The most recent data from three objective sources support Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s promising claim.

Senator Whitehouse (no relation) recently argued for a nationwide price on carbon pollution. And he expressed hope for a prosperous, clean-energy future and faith that “there is more economic security in our own American know-how than in corrupt foreign fossil fuel countries.”

The solar industry has seen tremendous growth. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report issued in May 2013 that counts an estimated 80,030 jobs for all occupations within the coal-mining industry — a sector of the coal industry as a whole.

For solar jobs, Larson cited The Solar Foundation’s “National Solar Jobs Census 2013,” which states that the solar industry “employs 142,698 Americans as of November 2013.”

[More.](http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2014/jul/06/sheldon-whitehouse/there-are-already-more-american-jobs-solar-industr/)