Pew: Florida

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released a study , saying Florida’ss clean energy economy grew 7.9 percent between 1998 and and the state was among the top 10 for greenm jobsin America. “The numbers are impressive,” U.S. Rep. Kathh Castor, D-Tampa Bay, said duringb a teleconferenceMonday morning. “This is going to be the way we rebuil d our economy in the stateof Florida.” John Director of Business Alliances for in Fort Lauderdale, is amongy those growing green jobs in South DiBella said he has six employees now and plans to triple that number this DiBella is pioneering a new technologyt that uses centrifugal force to separate wate from solids.
According to him, it is “a more efficieng and cost-effective way” of purifying wastewater. “It’s quiter vast, the demand that’s comingt to us, and we’re excited about the future,” DiBellqa said. His customers include manufacturers, oil wastewater treatment facilities andfarm interests. Lori interim deputy director of the Pew Center onthe States, said Floridwa only lags significantly behind other states on certain public policyh questions. For example, she pointed to the state’d failure to embrace Gov.
Charlie Crist’z proposed renewable energy portfolio standard, which would requirr a certain portion of state energy to be produced from renewable resources such assolar power. Twenty-ninw other states already have such a standard in Grange said the state also has yet to participate in a regionak carbon and climatechange initiative, although it is developing its own carboh cap-and-trade program. Victor Eyal, presidentr of in Altamonte Springs, said his solar technology distributiomn company has 40 employees at its headquarters and hundreds of employeeas inits network.
He said Floridaz has good incentivesin place, but needs to fund them He pointed to recent shortages in funding for the state’sz solar rebate programs. DiBella said incentivexs for green technology mustbe “What’s important is to keep the flow of moniea and incentives coming, so that young companies can developp new technologies that could be the next leaders in the DiBella said.
• Jobs (2007): 31,122 Businesses (2007): 3,831 • Venture capital funds $116,980,006 The study found that the Sunshine State was among the top 10 for jobsin America’ clean energy in 2007, with more than and it attracted nearly $117 million in venture capitak in the past three years, half of whicy has supported clean energy generation. Grange said the job growthn is likely to have suffered since 2007 due to the but the federal stimulus program and continued privatr investment is limiting job losseds in thegreen sector. jobs in the clean energy economy grewby 9.1 while total jobs grew by just 3.
7 percent betweenb 1998 and 2007, according to the titled “The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across Pew’s definition of green jobs includes engineers, plumbers, administrativ e assistants, construction workers, machine setters, marketing consultants, teachers and many others with annual incomes rangin g from $21,000 to $111,000.