 |
The New Apollo Program is a comprehensive economic investment strategy to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. It will generate and invest $500 billion over the next ten years and create more than five million high quality green-collar jobs. It will accelerate the development of the nation’s vast clean energy resources and move us toward energy security, climate stability, and economic prosperity. And it will transform America into the global leader of the new green economy.
For Americans, this is a time of daunting challenges and boundless opportunities. We have become ever more dependent on foreign oil, putting our national security and economic future at risk. We have seen the price of gas and energy skyrocket as American families struggle to make ends meet. We have seen the growing threat of global warming and all its economic, environmental and human costs. And we watched that threat become a reality as Hurricane Katrina pounded our shores, providing a stark reminder that America faces not only a climate crisis, but a crisis of economic inequality as well.
At this historic moment, Americans face a choice. Do we continue with business as usual, putting our planet, our security, and our economic well-being at risk? Or do we seize the opportunity to forge a new path - building a new clean energy economy that creates good jobs and broadly shared prosperity for our future?
“Building a new energy economy requires a new way of doing business in America, one that takes the cost of global warming into account, ”The New Apollo Program says. “It also requires visionary new investments in our industries, our communities, and our workers.”
10 Years, $500 Billion, 5 Million Jobs
The program would generate and invest $500 billion over 10 years. An annual investment of about $50 billion a year, the Alliance notes, is a smaller share of the gross domestic product than what was spent on the Apollo space program, about one-third of current spending in Iraq, and roughly half of what was just lent by the federal government to insurance giant AIG.
Citing sky-high oil prices and the potential loss of one million jobs by year’s end, Angelides said, “We can and must embark on a new course that will create good jobs and broadly shared prosperity in order to overcome the daunting problems facing the nation.”
A primary facet of the program would make buildings more energy efficient. Homes, commercial buildings and factories account for almost 70 percent of U.S. energy consumption. Three-quarters of U.S. buildings will be new or substantially renovated by 2035. Using an Energy Smart Fund, the plan would funnel money to state and local programs focused on making these buildings more efficient, prioritizing those programs that create high-quality, local jobs in the construction industry. Every $10 billion invested in efficiency upgrades would create 100,000 on-site jobs and hundreds of thousands more jobs throughout the economy.
Expanding the use of renewable energy will require a new and improved manufacturing sector to make and assemble the necessary parts and infrastructure, such as wind towers and turbines, solar panels, a modern power grid, and next-generation cars. The blueprint calls for grants to retool and expand factories that use American-made components and that will create good, middle-class jobs here at home. The U.S. has lost 7.2 million manufacturing jobs over the past decade, and this action will help restore a vital sector that provides family-supporting jobs with benefits to millions of Americans.
