Climate Change Prompts NY Mayor Bloomberg to Endorse Obama, Solar Jobs at 13.2% of U.S. Employment Rate

The big news in the energy arena is that  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed the candidacy of President Barack Obama.  In a statement on his website, he said that although he has not been the biggest fan of the President, after the weather impacts of Hurricane Sandy,  "We need leadership from the White House - and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year." This has a lot of chatter among energy community.  One reason is because NO ONE has had the courage to bring up the term "climate change" since legislation addressing carbon crashed and burned in Congress during the summer of 2010.  Bloomberg, in his third term as mayor and with substantial wealth backing him up, marches to his own independent drummer.  Another is that, in a race this close, an endorsement from the Mayor of New York could make a difference.  Perhaps.  On the other hand, the citizens of New York were going to vote for Obama anyway and people who don't live in New York, don't much care about Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement.  I am going out on a limb and say that the biggest impact of this endorsement is that Bloomberg uttered the term, "climate change". 

The Solar Foundation has some good news to announce for the solar industry.  In their 2012 National Solar Jobs Census, the U.S. solar industry employs 119,016 American  workers.  This figure represents an addition of 13,872 new solar jobs and a 13.2% employment growth rate over 2011.  In fact, given the fact that employment in the overall economy is growing at 2.3%, the solar industry has grown almost six times faster.  In other words 1 in 230 jobs were created nationally over the last year in the solar industry.