From the onset of the 2008 economic recession, the U.S. economy has lost workers like weight jettisoned from a sinking ship. Unfortunately, the ship also has a hole in the hull that is difficult to plug. Given that an estimated 45% of the 6.8 million unemployed Americans are long-term unemployed, it seems likely that from boardrooms to break rooms, a new paradigm of business as usual has been created: more work hours, fewer workers, no problem.

While President Obama has bolstered the funding of renewable energy production, in the form of DOE loans to solar energy start-ups (e.g. Solyndra), the trickle down effect to huge swaths of the economy hasn’t fully been realized. Here’s the rub. During the course of administering the U.S. Census, a ripe opportunity for conducting a national energy census was lost. Scheduling census-based energy audits, conceivably performed by trained AmeriCorps, utility, or private-sector teams, could have resulted in a backlog of shovel ready work. This strategy is low-tech, cost-effective and would result in near-term carbon reduction. McKinsey's greenhouse gas cost abatement curve details the negative cost associated with energy retrofits in comparison to the installation of new renewable energy projects. For millions of unemployed Americans, residential energy retrofits could translate to significant cost savings that would make a dent in household expenses and debt. It could also accelerate the expansion of construction, interior design, and green supply chain markets. In the end, it could slowly close the aperture of an economic ship that continues to draw water and threatens to submerge.