Education is the cornerstone of innovation. The U.S. has one of the best higher education systems in the world, graduating thousands of students each year ready to work and create the new inventions of tomorrow. At Washington University in Saint Louis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu delivered a commencement speech urging students to “do something that matters.” Echoing Americans for Energy Leadership’s call, Secretary Chu stated the need for a “second industrial revolution to provide the world’s energy needs in an environmentally sustainable way.” To accomplish an industry that will produce energy solutions we need to provide jobs for our recent graduates in the sciences and promote energy education at the K-12 and university level.
As the country’s energy infrastructure ages and global energy demand multiplies, public investment in clean energy can become the backbone of a growing industry and provide an estimated tens of thousands of American jobs. Chu’s speech emphasized, “America has the opportunity to lead in this new industrial revolution and build the foundation of our future prosperity.” To produce these green jobs for our graduates, the federal government needs to make the necessary investments in energy research and development and private-public partnerships to compete with the billions invested in wind and solar technology in Germany, the Netherlands and other countries. China, Japan and South Korea have already surpassed the United States in clean energy production and investment. Without the necessary attention to a green revolution, “we will be importing the new energy technologies developed by Europe and Asia” concluded Chu.
The future of clean energy in the United States depends on more than current graduating classes and something must be done to improve recruitment into STEM fields. Recruitment for science, engineering and other energy-related jobs needs to be improved at the K-12 level. To sustain our current level of scientific advancement, new scientists and engineers need to replace the 45 percent of electric utility engineers and 40 percent of university power engineering professors eligible to retire in the next five years. Nor is enough being done to recruit students to major in science and engineering. Reports show only one out of three four-year university students pursue science and engineering fields compared to 51 percent in Singapore, 53 percent in China and 63 percent in Japan.
Just as the education programs in the shadow of Sputnik quickly narrowed the gap between the United States and the Soviet Union in the space race, so too can today’s universities increase our preparedness for a new energy economy. The RE-ENERGYSE (Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge) initiative, currently being considered by Congress, will educate thousands of scientists and engineers in the clean energy industry though programs in education at the K-12 and college levels administered through the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. With these necessary investments in clean energy jobs and education, students can do something to regain the nation’s leadership in the clean-tech race.
