By Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The state of Illinois ranked fifth nationally for the number of energy-
efficiency jobs in the state.

According to a new report, the sector is responsible for more than 90,000 workers in the
state, up about three-percent from 2018.

“The cool thing about energy-efficiency careers is they are incredibly diverse,” said
Micaela Preskill, Midwest Advocate at E2, which released the findings. “They are
everything from high-tech design and software in professional services to blue-collar
construction jobs in heating and air conditioning.”

E2 is described as a non-partisan group of business leaders advocating for policies good
for the environment and good for the economy.

“The most energy-efficiently jobs are in Chicago,” Preskill said. “But energy-efficiency
jobs are everywhere. They aren’t limited by geography or political persuasion. There are
energy-efficiency workers in virtually every county, every legislative district throughout
the state.”

According to the report, energy efficiency jobs account for one out of every six
construction workers in the country. Nationally energy-efficiency jobs are projected to
increase by almost eight-percent in this calendar year.

“The energy efficiency jobs also include manufacturing,” Preskill said. “Everything from
the people who are working in the factories, building Energy Star appliances building
energy-efficient windows, building LED lighting systems. It also includes jobs in
construction. People going into offices and schools and doing retrofitting to make them
more efficient.”

Preskill said such jobs have added value because are the type that can’t easily be
outsourced or automated in the future.

“Someone who comes into your home and is installing energy efficiency technologies
and products … those are jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon,” Preskill said.

Preskill said the Future Energy Jobs Act, signed into law in 2016, played a large part in
boosting employment around Illinois. Among other things, the law requires the state’s

two biggest electric utilities to expand their energy-efficiency programs and
reduce electricity waste.

“If there’s one major takeaway from looking at these numbers, it’s that policy matters,”
Preskill said. “And strong clean energy policies in some ways serve as economic
stimulus. They’re creating clean energy and energy efficiency jobs.”

Advocates, like E2, want state lawmakers will move forward on the Clean Energy
Jobs Act. That legislation sets a goal of making Illinois’ power grid free of carbon-based
fuels by 2030, and would put the entire state on a path to use 100 percent renewable
energy by 2050.

Illinois Radio Network can be reached at [email protected].