Clean-energy economy a winner for Oklahoma

Submitted by mlsaun on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 15:53

For more than a century, Oklahomans have relied on the oil and gas industry to provide jobs and wealth to give us the “good life” in our state. But things have changed. Today and in the future, clean energy will provide the jobs and the economic boost we need — if we support our fledgling green industries right now. A clean-energy economy can help the earth as well as our pocketbooks. 

The oil and gas industry in Oklahoma is older than our state, with major wells gushing in the Bartlesville-Dewey Field in the late 1880s. By statehood in 1907, we had become the “largest oil-producing entity in the world” (Dan T. Boyd's history). All this history with oil can make it even harder to get our minds around the changes taking place today. The fact is that peak oil has already come to Oklahoma, and deeper drilling and expensive enhanced methods are now needed to produce oil.

But clean energy has already begun to produce jobs, and the more we shift to clean energy, the better our economy will be. As a Citizens Climate Lobby study “Building a Green Economy” reports:
Germany is one of Europe's strongest economies today. It shifted the basis for its economy to clean energy and quickly became the world leader in clean technology, taking 70 percent of the world market.

Closer to home, Texas has become a leader in wind energy and produced more than 55,000 clean-energy jobs in 2007. It also attracted more than $716 million in venture capital for clean technology between 2006 and 2008.

Even if leading citizens like Sen. Jim Inhofe doubt the science of climate change, they must be aware of the harm the boom and bust cycles of oil have had and the looming difficulties in getting oil out of the ground.

Reducing the carbon we put into the atmosphere is also important to ensure the future for Oklahoma, and ending the use of coal to generate electricity is one thing we can do to reduce carbon. Natural gas can help to curtail coal use in the state — it can bridge us to even cleaner energy sources. Supporting clean-energy jobs and other changes such as greening existing buildings and creating better public transportation are other things we could do right away. We should also end government subsidies to the already well-established oil and gas industry, now costing the U.S. billions annually.

These issues make up parts of a whole package if we want to protect the earth from disruptive climate change and create a strong economy in Oklahoma. Oklahomans know that the wind that comes sweeping down the plain is changing, and it's time to make some changes ourselves. Supporting clean-energy industries can help us score big for our state's economic future.

Hobbs, of Norman, is co-founder of Citizens Climate Lobby-Oklahoma.