11/23/09

Recently many Idaho residents have lost their jobs with companies going belly up or cutting back to get by. The Department of Labor says the energy industry holds job creation potential for the state.

Out of the 50 states, the Idaho ranks 7th in renewable energy generating capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

The agency identified three major players in possible green job grown; wood and wood waste, wind, and geothermal.

The Idaho National Laboratory identified more than 6,000 sites for future development of hydro-electric power.

Wind is the next likely growth; the College of Southern Idaho may be ahead of the curve in providing a work force it recently started its wind turbine technician program

Todd Schwarz, CSI Instruction Dean says, "Not only do we have the wind technology program I think most people are aware of by now, but also have environmental technology program."

According to the Department of Labor in 2004 there had been any noteworthy wind development, which has since changed.

Schwarz says, "We're in a good position in Idaho, and I think the Department of labor forecast speaks well to that in that we're on the brink of something here."

Schwarz says there is a lot of overlap in the environmental tech program, it provides a broad spectrum of job possibilities. It isn’t specific to just one type of green job.

He says, "Our operating philosophy has been and will continue to be there aren’t really green jobs so much as there are green projects that are going on."

He says geothermal is a good example of that.

"The workers that would be working on projects like that are probably fairly traditional workers that probably don't need any green specific type of training."