Report: State must spur green economy

Opportunities abound for businesses to hire more workers, for workers to acquire more green skills and for government officials to lead the way in expanding Maryland's green economy.

Those were the dominant themes of the state's first Green Economy Forum keynoted by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) Wednesday at the state Department of the Environment Montgomery Park building in Baltimore.

"We have about 75 jobs we've added in less than 12 months." said Sandy Roskes of Astrum Solar of Annapolis Junction, a solar energy equipment installer, during a panel discussion.

"There's a lot of places where you can add jobs," Roskes said. "We focus on residential and small commercial. While there are large projects that attract attention, in terms of sustainable working boots on the ground in Maryland, small projects can provide decades of job growth."

"Increasing the energy efficiency in our buildings is one of the biggest opportunities for jobs there is," said Peter Van Buren, president of TerraLogos Energy Group of Baltimore, which performs energy audits and provides energy improvement contracting services. "And it comes in an industry that is suffering from intense unemployment right now, the construction industry ... so we can put these people back to work locally and nationally through focusing on improving the energy efficiency of our buildings."

Another panelist, Kerinia Cusick of SunEdison, the Beltsville solar energy company, talked about Maryland being in its infancy in green economy initiatives compared with some other states, "but we are growing rapidly."

The forum's centerpiece was the release of the report by the Green Jobs & Industry Task Force, a group of public- and private-sector leaders convened in March. The group's mission was to provide a plan to create and retain green jobs, support clean and renewable energy, protect Maryland's communities and preserve the state's natural resources, according to a statement from the governor's office.

The task force report identified six key recommendations: promote energy and resource efficiency efforts; develop and foster clean, local energy production and industrial capacity; capitalize upon economic opportunities to restore and protect Maryland's natural resources; promote sustainable development practices that create jobs, generate prosperity and make Maryland more self-reliant; increase access to capital for green businesses and projects; and strengthen coordination and communication across state agencies, partners and stakeholders to provide a strategic vision for advancing a green economy.

"We look forward to working in partnership with employers, entrepreneurs and industry experts to implement relevant and meaningful strategies," Christian S. Johansson, task force chairman and secretary of the state Department of Business and Economic Development, said in a statement.

"This work is a very solid, proud Maryland step along the way," O'Malley said of the task force report and its recommendations, "and I'll bet you, just as the biotech vision and the cyber vision before it, you're going to see a lot of other states follow Maryland's lead. This is about redesigning the relationship between the technologies of how we have always lived and the science of how our natural world can survive."

Asked how financing the initiative will be possible in a time of tight budgets, Johansson said that "one of the key initiatives the governor has already laid out is Invest Maryland. That's essentially putting $100 million in venture capital through the Maryland Venture Fund to invest in innovative Maryland companies. Now, that's not just clean and green. It is also areas such as biotech and cybersecurity, but obviously this is an emerging area of our economy."

He added the state has existing small-business loan programs that could be used for renewable energy projects, and has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy, which has funding programs for such projects.

Robert Frazee, CEO of MidAtlantic Farm Credit, a lender for farm and agricultural projects, called financing renewable energy projects, especially for small businesses, "a challenge."

One option "would be to look at alternative business structures," Frazee said. "There could be third-party ownership of sources of energy production, who in turn could lease that to the small users. Another opportunity would for those users to come together and form [limited liability companies] or cooperatives." He also mentioned more education about government grants and programs, and that "finally there will be an opportunity to sell some of that power back into the grid."

The state is home to about 75,000 green-sector jobs, with O'Malley saying his goal is to support 100,000 green jobs by 2015, from consulting and scientific services to construction and waste management.

"Green jobs are growing nationally at a rate two-and-a-half times faster than overall jobs and are not only key to our economic recovery today, but are the jobs that will fuel the economy of tomorrow," O'Malley said in a statement. "Our highly educated workforce, wealth of natural resources and progressive policies makes Maryland uniquely positioned to grow our green economy and create the kinds of jobs that will ensure a more sustainable future for all Marylanders."

Eric M. Seleznow, executive director of the Governor's Workforce Investment Board, pointed out that education is a big part of the green economy effort.

"You can't have jobs, jobs, jobs, unless you have skills, skills, skills. That's where the work-force side of this comes in," Seleznow said.

"We need to green up as much of the curriculum as possible in our education system," he said. "A lot of the new jobs are not going to be new occupations. They are going to be old occupations ... electricians, sales people, accountants, engineers. But they're going to need to add green skills to their portfolio."