Green initiatives spur job creation in engineering field

Green job creation is on the rise

Increasing amounts of people are becoming environmentally conscious, which is good news for environmental engineers. Several thousand new green engineering positions are set to be created in the next few years, which should also be helpful to the beleaguered economy.

The New York Times recently listed several eco-friendly projects slated for the next few months, including Duke Energy's plan to install 700,000 new energy meters that display consumption information in real time throughout Ohio and Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation's deployment of 12,500 charging stations throughout the U.S. in anticipation of all-electric vehicles currently being developed by Nissan Motors.

The trend is not localized within the U.S. According to a speech given by energy guru Amory Lovins, worldwide spending on renewable energy in 2008 exceeded $140 billion, topping the amount spent on energy from fossil fuels by around $30 billion for the first time in history.

Energy companies are also getting more incentive to produce green technology, as the Energy Department announced $2.3 billion worth of tax credits that will go to producers of equipment that uses new technology.

"These tax credits will help create thousands of high-quality manufacturing jobs in some of the highest-growth segments of the economy," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.