The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" ![](\\" Brad Schneider stated on April 20, 2017 in an op-ed: \"More than 260,000 Americans are employed by the domestic solar industry — three times as many workers as employed by the entire coal mining industry.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-true/4ac7c61540eff5211f6a04d98a6bc93a.jpg.\\") ![\\"mostly- true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") * Environment * Energy * Jobs * Illinois * Brad Schneider ![\\"Louis](\\" By Louis Jacobson April 25, 2017 # Are there three times as many solar energy jobs as coal jobs? As a candidate and as president, Donald Trump has championed the cause of coal mining. But critics of the coal industry have countered that Trump and other supporters of coal are overlooking an energy sector with an even bigger impact on jobs -- solar energy. In a Chicago Tribune op-ed published on April 20 -- two days before Earth Day -- Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., took issue with Trump’s environmental priorities. At one point in the op-ed, he wrote, \"More than 260,000 Americans are employed by the domestic solar industry — three times as many workers as employed by the entire coal mining industry.\" We had previously looked at whether there are more people employed in the U.S. solar-energy industry than in the oil industry. (There aren’t.) But the comparison with the coal industry was new to us, so we decided to take a look. The sources of Schneider’s statistics When we contacted Schneider’s office, they cited two sources, one for each number in the statement. The first number -- 260,000 U.S. solar workers -- stems from the 2016 edition of the National Solar Jobs Census, which is published by the Solar Foundation, a nonprofit organization aligned with the solar industry. We confirmed that, according to the foundation’s calculations, there were 260,077 solar workers in the United States in 2016. The second number -- unstated in the op-ed, but equaling 87,000 workers employed in coal mining, if you do the math -- actually overstates the number of mine workers. According to the Energy Information Administration, a part of the federal Energy Department, the number of people working at coal mines was 65,971 in 2016. The actual ratio between the two numbers would be almost four- to-one. So the congressman has some support for his statement. However, the comparison is not exactly apples-to-apples. Let’s explore why. Comparing data for energy jobs is tricky One problem for Schneider’s numerical comparison is that it uses different databases, with different methodologies. The Solar Foundation told us that their data comes from more than 500,000 telephone calls and more than 60,000 emails to known and potential energy establishments across the United States, resulting in a total of 3,888 full responses. The group counted jobs held by a worker who spends at least 50 percent of his or her time on solar-related work. They included jobs in installation, manufacturing, sales, distribution, and project development, among other categories. The Energy Information Administration data, meanwhile, comes from official U.S. Labor Department data. It includes employees \"engaged in production, preparation, processing, development, maintenance, repair shop, or yard work at mining operations, including office workers.\" #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on August 17, 2024 in In X post on Aug. 17 Photo shows “domestic Antifa are already gathering in Chicago, to create chaos during the Harris-Walz DNC.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Sabine Martin • August 21, 2024 The coal industry considers the official coal employment numbers to be low \"to the point of being fiction,\" said Terry Headley, a spokesman for the American Coal Council. \"They don\'t include many people who work at a coal mine every day, full time, but are not company employees,\" Headley said. \"They are employees of service companies that provide direct support services, such as coal truck drivers, electricians, surveyors, machinists, mechanics, construction workers and others. Taken together, despite everything that has been thrown at it, West Virginia alone has some 50,000 ‘coal miners and contractors’ according to the West Virginia Office of Miners Health Safety and Training. If you go by the federal government data, West Virginia has only about 13,000 coal miners working.\" A better source While there will always be difficulties in making an exact comparison between the two energy sectors, there is a database well-suited for directly comparing solar and coal jobs. The United States Energy and Employment Report was designed by the Energy Information Association to put a variety of energy sectors on an equal statistical footing. This report found 373,087 solar jobs in 2016, compared to 160,119 coal jobs. (That’s a higher number for solar jobs than in the Solar Foundation report; it’s because the Energy Information Administration included jobs even if a relatively small proportion of the worker’s work week was spent on activities related to solar energy.) Here’s the full summary: ![](\\" This data produces a ratio of 2.3 solar jobs for every coal job. So by this measurement, there are more solar jobs than coal jobs, but it’s short of three times as high, as Schneider wrote. Tara Sinclair, a George Washington University economist and an expert in labor-force data, said she agreed that the U.S. Energy and Employment Report data is the best source to use. She added that other data from Indeed, where she is a senior economic fellow, bolsters the idea that the labor market is healthier for solar than for coal. \"We saw almost eight times more solar job postings than coal job postings in the United States in the first quarter of 2017,\" Sinclair said. \"Of course, these numbers don\'t represent current employment and are reflective of both growth and turnover in the different sectors. Still, it gives a sense of scale of these industries. This comparison leads me to think that Rep. Schneider\'s estimates may be on the conservative side looking forward.\" Our ruling Schneider said, \"More than 260,000 Americans are employed by the domestic solar industry — three times as many workers as employed by the entire coal mining industry.\" Based on an apples-to-apples comparison using the best available data, the ratio is just short of three-to-one. Still, the data we found confirms that the number of solar-related jobs does outpace the number of coal-related jobs today. We rate the statement Mostly True. Share the Facts 2017-04-25 19:20:32 UTC Politifact ![\\"Politifact\\"](\\" logo-big.jpg\\"/) 2 1 7 ![\\"Politifact](\\" facts/rating_images/politifact/tom-mostlytrue.jpg\\") Politifact Rating: Mostly True \"More than 260,000 Americans are employed by the domestic solar industry — three times as many workers as employed by the entire coal mining industry.\" Brad Schneider U.S. Representative, D-Ill. ![](\\" an op-ed Thursday, April 20, 2017 2017-04-20 Read More info #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Brad Schneider, \"What Trump doesn\'t understand about the environment\" (Chicago Tribune op-ed), April 20, 2017 Energy Department, \"United States Energy and Employment Report,\" January 2017 Energy Information Administration, \"Table 18. Average Number of Employees by State and Mine Type, 2015 and 2014,\" accessed April 25, 2017 Solar Foundation, National Solar Jobs Census, accessed April 24, 2017 PolitiFact New Hampshire, \"Hillary Clinton claims more U.S. jobs in solar than oil,\" Jan. 29, 2016 Email interview with Avery Palmer, senior communications manager with the Solar Foundation, April 24, 2017 Email interview with Terry Headley, spokesman for the American Coal Council, April 24, 2017 Email interview with Tara Sinclair, economist at George Washington University, April 24, 2017 Email interview with Steven Kirsch, spokesman for Brad Schneider, April 24, 2017 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Louis Jacobson ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson 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More than 260000 Americans are employed by the domestic solar industry three times as many workers as employed by the entire coal mining industry