BCSE urges Congress to address the impact of COVID-19 on clean energy industry

The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) is urging Congressional leaders to address the economic effects of COVID-19 on clean energy industries in the next response and relief measure.

“The next COVID-19 relief bill should include measures to stabilize investment and bring people in the clean energy and energy efficiency sector back to work,” BCSE President Lisa Jacobson wrote in a July 18 letter to the leaders in the U.S. House and Senate.

Jacobson pointed out that since the pandemic hit in early March, more than 500,000 clean energy jobs have been lost and the project and investment pipeline has been interrupted.

“Project construction and permitting has been delayed, financing has been slowed, and supply chains have been disrupted,” Jacobson wrote. “The energy efficiency sector continues to suffer from 360,000 job losses impacting a full 15 percent of its workforce, while a total of 82,400 renewable electric power generation workers (14 percent of the sector’s workforce) remain unemployed due to the pandemic.

Considering the diversity of products, services, and business models within the clean energy industry, Jacobson said a range of policy solutions are needed to provide market stability. This includes support to states, localities, and tribes; adjustments to tax policy; regulatory changes; funding for research, development, and deployment (RD&D) initiatives; and workforce development, among other proposals.

“The objectives are to provide market stability in this uncertain period and to spur investment and jobs for economic recovery when the time is right,” Jacobson added.