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Jobs and Change, Communications and Energy
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By Ed Markey and Reed
Hundt<http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/ed_markey_and_reed_hundt>
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March 9, 2010, 9:34AM

Jobs are the chief concerns of most Americans right now. Those with them are
scared they might lose them. Those without them want to find one. What we
need to do is clear: pass laws that open new industries to job opportunities
for millions of Americans - and in a hurry. Predictions that we will not
return to full employment for five or more years should drive us to act as
we did in the early 1990s, when we faced a similar, although far less,
serious economic slump.

When Congress enacted the spectrum auction authority in 1993 and the
market-opening Telecommunications Act of 1996, we intended to create new
opportunities for high-paid work in the communications industry. As a
legislator and a regulator, we partnered to create policies that did that,
and we would freely admit that what happened exceeded our wildest dreams.

In the ten years that followed the spectrum auctions that created
competition in digital cellular and the regulatory framework that opened
Internet access to competition and the telephone network to innovation -
1997 to 2007 - investors, according to McKinsey and Company, poured more
than $850 billion in new capital into mobile, data, and expanded cable
networks in the United States.

This investment drove job creation beyond any economist's prediction.
Unemployment fell to 4 percent by the end of 1990s, and nearly 65 percent of
the population was employed. That's a remarkable contrast to the numbers
today: 9.7 percent of Americans are unemployed and only 58 percent of people
are employed. The job growth led to national income growth and increased tax
revenue, so that the federal budget, contrary to every estimate at the
beginning of the 90s, was balanced by 1998.

We can get the same upside surprises if we pass a law that retools the
carbon-based energy sector of the last century and encourages private
investment in a 21st century energy economy built on alternatives such as
wind, sun, biomass and geothermal. That's the purpose of the Waxman-Markey
bill, which passed the House of Representatives last June.

Reform in communications stimulated creative destruction. For example, the
old long distance industry charged ten cents a minute for a call when we
passed the Telecommunications Act. Now people are not even aware that there
used to be a long distance charge when they use their phones to call
anywhere.

The replacement of the old networks with the new led to waves of innovation.
Our reforms permitted everyone to unplug the phone line from the back of the
telephone and stick it into the back of the computer. That connection was
the first pathway to the World Wide Web - in large part because we did not
permit the telephone company to charge extra money for all that extra and
unpredicted use. The new demand for data connections drove telephone
companies to buy routers and switches, to build data centers, and to upgrade
lines. Cable companies were driven to respond by switching some of their
capacity from one-way video programs to high speed two-way internet access,
giving rise to broadband. In response, the phone companies are now
installing fiber, taking broadband to new levels of speed and lower price
per bit.

Similarly, in the energy sector we need to retool the existing generation
and distribution networks with cleaner forms of generation, open markets to
innovators who will build power lines that lose fewer electrons and connect
new sources of clean power to users, and reward investors for installing
more efficient ways of using electricity. Creating the right framework for
our communications networks led investors to commit about $850 billion to
rebuild those networks. With the right set of policies, it is reasonable
expect a similar explosion of private sector investment in the energy
sector. This will result in consumers paying less for heating, cooling and
lighting, and America's energy sector will be firmly based on abundant,
cheap and clean fuels. Nothing will pull innovation into the energy sector
more than wind farms demanding better storage technology, solar farms
demanding better ways of capturing and converting sunlight into electricity,
and appliances and electric vehicles that can talk to the grid if it is
smart enough.

There are other areas of the economy where Americans can and should find new
jobs. In the energy sector we not only will need millions of employees, but
we also know that those millions will help us achieve independence from
foreign oil and an end to the pollution of the environment from carbon
emissions. The trifecta of huge employment, national security, and
protection of the environment is a winning ticket for America. We have found
that winning formula before in hard times that proved to be the dawn of
economic growth; we can turn the dark days of the present into sunny
optimism about our future once again.

*
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) is the chairman of the Select Committee on
Energy Independence and Global Warming.*
**

*Reed Hundt was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from
1993-1997.*
--
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
[email protected]