Headwaters Economics Research Updates
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The Clean Energy Economy in the Rockies: Increasing Jobs, Investments, and Production

A new study by Headwaters Economics compares how Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—five states with vast traditional but also significant clean energy resources—are taking advantage of clean energy opportunities to create green jobs. Read more about how each state's policies will promote future growth and investment in our latest newsletter or click here to review our research directly.

Highlights

• The growth of green jobs is outpacing the increase in overall jobs (See page one of the newsletter.)
• Five keys to future clean energy economic growth. (See page two.)
• States are still largely neglecting energy efficiency, the most cost-effective part of any long-term green economic strategy. (See page two.)

Also at Headwaters Economics

• Headwaters Economics is working with partners on potential reforms to federal land payments to counties. (See page three.)
• For ongoing work on the fossil fuel economy (See page four.)
• Click here to learn how Headwaters Economics worked with Deschutes County businesses to improve their economic competitiveness (See also page three)

The price of fighting forest fires has been increasing substantially, costing taxpayers billions every year. Unfortunately, the combination of continued growth in the wildland urban interface and increasing temperatures mean that fire suppression costs will more than double in the next 15 years. Read more about the cost of protecting homes from forest fires in our latest newsletter or click here to review our wildfire research directly.

Highlights

• A case study in Montana on the cost of protecting homes and the impact of rising temperatures. (See page one of the newsletter.)
• Eight steps to help control wildfire costs. (See page two.)
• How the current approach to fire suppression has perverse incentives and lacks accountability. (See page two.)

The Economic Profile System (EPS) is a free, easy-to-use software application used by public lands managers, county planners, economic development directors, county commissioners, businesses, researchers, and others to produce detailed socioeconomic profiles of their communities, counties, and regions. Read more about EPS in our latest newsletter or click here to utilize EPS directly, including reports for more than 90,000 geographies nation-wide including towns, counties, and states.

Highlights

• EPS is constantly improving with more than 15,000 users. Later this year new EPS tools will be released that will produce detailed, industry-specific analysis. (See page four of the newsletter.)
• There are three ways to produce detailed EPS profiles automatically and efficiently at a variety of geographic scales from our web page. (See page two.)
• Learn how Headwaters Economics uses EPS on a daily basis as a powerful research and outreach tool. (See page three.)

Key Benefits of EPS:

• EPS is free
• Easy to use for both experts and non-economists
• Uses only published statistics from federal data sources
• Updated every year with the latest data
• Available nation-wide
• Estimates data gaps for rural geographies

Highlights

• Energy plays only a small revenue role in most western states and many are doing a poor job of capturing tax benefits from oil and natural gas development. (See page one.)
• The West is less dependent on fossil fuel extraction than in the past and almost 90 percent of economic growth in the West during the last three decades came from service-related occupations, and retirement and investment income. (See page two.) (See page two.)
• Only 26 of 414 western counties (6%) today are energy dependent, and these energy-focused counties underperform economically compared to their peers with little or no energy extraction. (See page three.)

Highlights

• Timber-related jobs today make up 2 percent of all employment in Southeast Alaska, with very little value-added manufacturing.
• Using wood products biomass to generate energy offers an economic development option that reduces fossil-fuel dependence and strengthens the wood products industry. (See page 3 of the newsletter.)

Highlights

• Only 14% of the available "wildland urban interface" in the West is currently developed, leaving tremendous potential for new home construction in the remaining 86%.

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Headwaters Economics
Mail: P.O. Box 7059, Bozeman MT 59771
Deliveries: 810 N. Wallace Avenue, Suite D, Bozeman MT 59715
Ray Rasker Ph.D. 406.570.7044 | Ben Alexander 406.599.7423 | Patty Gude 406.599.7425 | Chris Mehl 406.570.8937
Mark Haggerty 406.570.5626 | Julia Haggerty Ph.D. 406.600.1766 | Josh McCord 406.570.2914

Banner photo has been generously provided by Alex Diekmann.