Renewable, alternative energy development will provide the economic engine for Pennsylvania's future, Gov. Ed Rendell said yesterday, and move the state into a leadership position combating climate change.

Mr. Rendell, speaking at a news conference in the August Wilson Center, Downtown, said the state's actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a cause of global warming, have created thousands of jobs and could serve as a blueprint for changing international energy production and use.

"Alternative energy development will be to our economy for the next 20 years what information technology and life sciences has been for the last 20," Mr. Rendell said, noting the opening of two windmill production factories and a recent permit granted for the state's first hydropower project in many years.

Since 2003, he said, the state has invested $900 million in developing and deploying alternative energy technologies in approximately 560 economic development projects that have created 8,300 jobs. The Pew Charitable Trusts ranked Pennsylvania third in the nation for green jobs earlier this year.

The state also has adopted an energy portfolio standard that mandates the development of alternative energy sources, energy conservation laws that will reduce annual carbon emissions by 15 million tons by 2020, and the California Clean Car Rule to reduce emissions from mobile sources. Together, those three actions will reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions, which total 1 percent of the world's man-made greenhouse gas emissions, by 9 percent in 2020, or 5 percent below 2000 levels.

In a bow to the state's coal industry, Mr. Rendell endorsed research efforts, including capture and storage of carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants, and urged coal producers to support those efforts.

"I want to take clean coal from an oxymoron to reality," Mr. Rendell said. "I'm not saying clean coal technology is guaranteed but the upside for Pennsylvania's industry is significant enough that we have to try."

But he said efforts by some industries to defeat meaningful energy and climate control legislation put them on the wrong side of history.

"Many business and industrial forces oppose these measures and are lobbying heavily to defeat them because they're perceived as a threat to their interests," the governor said. "However, the interests of our economy, our people and our planet must prevail."

According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, strong energy efficiency legislation would save each Pennsylvania household an average of $269 a year in reduced energy costs and create 27,200 jobs in the state over the next decade.

"Other nations are realizing the importance of renewable energy development and strong policies to combat climate change," Mr. Rendell said. "If America sits back and waits, this opportunity will pass us by."

First Published: September 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m.