I started my investment career in 2009 by scouting the oil and gas manufacture for profitable opportunities. The department head assigned me to the energy sector, considering he considered information technology the most difficult area in which to make coin as a long-term investor. He idea I would larn from the claiming.

He was right. The oil toll crashes of 2009 and 2014 have revealed the inherent volatility and unpredictability of energy prices. Of the dozens of oil and gas CEOs and experts I met, not i was able to predict the downturns. Oil, natural gas and coal prices are currently stagnating at less than half their post-2000 peak levels. When energy prices collapse, profitability and investment returns in the energy sector autumn off the cliff. Employment follows adjust, and almost 200,000 American oil and gas jobs were lost between 2014 and 2016.

But fifty-fifty when free energy prices are strong, the cash flows of energy companies are weak. Fossil fuel projects have long evolution cycles, and it can take a decade to go from borehole to barrel. The determination to drill or mine is usually fabricated in times of optimism, when prices are high, just the outlook oft changes completely before production reaches the marketplace.

On March 28, President Donald Trump took a "sledgehammer" to US climate policy, lifting the moratorium on coal and ordering a review of emission standards from fossil fuels.  Recently he also signed executive memos to revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects. These actions match the promises he made during his campaign about "opening federal lands for oil and gas product" and "opening offshore areas." Simply this strategy to revive fossil fuels misses a crucial point: We cannot rely on a volatile industry to generate long-term financial returns or employment.

Coal mine operations in Gillette, Wyoming. (Photo past Greg Goebel)

Instead, it is far more productive to focus on areas that are stable and growing. Three such sectors have emerged in the Us environmental arena: land restoration, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture. The attractive growth profile of these sectors is starting to catch the interest of investors. Policymakers should also pay heed since these industries are often labor-intensive and create jobs that do not require college degrees. The unemployment rate is twice as high for those without higher degrees—who constitute the bulk of working-age voters—and these 3 environmental categories tin can generate tens of thousands of lasting jobs for this demographic.

Land restoration is the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems through improving soil health and planting copse and other vegetation. US wetland restoration has grown tenfold since the 1990s and now attracts around $two billion in private capital every year. In addition to improving h2o and air quality, research shows that restoration employs 126,000 American workers directly—lx percent more than than the coal industry—and supports some other 95,000 jobs indirectly. Restoration is also geographically convenient: Information technology is needed heavily in regions where mining has altered the landscape. Laid-off workers in the one-time coal expanses of Key Appalachia can at present rehabilitate the land their past employers degraded.

Youth planting trees around the Chesapeake Bay. (Photo by chesapeakebay.net)

Renewable energy from solar and wind power offers another ray of hope in a time of tepid economic progress for the centre class. American investment in renewable energy grew eightfold from 2004 to 2015. Stiff growth is here to stay, every bit shown by soaring installations of solar panels even after oil became cheap in the commodity crash of 2014. With the costs of renewable energy falling apace, demand will continue to climb. In Texas—historically the country's oil hub—wind power is frequently cheaper than fossil fuels. Wind energy supports 25,000 jobs in Texas, softening the blow from the 99,000 oil-related jobs the state lost in the terminal two years. Nationwide, employment in solar energy expanded 12 times faster than overall job creation in the U.s.a., exceeding employment in oil and gas extraction for the first fourth dimension.

Innovations in American agriculture, such as vertical farming and plant-based "meat," create prosperity by enabling the The states to produce more nutrient with less land and water. Investors aroma opportunity here, and valuations for pioneering food startups accept soared. The shift toward more than sustainable diets is nix new; for many years, organic fare has grown at double-digit rates in a broader nutrient industry that's growing simply three pct a twelvemonth. This is good news for the economy, considering employment in traditional agronomics is expected to fall, in part considering the boilerplate farmer in the U.s.a. is on the brink of retirement. Sustainable and innovative agriculture can plow this tendency around since it is more labor-intensive than industrial farming, and it'due south alluring immature Americans—the cohort with the highest unemployment rates since 2000—into the space.

These 3 sectors of the environment—land restoration, clean energy, and sustainable agriculture—are growing rapidly and offering valuable near-term opportunities for task creation. And they can deliver long-term financial returns that are attractive in today's low-growth economy. In contrast, doubling downward on the volatile fossil fuels manufacture would exist an expensive run a risk that would likely produce depression investment returns and few lasting jobs.

Investors have started to shift their focus from fossil fuels to nature since they run into where the time to come opportunity is. Investing in American prosperity through the surround would also be an astute move for the new presidential assistants.

Read more stories past Sofia Faruqi.