight is a vast million-panel solar electricity array, similar to more than 60 other major solar, geothermal, and wind projects that Reid has worked tirelessly to bring to the state.
Nevada is now by some measures the top producer of solar power in the country and home to some of the largest solar arrays in the world. But it also has the nation’s highest unemployment rate. And many voters in the politically important state say the need for real jobs today outweighs the promise of future benefits from clean energy.
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David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.
