Indiana Apprenticeship Program Graduates Its First Green Technicians
This Monday, the Apollo Alliance was proud to co-sponsor an event honoring the first “Green Technician” graduates of an Indianapolis training program run by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 481 and the National Electrical Contractors Association of Central Indiana. After receiving their certifications, the newly minted Green Technicians displayed an array of solar panels and a wind turbine they recently installed at the Electrical Training Institute, where they received their instruction.
“Each graduate of the Green Technician program will be an Industry Certified Technician, ready to work on anything from windmills to retrofits of existing buildings that need to become more energy efficient. We are incredibly proud of their achievement,” said Jim Patterson, director of the Electrical Training Institute.
U.S. Representative Andre Carson, D-Ind., and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler were on hand to honor the graduates. “It’s important that American workers stay at the cutting edge of green technology so they can access the high-quality jobs that are being created in the global clean energy economy,” Shuler said. “The race is on to build a 21st century clean energy infrastructure, and the AFL-CIO continues to push for it to be nurtured here in the U.S. and built by American workers.”
Rep. Carson, a supporter of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, which was passed by the House in June 2009, said clean energy is the key to renewed prosperity. “The type of training and work being celebrated here today is exactly what we had in mind when we passed clean energy legislation in the House,” he said. “If the Senate will join that effort, we can put clean energy on the fast track and rebuild America’s middle class on a foundation of new, well-paying green jobs.”
The green technician training program is an apprenticeship program that includes classroom instruction and on-the-job training. Apprentices are paid during the course of their training. Click here to learn more about the Indianapolis Electrical Apprenticeship program. For more information about green jobs training programs in general, see the Apollo Alliance’s green-collar jobs web page.
Take Action: Make Sure the Senate Climate Bill Supports U.S. Clean Energy Manufacturing
Any day now, Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman will unveil their bipartisan clean energy and climate bill—a bill that actually has the potential to win approval even in the long-gridlocked Senate. If that happens, the United States could finally have a policy in place to reduce dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, lessen our dependence on foreign oil, and set us on a path to a clean energy, good jobs future.
The Apollo Alliance applauds the efforts of Kerry, Graham and Lieberman, but an important question remains: will their bill ensure that increased U.S. demand for clean energy is met by American workers making the solar panels, wind turbines and other products of the clean energy economy?
To ensure that the Kerry/Graham/Lieberman bill takes the necessary steps to help the U.S. become not only a consumer of clean-energy technologies, but also a leading producer of them, the Apollo Alliance is asking our supporters to email their Senators this week, requesting that they urge Sens. Kerry, Graham and Lieberman to put Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technologies (IMPACT) Act into their bipartisan climate bill.
Currently, 70 percent of America’s clean energy systems and component parts are manufactured overseas. The IMPACT Act would reverse this trend and ensure that policies that grow our clean energy economy also create good, high-quality manufacturing jobs here in the United States. The IMPACT Act would authorize $30 billion to establish state-level revolving loan funds to help small and medium-sized manufacturers retrain workers and retool facilities for clean energy production. It would also expand funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program to help manufacturers access clean energy supply chains.
The bipartisan climate bill is moving …fast. This week Sen. Kerry told a Greenwire reporter that, “We’re moving very rapidly. … We’re now down to dealing with specific language and negotiating with various interested parties.”
Please help the Apollo Alliance make sure our Senators aren’t moving so fast that they miss an opportunity to create millions of high-quality American jobs in the clean energy economy. Click here to email your Senators in support of the IMPACT Act.
In other news …
*Check out the video of the Apollo Alliance-Center for American Progress “Picking a Winner: How to Make the U.S. a Leader in the Clean Energy Economy” conference. If you weren’t in DC last week to attend the Apollo-CAP clean energy economy conference, you can now watch it online. Speakers included Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; AFL-CIO Deputy Chief of Staff Thea Lee; former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Kathleen McGinty; Jared Bernstein, chief economist and economic policy advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden; and many others. You can also watch a video of U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee being interviewed by Brad Johnson of the Wonk Room just before he made a keynote speech at the “Picking a Winner” conference.
*Join the Apollo Alliance team as an intern! The Apollo Alliance is seeking a smart, organized, energetic person with strong research and writing skills to assist with our program and policy department. The deadline for applications is April 15. Click here to view the internship job description.
Apollo Co-Hosts Clean Energy Economy Conference in Washington, DC
This Thursday, the Apollo Alliance and Center for American Progress (CAP) co-sponsored a conference in Washington, D.C. that brought together leading policymakers, academics, business and labor leaders, and other experts to discuss what policies will support the United States in becoming not only a consumer of clean-energy technologies but also a leading producer of them.
The conference, Picking a Winner: How to Make the U.S. a Leader in the Clean Energy Economy, was held amid growing concerns about clean-energy jobs—particularly manufacturing jobs—going overseas rather than being located in the United States. It covered the diversity of policies—trade, energy, industrial, innovation and workforce policies, to name a few—that will need to be implemented for the U.S. to regain its competitiveness in the global clean energy economy.
“We’re here today because America is in trouble,” said Apollo Chairman Phil Angelides during his opening remarks at the conference. “We are quickly losing the chance to be a leader in what will be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century: the global clean energy economy. While other countries are making massive investments in clean energy infrastructure and production—and creating tens of thousands of new jobs as a result—the United States doesn’t even have the capacity to meet its own demand for renewable energy components.”
Conference speakers included Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA); Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress; Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff of the AFL-CIO; Kathleen McGinty, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; and William Spriggs, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor; among others. Jared Bernstein (pictured above), chief economist and economic policy advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden, closed the conference by emphasizing the Obama administration’s commitment to strengthening the U.S. manufacturing sector—especially through supports for the domestic manufacture of clean energy technologies—because of the high quality of manufacturing jobs and their importance to having a thriving U.S. middle class.
Apollo and CAP also both released new reports about the clean energy economy on Thursday. The Apollo report, co-authored with Good Jobs First, analyzes the United States’ competitive position in the global race for clean-energy manufacturing jobs. The report, Winning the Race: How America Can Lead the Global Clean Energy Economy, finds that under current policies, the U.S. stands to lose an estimated 100,000 clean-energy manufacturing jobs to foreign competitors between now and 2015, and potentially a quarter million manufacturing jobs by 2030. The report also finds that many U.S. and foreign-based clean-energy manufacturing firms are investing money and creating jobs in low-wage countries such as China that are key competitors in the clean-energy race. To read the report, visit www.ApolloAlliance.org.
The CAP report is called Out of the Running? How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind. According to the report, these three countries have vastly different political economies, but are alike in that each one is implementing clean-energy policies across three critical areas: markets, financing and infrastructure. As a result, these countries are pulling far ahead of the United States in clean-energy production, installation, and export—and increasingly in clean-energy innovation as well. In fact, when clean-energy technology product sales were expressed as a proportion of respective gross domestic product, the United States ranked 19th on the list. Click here to read the report.
Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan Task Force Holds Initial Meeting
The Apollo Alliance held another important meeting in Washington, D.C. this week. On Wednesday, Apollo hosted the first meeting of the Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) Task Force, a group of high-level business, labor and environmental leaders, and transportation and manufacturing policy experts who will work together throughout 2010 to develop recommendations for a clean energy transportation policy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and U.S. dependence on foreign oil while simultaneously creating good American manufacturing jobs.
The U.S. transportation sector accounts for nearly 30 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and represents 70 percent of domestic oil consumption, most of which is imported. Apollo’s New Apollo Program advocates for a more forward-thinking U.S. transportation policy that results in a 21st century transit system and rebuilds our nation’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, but the issue has taken on a new urgency because the current national transportation authorization bill has expired, and the next transportation bill will likely be passed during the next year.
The TMAP Task Force will focus on how to ensure that the next transportation bill leverages future investments in stronger transit into new, high-quality jobs in the manufacture of advanced rail vehicles, alternative fuel buses and clean trucks, as well as these vehicles’ component parts. In addition to working with the Task Force to develop its recommendations, Apollo is partnering with researchers from Northeastern and Duke Universities, and the Worldwatch Institute, who will be conducting analyses of urban mass transit systems such as subways, light rail, streetcars, buses and inter-city rail (including high-speed rail) to better inform the development of strong domestic transit manufacturing policy proposals.
Wednesday’s TMAP meeting in Washington included presentations by former Massachusetts Governor and Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Political Science Michael Dukakis; Apollo Alliance Senior Advisor and Center for American Progress Vice President of Energy Policy Kate Gordon; and Transportation for America Campaign Director James Corless. All spoke of the importance of a new approach to transportation as a key component of the transition to a clean energy, good jobs economy.
The TMAP project is modeled on the Apollo Alliance’s successful Green Manufacturing Action Plan. Stay tuned for more updates as the TMAP project develops.
New Report Shows the IMPACT Act Will Create Clean Energy Jobs in Ohio
Amid growing concerns about the U.S. losing clean energy manufacturing jobs to other countries, a new report released this week by Policy Matters Ohio, the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and the Apollo Alliance documents how one clean energy investment proposal, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act, would help create and retain clean energy manufacturing jobs in Ohio.
The Impact of IMPACT: Creating Jobs in Ohio finds that the IMPACT Act, which is contained in the proposed Senate clean energy and climate bill, would create between 41,063 and 52,214 new jobs across Ohio.
The IMPACT Act would establish a two-year $30 billion revolving loan fund to assist small- and medium-sized manufacturers retool to produce clean energy component parts and become more energy efficient. It would also increase long-term funding for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership program to help manufacturers access clean energy markets and adopt innovative, energy-efficient manufacturing technologies. Provisions that are nearly identical to those in IMPACT were included in the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2009.
“PERI’s analysis finds that investing in the retooling and conversion of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Ohio would create a robust engine of job growth for the state,” said Heidi Garrett-Peltier, the economist who conducted the analysis. “We find that the investments from IMPACT would not only retain current jobs, but they would also create new jobs that utilize the skills of the workers of Ohio. These investments are a potentially powerful way to revitalize the manufacturing sector in the state.”
The findings of the report are relevant to other manufacturing states and to anyone who wants to ensure that comprehensive federal clean energy and climate measures create the economic benefits that American workers are expecting. To read the report, visit the Policy Matters Ohio website.
New Poll: Hoosiers Believe Investment in Clean Energy Manufacturing Can Help Revive Indiana’s Economy and Create Jobs
Ohio is not the only Midwest state that stands to benefit from clean energy investments. According to a new Indiana public opinion survey commissioned by the Apollo Alliance, by a 2-1 margin, Hoosiers believe that public and private investment in the manufacture of clean energy technologies can help revive the state’s economy and create jobs. The poll was conducted earlier this month by Research 2000. It found that Hoosiers are strong believers in the opportunity for economic recovery posed by boosting investment in clean energy and energy efficiency. Fifty-four percent of poll respondents said that investments in clean technologies would help revive the state’s economy, while only 26 percent disagreed.
Clean energy investments and industries were the main topics of conversation at a roundtable held in Indianapolis on Monday night that was organized by the Apollo Alliance, the National Wildlife Federation and the Richard G. Luger Center for Renewable Energy. Speakers included business leaders from Ameresco, Duke Energy and Vela Gear Systems, as well as Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, and Apollo’s Indiana state coordinator, Andrea Alderson-Bazemore.
“The new global economy will run on clean energy, and Indiana is helping lead the way,” said Alderson-Bazemore at the Monday night event. “With more investment in clean technologies and manufacturing, new industries will be born and supported right here, putting you and your neighbors back to work.”
Between 1998 and 2007, clean energy jobs in Indiana grew by 17.9 percent, even as overall jobs declined by one percent. During that time, green jobs grew nearly two-and-a-half times faster than overall job creation, according to a national study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Today, Indiana is home to more than 1,200 clean energy companies that employ over 17,000 people across the state.
“It’s time for Congress to pass a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill that significantly boosts clean energy demand in this country,” said Kevin Leahy, managing director for climate policy and economics for Duke Energy. “Once this legislation is in place, companies like those here tonight will be poised to meet the resulting demand for clean energy.”
Schweiger said that businesses, labor and environmental advocates see a common goal in bolstering clean energy. “Americans go back to work, our economy booms, and the environment is protected for future generations,” he said. “It’s a win-win-win situation.”
Join Apollo at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference!
The Apollo Alliance is proud to announce that we are one of the conveners of this year’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference, which will take place May 4-6 in Washington, D.C. Good Jobs, Green Jobs (GJGJ) is an annual event organized by the Blue-Green Alliance and brings together thousands of union members, environmentalists, business leaders, and elected and administration officials for three days of sessions about building a green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming, and preserves America’s economic and environmental security.
The 2010 GJGJ conference program is still under development, but last year’s conference featured green economy leaders including U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Senators Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar and Debbie Stabenow, and United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner. Apollo’s chairman, Phil Angelides, along with Apollo board members Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers Union and Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, also spoke at the conference.
This year, the Apollo Alliance will be organizing at least two sessions at the GJGJ conference, one on how to build your state’s clean energy manufacturing sector, and another on clean transportation and good jobs. Stay tuned for more information about these and other panels and workshops.
Early bird registration ends March 15! If you’d like to join the Apollo Alliance and thousands of other green jobs enthusiasts at this year’s GJGJ conference, don’t miss the early bird registration deadline.
There’s also a green jobs expo to showcase the companies, products, services and career opportunities in the green economy. Your group can find out about registering for a booth at the GJGJ conference website.
We look forward to seeing you in May in DC!
In other news …
*Welcome back Van Jones! The Apollo Alliance is thrilled by the announcement that Van Jones, our former board member, has returned to the green jobs advocacy community and will be leading the Green Opportunity Initiative at the Center for American Progress. Van is a leading national spokesperson on the need to create pathways out of poverty and into the green economy for poor people, people of color, and people with barriers to employment.
Apollo Organizes Clean Energy Events in Missouri and Indiana
This week, on the day before the one-year anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Missouri Apollo Alliance partnered with the St. Louis Urban League to highlight the creation of 39 new jobs associated with a weatherization assistance program made possible by ARRA funding.
“This is a shining example of how investing in green jobs can help revitalize the economy, while also saving low-income citizens money on their energy bills,” said Emily Andrews, executive director of the Greater St. Louis Green Building Council and a member of the Missouri Apollo Alliance steering committee. “If we follow this model with further investments in energy efficiency and weatherization, we’ll see a windfall of good, green jobs throughout the country.”
Weatherization assistance for eligible applicants may include installing wall and ceiling insulation; plugging air leaks with caulking; installing weather stripping; dryer venting; glazing and repairing windows and doors; minor duct repair; furnace repair or replacement; and hot water tank repair. Studies have shown that weatherization reduces household energy costs from $260 to as much as $700 over the course of a year.
“In addition to cutting the energy costs, these services also increase safety and enhance the quality of life for the residents of St. Louis city,” said Urban League President Jim Buford.
Todd Weaver, CEO of Legacy Building Construction, spoke about the people his company has employed to work on weatherization projects. “These jobs change lives,” he said. “They may start at entry level, but they lay the foundation for advancement into careers as crew chiefs, pre-weatherization and post-weatherization auditors.”
The event was covered by local media outlets, including St. Louis’s NBC affiliate and the St. Louis Business Journal. For more on the St. Louis Weatherization Assistance Program, visit www.ulstl.org. To learn more about the federal government’s weatherization efforts, visit the U.S. Department of Energy website.
Hot on the heels of our successful event in Missouri, the Indiana Apollo Alliance will be holding its own event next week—a business roundtable. The roundtable, which is being co-sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation and the Richard G. Luger Center for Renewable Energy, will convene a panel of clean energy business leaders to discuss how Indiana can lead the way in the new clean energy economy, and how investing in clean energy technologies and manufacturing is the key to creating millions of good-paying jobs across the country. Speakers will include Jerome Ringo, former president and current board member of the Apollo Alliance; Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation; Jeffery Metcalf, regional director for Amaresco; John Stowell, VP of Environmental Health Policy for Duke Energy; Noel Davis, president & founder of Vela Gear Systems; and Ethan Rogers, manager of energy efficiency services at Purdue University.
With 9.9 percent of Indiana residents unemployed, the solution for long-term job growth may lie in the state’s booming clean energy industry. A Pew Charitable Trusts national economic study showed that green jobs grew nearly two and a half times faster than overall job creation between 1998 and 2007. During that time, clean energy jobs in Indiana grew by 17.9 percent. Today, Indiana is home to more than 1,200 clean energy companies, which employ more than 17,000 people across the state.
Three Cheers for State and Local Apollo Alliance Victories
Speaking of state Apollo Alliances, we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our state and local Apollo affiliates for all of their achievements in 2009. Read on for a sampling of their accomplishments, from the creation of new green jobs training programs to the passage of various types of clean energy legislation.
* In April 2009, the Los Angeles City Council approved a first-in-the nation plan to create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and revitalize the inner city. The council voted to support a plan to green retrofit city buildings that will create hundreds of new jobs at a time when Angelenos are confronting high rates of unemployment, and federal officials are looking to cities and states for “shovel ready” projects to boost the economy. The ordinance, which will also connect the retrofitting to green jobs training programs that link underserved communities to careers in the clean energy economy, was brought to the city council by the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance, which is convened by SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Analysis).
*In 2009, the New York City Apollo Alliance played a key role advising and participating in the development of the New York City Green-Collar Jobs Roadmap, a comprehensive, step-by-step plan for how to grow New York City’s green economy in a sustainable, prosperous and just manner. The Roadmap was published in October 2009 by the Center for American Progress and Urban Agenda, which convenes NYC Apollo. It was the culmination of an 18-month process in which more than 170 stakeholders from businesses, labor unions and community-based organizations collaborated and developed a plan to grow an equitable green economy in New York City.
* Oregon Apollo and its partners, including the Oregon AFL-CIO, Citizens Utility Board, and Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, strongly supported the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Technology (EEAST) Act of 2009, which was signed into law in July 2009. EEAST makes available a low-cost loan that can be applied to weatherizing homes and small businesses and producing renewable energy. The loan can be paid back on the property owner’s energy bill over a long period of time—20+ years. Apollo and its partners played a key role in ensuring that energy efficiency and renewable energy jobs created by the program will be high-quality jobs.
* In October 2009, the Green Justice Coalition, an Apollo Alliance affiliate based in Boston, won a major victory for equity and economic development by convincing the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) of Massachusetts to not only develop long-term goals for increasing energy efficiency throughout the state, but also to commit to make the energy efficiency program and jobs associated with it accessible to low-income communities. For example, the Green Justice Coalition worked with the EEAC and utilities to design an innovative financing mechanism that includes a commitment by the utilities to procure $300 million in external funding over the next two years to set up a revolving loan fund. Low- and moderate-income homeowners can access these funds to pay for energy efficiency retrofits, which can be paid back incrementally through utility bills.
* In June 2009, the Oakland Green Jobs Corps graduated its first class. The program, which is among the first training programs of its kind, was developed and proposed by the Oakland Apollo Alliance, which is convened by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and IBEW Local 595. The group won support from the Oakland City Council, which allocated $250,000 in seed money to create the program. Funds were awarded to a partnership between Laney Community College, Cypress Mandela Training Center, and Growth Sector – a workforce intermediary.
*In October 2009, New York Gov. David Paterson signed legislation creating the Green Jobs/Green New York (GJ/GNY) program. The bill commits the state to investing $112 million on a program to retrofit and weatherize private homes and small commercial buildings. Over the next five years, the program’s implementation will create thousands of jobs in the home and commercial building retrofit industry. The New York State Apollo Alliance was part of a broad coalition of labor, workforce training, clean energy, and environmental groups that joined together to support the green jobs initiative, which is poised to become the centerpiece of New York’s efforts to become a more energy-efficient state.
To read more about these and other state and local Apollo Alliance victories, visit ApolloAlliance.org. To find out about an Apollo Alliance affiliate near you, click here.
Snow Storms Hit East Coast; Make Some Policymakers Lose Their Clean Energy Bearings
The record-breaking blizzards that engulfed Washington, DC, the past two weeks have prompted climate change deniers to argue that if it’s snowing on the East Coast, then climate change must not exist. Those who want climate action could just as easily argue that the dearth of snow in Vancouver, where the 2010 Winter Olympics are about to kick off, means climate change is already hitting us right in our backyard.
Climate scientists have warned for years that we can expect more frequent extreme climate events – from heavier snowstorms to increasingly strong hurricanes – as global temperatures rise. As Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Michigan-based forecasting service Weather Underground, said on a Thursday telephone press conference organized by the Center for American Progress, “We still will have snowstorms, and the signs of record snowstorms being evidence against global warming is just not true. In the future, we shouldn’t be surprised to find heavier precipitation events.”
“This actually is, according to the satellite record, the warmest winter on record,” said Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress during the teleconference. “The scientific literature predicts that you will see more intense winter storms because of global warming.” Click here to read more about what was discussed during the teleconference.
But it’s not just that the climate change deniers are wrong about the relationship between heavy snowstorms and climate change. It’s also that they would use these arguments to derail federal climate and clean energy measures, ignoring the fact that climate change is not the only reason why we need to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. What about national security?
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who was quick to jump on the climate change denial bandwagon this week, seems to have forgotten that not only is our current energy system polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions, it’s also keeping us hooked on foreign oil. This makes the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists who object to our presence in the Middle East and forces us into relationships with hostile or repressive governments, thus jeopardizing our national security.
Luckily, a group of veterans and national security experts are bringing our oil dependence to the forefront of the national clean energy debate. Operation Free is an effort to draw attention to the national security threat caused both by U.S. dependence on foreign oil and by climate change. In November 2009, the Apollo Alliance interviewed a member of Operation Free, an Iraq war veteran named Alex Cornell du Houx, for a story we published about veterans green jobs training programs. At that time, Cornell du Houx said, “When I was deployed in Fallujah with the marines, we came across a line of cars, trucks and tractors that were bumper-to-bumper as far as the eye could see. They were waiting there all night and risking their lives for gasoline and diesel. It really struck me how vulnerable and dependent they were on this single source of energy. Likewise, it made me think about how dependent we are and how it puts our security at risk.”
Operation Free recently ramped up its activities by launching a 16-state “National Veterans Tour for Clean Energy Security” and a national television advertisement. Iraq war veteran Steve Maddox narrates the advertisement: “Terrorists. They’re trying to kill Americans at home and our troops abroad. And who’s footing the bill for the attacks against us? Oil money, filtered through secret organizations in the Middle East and countries like Iran. When oil money ends up in the hands of our enemies, Americans pay the ultimate price. We’ve got to protect ourselves and do all we can to end our dependence on foreign oil. Tell Congress: Pass the Clean Energy and America Power Act NOW.”
Click here to watch the Operation Free television advertisement.
Read about the national veterans’ tour or find out when it’s coming to your state.
Read the Apollo Alliance story about veterans green jobs training programs.
And remember, come rain, sleet or snow, the need to transition to clean energy is not solely about the devastating impacts of climate change; it’s also about the need to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and making America more secure.
In other news …
*On Tuesday, Feb. 16, the Apollo Alliance and St. Louis Urban League are sponsoring an event to highlight a successful weatherization assistance program that is creating jobs for St. Louis, Mo., residents with the support of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The program has already created 39 new green jobs and is also saving money for low-income St. Louis residents whose homes are being weatherized. To learn more about the program, visit the St. Louis Urban League’s website.
*A new report by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the Pennsylvania Green Jobs Report, analyzes the green economy in the state, identifying the primary industry sectors where green jobs are located as well the jobs that are most closely linked to green services and processes. It differs from other state green jobs reports in that it directly connects federal and state clean energy investments to clean energy job creation. According to the report, “between 2010 and 2012, $10 billion in public and private investment in the green economy will be a catalyst for generating 115,000 jobs.” Read the report at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry website.
*Check out our new clean energy success stories! This month we have “Signature Stories” about model green jobs training programs in Michigan (Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice) and Wisconsin (Green Affordable Housing in Indian Country). We also have a new story about the role of small businesses in clean energy research and development (Small Businesses Leading the Way in Clean Energy Innovation).
Photo credit: Weather Underground
Small Businesses Leading the Way in Clean Energy Innovation
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| Photo credit: Mainstream Engineering |
Internet giant Google is the poster child for demonstrating that revolutionary technologies can be developed by a small number of people on a limited budget. The company, whose name is now a household word and whose net profits exceeded $6 billion last year, was incorporated in a garage by Stanford Ph.D. students who were doing a dissertation on search engine development.
In the world of clean energy, no one knows yet which companies will be the equivalents of Google, creating the technological breakthroughs that will change the course of U.S. energy history. Read more
Obama’s FYI 2011 Budget Proposal Keeps Country on Clean Energy Trajectory
This week, the Obama administration released its proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget. It included several investments in the clean energy economy that Energy Secretary Steven Chu said would put Americans back to work, help build a clean energy economy, spur energy innovation, and reduce our dependence on oil.
Chu’s comments were made during his testimony this week before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Among the highlights he listed from the Department of Energy’s proposed FY 2011 budget were $325 million to promote energy efficiency in vehicles technologies; $302 million for solar power; $123 million for wind power; $300 million for the weatherization assistance program; and $331 billion for advanced building and industrial energy efficiency technologies. Chu also noted the administration’s proposal to expand the Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit by $5 billion – a move praised by the Apollo Alliance – to help support domestic clean energy manufacturers, among other programs.
The new budget reflects the Obama administration’s goal of limiting harmful greenhouse gas emissions. It provides funding to the Environmental Protection Agency to implement a reporting rule for measuring GHG emissions, as well as funding for regulations to curb GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act. The budget also includes a placeholder for funds that would be generated by a cap-and-trade program.
While the administration increased the federal government’s support for clean energy in the proposed budget, it also curbed support for the fossil fuels industry by proposing the elimination of taxpayer subsidies that could be worth as much as $40 billion over 10 years.
Click here to read Energy Secretary Chu’s Senate testimony about the FY11 budget proposal as it relates to energy issues. For a deeper analysis of the budget’s clean energy provisions and a critique of the provision that would add $36 billion in loan guarantee authority for the nuclear power sector, visit the Climate Progress blog.
New Study Finds Transportation Investment Proposal Would Create Nearly Half a Million Jobs
As the country continues to wait for the Senate to unveil a series of job creation proposals, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has just released a study analyzing how many jobs would be created if the Senate passes transportation infrastructure investments that have been recommended by Transportation for America (T4America). The Apollo Alliance serves on the Executive Committee of T4America, a coalition that was formed by Smart Growth America, Reconnecting America and the Surface Transportation Policy Project. It now counts some 400 organizations as supporters of its agenda to create “a new national transportation program that will take America into the 21st Century by building a modernized infrastructure and healthy communities where people can live, work and play.”
The T4America jobs package would allocate $34.3 billion in additional funding for infrastructure investments that prioritize the repair and maintenance of highways, bridges, and public transit; the preservation of existing transit jobs and services; and the expansion of access to jobs resulting from enhanced public transportation. According to the EPI report, An Analysis of Transportation for America’s Jobs Proposals, the T4America jobs package would create approximately 480,000 direct and indirect jobs, 49,660 of which would be in the manufacturing sector. The EPI report also found that the T4America jobs proposal would disproportionately create jobs for low-wage workers, workers without a college degree, and African-Americans and Latino workers—all of whom were hit hard by the recession.
Read the new EPI analysis at the Economic Policy Institute website, and click here to learn more about T4America.
In other news …
*This week is Clean Energy Week! The Apollo Alliance is proud to be among the many organizations that are participating in Clean Energy Week, a week of actions and events focused on the need to enact comprehensive federal clean energy and climate policies as a means of creating vast numbers of new jobs, ensuring U.S. global leadership in the emerging clean energy era, enhancing our security, and preserving our planet for the generations to follow. Click here to check out the array of clean energy events that took place this week under the banner of Clean Energy Week.
*Tune in to Link TV next Friday, Feb. 12, for a special program called ColorLines: Race and Economic Recovery. The show will include a segment on SCOPE of Los Angeles, the organization that convenes the LA Apollo Alliance, and its efforts to create green jobs for communities of color. Link TV can be found on DIRECTV Channel 375 or DISH Network Channel 9410. The program will air at 8:30 PM EST. For a sneak peak, go to http://colorlines.com/recovery.
Apollo Releases New Reports about Green Career Training in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin
This week, the Apollo Alliance released a series of reports in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin that identify components of those states’ workforce development infrastructures that can be better integrated and scaled up to help fill jobs in the clean energy sector. As readers of the weekly update are well aware, over the past decade, clean energy jobs have grown at more than twice the rate of overall jobs, according to a study released last June by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The reports, Mapping Green Career Pathways: Job Training Opportunities and Infrastructure, recommend strengthening existing training infrastructures to build workers’ skills to fill green-collar jobs that are being created in the construction and manufacturing sectors, which are projected to account for 55 percent of all new jobs in the emerging renewable energy and efficiency industries. Overall employment in construction and manufacturing declined sharply over the past decade and has been particularly hard hit by the recession. Ohio lost 106,000 manufacturing jobs and 31,000 construction jobs last year; Michigan shed 94,000 manufacturing jobs and 31,000 construction jobs in 2009; and Wisconsin has lost more than 25 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 2000.
“The demand for clean energy workers is real and will only grow as federal, regional and state climate and energy policies move forward,” said Elena Foshay, research associate for the Apollo Alliance and a co-author of the report. “However, for these states to take full advantage of this job creation potential, they will need workers whose skills match the needs of the employers and industries of the clean energy economy.”
Mapping Green Career Pathways identifies existing training programs that represent key elements of an integrated green workforce development system. According to the reports, many of the elements of a green training infrastructure already exist in each state, but there are still gaps along the green career pathway that must be filled through stronger, more integrated training programs.
On a telephone press conference announcing the release of the Michigan report, Ken Gawlak, a former General Motors worker, described how the report’s findings relate directly to his experience. He was laid off after working for GM for ten years and decided to explore other career options by talking to counselors at his local community college, Delta College. They recommended that Gawlak enroll in a new training program the college created in collaboration with three local solar companies that were having trouble filling chemical process operator positions. His tuition was paid for by a new program in Michigan called No Worker Left Behind.
After completing a 16-week course, Gawlak got a job working at Dow Corning in solar manufacturing. “Out of the 23 students in the class, 11 had job offers before the class even concluded,” Gawlak said. “There’s definitely a need there, and employers are making use of the students and the program and gobbling them up even before they finish.”
To read the Mapping Green Career Pathways reports, go to www.ApolloAlliance.org.
Creating Clean Energy Jobs Still a Priority for President and Senate Leaders
During Wednesday’s State of the Union speech, President Obama often mentioned the clean energy economy and the need to put Americans to work in clean energy manufacturing facilities and jobs improving the energy efficiency of people’s homes. He also called for the passage of a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill.
“I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change,” the president said. “But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future—because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”
Read the State of the Union speech.
In response to the State of the Union address, Apollo Alliance Chairman Phil Angelides praised the president’s ongoing commitment to clean energy job creation and announced that Apollo will host a series of events in the Midwest to help chart this clean energy course. “Over the next several weeks, Apollo Alliances in Michigan, Indiana and Missouri will host forums to discuss how these states can reap the economic benefits of the global movement toward clean energy production,” Angelides said. “These forums will bring together a diverse array of businesses, labor leaders, political officials and economic development experts who can speak to the job creation potential of federal investments in cleaner, more efficient energy technologies, as well as to the role that federal climate and energy policies must play to drive demand and spur economic growth.”
Read the announcement about Apollo clean energy job creation events in Michigan, Indiana and Missouri.
Next week, the Senate is expected to announce its own plans for clean energy job creation when it introduces a jobs bill. The bill is said to include funding for many of the projects Apollo has advocated for in the New Apollo Program and the Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan, including home energy efficiency retrofits, manufacturing plant retrofits, transportation and infrastructure projects, and other measures.
State of the Union? We Need Jobs and the Clean Energy Policies That Will Create Them.
On Wednesday night, President Obama will deliver the State of the Union speech amid rampant speculation over what issues he will choose to emphasize. Will he focus on health-care reform? The need to rein in Wall Street? His new proposal to freeze domestic spending?
An issue that he will almost certainly tackle is jobs and the economy. Nationwide unemployment continues to hover around 10 percent, a number that doesn’t even account for people who have given up their job hunt. Clearly, the topic of the hour is jobs, jobs, jobs.
Although some would argue that in this political climate, those who advocate for clean energy and climate action should put their issues on the back burner, the Apollo Alliance believes that the best way to address the American jobs crisis is to implement clean energy and climate measures that will re-establish the U.S. as a leader in the global clean energy marketplace.
Climate and clean energy measures create jobs. Even without national climate and clean energy policies, green jobs have grown at more than twice the rate of overall jobs over the past decade, according to a June 2009 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. State-level studies show the same trend. For example, a December 2009 analysis by Collaborative Economics and Next 10 showed that California, which has some of the most forward-thinking climate policies in the country, has seen green job growth outpace overall job growth by a rate of almost 3-to-1 since 1995.
In 2008, the Apollo Alliance put forward a blueprint for creating a clean energy, good jobs economy called the New Apollo Program. Our plan was developed by experts from business and labor union representatives, environmentalists and social justice leaders. The plan calls for investing $500 billion over the next ten years on specific steps for generating clean power, improving energy conservation and efficiency, cutting energy bills, restoring America’s technological and industrial preeminence, and creating 5 million high-quality jobs.
The New Apollo Program includes five principal initiatives to achieve energy security, climate stability and economic prosperity:
*REBUILD AMERICA CLEAN AND GREEN: Produce 25 percent of the nation’s power from renewable sources and upgrade the energy efficiency of buildings by at least 30 percent by 2025; modernize the power grid; and improve transit systems.
*TAP THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: Invest in green-collar job training initiatives – including job readiness and service programs, union apprenticeships, and community and technical college courses – to provide better jobs and the workforce needed to build the clean energy future.
*REINVEST IN AMERICA: Establish a “cap and invest” program to reduce carbon emissions and reinvest resources to build the new clean energy economy.
*MAKE IT IN AMERICA: Retool American factories to build renewable energy systems and high-efficiency, alternative-fuel vehicles.
This last recommendation to “Make it in America” is one that the president should unquestionably address in his State of the Union speech. More and more people are concerned that the clean energy manufacturing jobs that could be reviving the American manufacturing sector—and bringing back family supporting, middle-class jobs—are locating abroad in places like China instead of here at home in places like Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. If the president and Congress implemented policies to help level the playing field for American clean energy manufacturers, we would see a proliferation of jobs manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, electric car batteries, and other components of the clean energy economy.
Since we published the New Apollo Program in 2008, the Apollo Alliance has released additional job-creation proposals, including a December 2009 5-Point Plan for Boosting Clean Energy Job Growth. The plan—for inclusion in a larger Congressional and administration jobs bill—would create 1.2 million domestic jobs through initiatives like rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure by prioritizing public transit investments and fully funding the America Serves Act, which would expand programs like the conservation corps. The 5-Point Plan for Boosting Clean Energy Job Growth is available on ApolloAlliance.org.
On Wednesday night, the Apollo Alliance and our supporters will be watching the State of the Union speech and listening for the president’s recommendations on clean energy and good jobs. We expect him to be able to explain to the American people that achieving U.S. energy independence and climate security is a key to reviving our depressed economy and will benefit workers and businesses nationwide. If anyone can make this case, it’s our president.
Scott Brown and the Future of Our National Clean Energy Policies
This week, people who care about climate and clean energy issues have been trying to comprehend what the election of Scott Brown of Massachusetts to the U.S. Senate means for the future of comprehensive U.S. climate and clean energy legislation. Although Brown voted in favor of a cap-and-trade bill when he was a state senator, agreeing that Massachusetts should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, he opposed a national cap-and-trade program during his senate campaign.
Some have speculated that Brown’s election means the current climate and energy bill, which includes a cap-and-trade program, now stands little chance of passing. ”A large cap-and-trade bill isn’t going to go ahead at this time,” U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein told the San Francisco Chronicle in a recent interview.
Others believe that a climate and clean energy bill with a cap on carbon emissions will still move forward this year. Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and an Apollo Alliance board member, argued in a Huffington Post piece that a number of signs point to impending action on the climate and clean energy front. These include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s statement on Wednesday—the day after the Massachusetts election—that the Senate still plans to tackle energy and climate in order to “strengthen our national security, our environment and our economy.” Beinecke also referenced the ongoing bipartisan effort by Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman to produce a bill that both Democrats and Republicans will support.
The Apollo Alliance is continuing to urge the Senate to move forward with a comprehensive energy bill that includes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, with Congress and the administration’s new focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” passage of a climate and clean energy bill is more relevant than ever. Climate and clean energy measures create jobs. Even without national climate and clean energy policies, green jobs have grown at more than twice the rate of overall jobs over the past decade, according to a June 2009 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. State-level studies show the same trend. For example, a December 2009 study by Collaborative Economics and Next 10 showed that California, which has some of the most forward-thinking climate policies in the country, has seen green job growth outpace overall job growth by a rate of almost 3-to-1 since 1995.
Weekly update readers may be familiar with the studies quoted above, but another compelling study has received less public attention. Published recently in the journal Energy Policy, the study, by Dan Kammen and his colleagues at UC Berkeley, finds that all non-fossil fuel technologies (including renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies) create more jobs per unit of energy than the fossil fuel sector does. Click here to read the study.
States Still Taking the Lead
While national policymakers are still debating whether and what action to take on climate and clean energy issues, states continue to lead the way with cutting-edge programs in renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean cars, cap-and-trade programs and more. Dozens of states have renewable energy standards, energy efficiency standards for their buildings and appliances, standards requiring reduced greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, or are participating in regional cap-and-trade programs.
This year, states are continuing to plow ahead on clean energy initiatives, clearing a path for future federal government action. In Wisconsin, legislators are beginning to debate a bill that would require 25 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2025. In Washington state, Gov. Chris Gregoire, inspired by her trip to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, recently announced plans to make state agencies carbon neutral by 2020. In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen is busily—and successfully—working to attract solar manufacturers to his state.
To find out more about what’s happening at the state and local level on clean energy issues, get in touch with our state and local Apollo Alliance affiliates. You can also learn more about individual states’ existing programs and plans at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change website.
In Other News …
*Next week, the Apollo Alliance will release three reports that analyze existing workforce training programs in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin and identify ways those programs can be better integrated and scaled up to help fill jobs in the clean energy sector. The reports look at the skills that are needed for green-collar jobs in construction and manufacturing, and make recommendations for how existing training programs can provide those skills by filling in gaps between programs rather than investing in new and sometimes unnecessary ones. The reports, Mapping Green Career Pathways, were co-written by the Apollo Alliance and partner organizations in each state and will be posted to ApolloAlliance.org on Mon., Jan. 25.
*In case you haven’t heard, Carl Pope, long-time executive director of the Sierra Club and an Apollo Alliance board member, announced this week that he is leaving his current post and will become executive chairman of the organization. We offer our sincere appreciation to Carl for all the wonderful work he’s done at the Sierra Club, and we look forward to working with him in his new position. Meanwhile, we’re excited that the Club’s new executive director will be Mike Brune, who we know well from his work leading the Rainforest Action Network the past seven years. Mike, good luck with your new job!
*As part of the lead up to Clean Energy Week 2010 (Feb. 1 – 5 in Washington, DC), Apollo’s executive director, Cathy Calfo, will participate with two other clean energy experts in a webinar called “Looking Ahead to Clean Energy Week 2010: An Analysis of the State of Clean Energy in the U.S.” The webinar will be held on Mon., Jan. 25 at noon eastern time and will cover a review of recent state and federal policy initiatives, among other topics. To register for the webinar, click here.
