Shannon Darrow is the field director at Environment Maryland, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. The group combines independent research and advocacy to tackle issues of land preservation, the health of the Chesapeake Bay and global warming. Darrow spoke to The Examiner about the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s recently released report on “green” jobs.
What in the report stood out to you?
Definitely that a $100 billion investment could create 2 million jobs across the country. That’s a pretty astounding figure.
How would these new jobs affect Maryland?
In so many areas of Baltimore and other communities, there’s a tremendous need for employment opportunities. I see that as the biggest impact.
Our carbon footprint is very big and doing a lot of green work on Maryland residences could help change that.
Do you think those job estimates are realistic?
It’s a long-term investment and a long-term project. It’s not a matter of the government just dropping $100 billion and then everything happens instantly. It’s a gradual thing.
What’s preventing this investment from happening?
There’s a long-standing idea that environmental policy is going to result in a job-loss. It’s a myth, but it’s really prevalent.
There’s been a long-standing belief that the environmental movement and business are at odds, and historically, that has been true.
But there’s a lot of us who are working to building environmental and business partnerships. We still have a lot of work to do.
