As the U.S. economy continues its implosion, there are those who still buy old-school thinking that what's good for the environment is bad for business and the overall economy.

Smart companies, investors and policymakers know that this is hardly so. Consider this: Several studies verify that equivalent investments in renewable energy sources generate jobs at a 4-1 or even 6-1 ratio if compared with those created by industries exploiting fossil fuels such as natural gas.

The incoming Obama administration is up to speed on the employment ramifications of our future energy choices. And that's why he and other Democrats in Congress want to spread funding over a wider group of companies that would harness our energy supply with domestic renewable sources. But Obama will never succeed with his much-ballyhooed federal economic stimulus package unless Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can flex his muscle and help California regain its previous stature as a world leader on clean energy technologies.

Last month, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order designed to boost California's supply of renewable energy to 33 percent of total state electricity consumption by 2020. This move by the governor sent a clear signal to state – and federal – regulators to get down to work on new renewable energy projects that represent $60 billion in green infrastructure investments. Achieving this bold goal would put California back into a world leadership role in developing new renewable energy sources.

Substituting labor for fuel

Meeting the 33 percent renewable energy target – known in the electricity business as a Renewable Portfolio Standard – could add as many as 200,000 jobs to the state's private-sector payrolls, providing employment in rural and urban, southern and northern regions of the state, according to a recent report released by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.

Because renewable energy sources substitute investments in labor for fuel, they circulate more dollars locally and add more jobs than traditional fossil fuel supplies. Instead of your ratepayer dollars going to other states or even countries to purchase coal or natural gas, your dollars instead go to paying the salaries of wind smiths climbing up and down wind turbines or folks climbing on your rooftop to install solar panels. Renewable energy relies on a multitude of manufacturing firms. There are also more than 5,000 existing California companies capable of providing the component widgets and other parts that comprise a wind turbine, solar panel or generators used for geothermal steam or biomass power plants.

Wind farms can also keep struggling ranchers and farmers in the black because private developers offer royalty payments to compensate them for the turbines that capture kinetic energy from wind blowing across their properties. Folks in the East Bay neighborhoods of Richmond are lifting themselves up the economic ladder by installing solar photovoltaic systems on urban rooftops. Burning agricultural wastes in modern power plants instead of open fields can help clean up the bad air in the Central Valley while generating new jobs in places like Fresno, recently ranked by the Brookings Institution as having the nation's highest concentrations of poverty. Developing geothermal steam resulting from volcanic activity below the earth's surface in Imperial County near the Mexican border can add jobs to a part of the state suffering from chronic employment levels that exceed 20 percent.

California now receives less than 15 percent of its supply of electricity from renewable energy. Though a state law requires the state's private utilities to obtain 20 percent from renewables by 2010, a quagmire of regulatory bottlenecks have undermined efforts to achieve this goal.

Yet California is the perpetual pioneer on energy and has a penchant for taking on energy challenges with gusto and zeal. Hydroelectric, oil, nuclear and then renewables were all given a big push by California, changing the way the world developed and consumed energy. As of late, however, we've been great with PowerPoints but not power plants. Not only did the state's experiment with electricity deregulation blow up in our collective face at the beginning of this century, but Texas now has twice as much wind power online as California. In 1986, the Golden State had bragging rights to 90 percent of the world market share for wind power. That figure has slipped to a mere 4 percent world market share today.

Peter Asmus is the author of the forthcoming "Introduction to Energy in California" to be published by the University of California Press in spring 2009. He has served as a consultant to the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board.