'Green' Jobs Sector Still Has Growing Pains
Even if the U.S. cuts subsidies for areas like wind and solar power, "the Chinese are spending hundreds of billions" of dollars" and Germany and Japan both are looking to move beyond nuclear to cleaner forms of energy.
The next wave of technological advance in renewable energy will need to come from somewhere, he adds.
"This is really about the U.S.' technological competitiveness," he says. "The U.S. [government] has got to take a stand. If it doesn't we will lose out on the technologies — and jobs — of the future."
Brookings' Muro says that while his report didn't address the impact of growth in the clean economy on other sectors of the economy, he says: "We don't believe that job growth in the clean economy will come at the expense of jobs in any other sector. Rather, we see the clean economy as an important potential source of new jobs and new growth at a time the country needs both."