Report: Las Vegas could be magnet for green jobs
Clean energy emphasis could produce 5,000 new jobs, says report
Las Vegas could become a hub of green jobs aimed at putting the less educated to work, according to a report released today.
By shifting $882 million from fossil fuels to clean energy, Las Vegas could produce almost 5,000 new jobs with the bulk of them employing high school-educated workers, according to the report, produced by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
More than 3,700 of those jobs would create opportunity for higher earnings, the report said.
The bulk of the jobs -- 40 percent -- would retrofit Las Vegas homes and businesses, said Jeannette Wicks-Lim, an author of the report.
Another 20 percent would go to improving public transportation, such as buses and high-speed rail, Wicks-Lim said. The remaining 40 percent would provide work in solar, biofuels and wind energy at 30 percent and the last 10 percent to improve the electrical grid, she said.
