Efforts to address energy and climate challenges are now reflexively branded as “job killers” by one part of the political spectrum. Amazingly, this happens even when the proposals are defined in terms of their positive economic impact, as in the development of new companies and industries.
Perhaps we should consider the true job killing impact of our current dependence on fossil fuels. Today’s Heard on the Street column in the Wall Street Journal includes an item titled “Oil Should Fuel Next Aircraft Boom”. It posits that a decade-low CapEx of 8% by the airline industry, combined with current price of fuel and an aging medium-range fleet means good times ahead for aircraft manufacturers as they provide new, more fuel-efficient aircraft. So far so good.
But flip back to the start of the article and you see another story. Fuel now accounts for 30% of operating costs, up from 13% 10 years ago. Labor, which 10 years ago accounted for 35% of operating costs, is now 25%. Even allowing for some efficiencies, that’s a lot of jobs traded away to pay for fuel. And anyone who’s flown in the last few years can tell you that the airline industry could use some of those jobs to provide a semblance of service to the customers they abuse so badly.