What is More Important, Jobs or the Environment?

Though this could be a majorly broad topic to discuss, we are going to boil it down to a more simpler (and relevant) focus—namely on solar panels. The U.S. government is pushing to move manufacturing jobs back home—even for solar panel production, but they are doing it more for the political mouthpiece of saying panels are made in America—rather than it making really any true sense. Solar panel manufacturing is largely automated and doesn’t really rely on many bodies to produce a panel. This being said, jobs aren’t really a big add on. Additionally, the costs are modestly higher, but with government subsidies and incentives for bringing the factory back in the border make it make sense somehow. All things considered, not many new factories are being added, and additionally not many jobs are being added—and the noise being created by the political motives (think China vs US) are actually creating a headwind that ultimately is impacting the true issue—the environment and how fast we remove our reliance on fossil fuels.

If we replaced our focus for adding manufacturing jobs and focused on energy on renewable energy, chances are we can make the shift faster to renewables, and on top, panels might even get cheaper. But all of this is just a drop in the bucket. As per energy experts, the world will need many more solar panels to eliminate greenhouse gases being emitted. Capacity of solar power installed worldwide needs to be at least 20x as large as today and perhaps as much as 70x. So—stop focusing on where the panels are from, and if they are made in a factory in the U.S., and focus on fixing the bigger issue we all face—addressing greenhouse gas emissions.