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Clean Energy Could Boost California Economy

Clean Energy Could Boost California Economy
A University of California study has found that more aggressive use of clean energy would help the state emerge from its $24 billion budget deficit by creating jobs and lowering energy costs.

A University of California study has found that more aggressive use of clean energy would help the state emerge from its $24 billion budget deficit by creating jobs and lowering energy costs.

The study by researchers at UC Berkeley says clean energy grows the economy faster than traditional sources.

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The study's author is UC Berkeley economics professor David Roland-Holst.

He says state legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions will create a new clean energy market.

"By shifting our energy demand within the state from external sources to in-state sources, we capture a lot more of the downstream benefits and the upstream benefits," Roland-Holst says. "So there's a lot more employment generation within the state and within the domestic economy."

Roland-Holst says relying on renewable sources for 50 percent of California's electric power would create 500,000 jobs over the next 40 years.

He also says continuing on a business-as-usual energy path risks greater economic insecurity.

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Roland-Holst says hishttp://are.berkeley.edu/~dwrh/CERES_Web/index.html is the first to use a wide-ranging economic forecasting tool to study the potential effects of clean energy on the entire California economy.

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