Key to implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are the statements of principles issued by the Apollo Alliance and many of its state and national partners to assure that the more than $100 billion that Congress authorized for clean energy development is spent “in a way that truly moves America toward a sustainable economy with broadly shared prosperity.”

The national Apollo Alliance statement of principles calls for every Recovery Act dollar “to be spent in a way that promotes climate stability and energy security by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our overall dependence on foreign oil.” The national Apollo Alliance also insists that Recovery Act funds should be invested “to do projects at a scale large enough that they can create multiple jobs and job training opportunities.”

Statements also have been issued by the New York City Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, social justice, and environmental organizations, and by the California Green Stimulus Coalition, composed of 29 prominent state groups including the California Apollo Alliance. Both call for Recovery Act funds to be spent on improving energy security, enhancing environmental quality, and ensuring that many more people are afforded the fair chance and opportunity to gain high-quality, career-building, green-collar jobs with good wages and benefits.

In addition, the New York City statement takes special notice of local conditions and insists that officials  “promote the maintenance and retrofitting of existing infrastructure, such as mass transit, roads, and bridges, rather than the building of new systems.”

The California statement calls for the highest levels of accountability, transparency, and fairness so that all communities, including disadvantaged neighborhoods, benefit from green-collar job opportunities. The state and local Apollo Alliances are meeting with governors, mayors,  and state legislators to make them aware of the principles and to urge them to include the standards in deciding how and where  Recovery Act dollars are spent..

For More Information [display_podcast] Apollo Alliance Statement of Principles New York City Apollo Alliance Statement of Principles California Green Stimulus Coalition Statement of Principles Apollo Op-Ed on Principles Recovery Act Information Center Make It In America Executive Summary Make It In America Report The New Apollo Program Signature Stories

“We’re operating at a number of levels to ensure the stimulus-funded projects speak to high quality jobs,” said Carla Din, the western regional director of the Apollo Alliance who helped to develop the California Green Stimulus Coalition’s principles. “We’re speaking to legislative hearings, the speaker of the House, the president pro tem. Our plan is to meet with the governor’s staff and key agencies. This is a well organized coalition.”

Statements Reflect New Potential
Taken together the statements of core principles reflect two new public interest trends that have emerged in the months following the election of President Obama, who campaigned on a promise to invest $150 billion over 10 years on clean energy development and good green-collar jobs.

The first trend is the great promise that exists in the Recovery Act for charting a new national economic development strategy based on clean energy development that produces millions of solidly middle class green-collar jobs. The Recovery Act appropriated $110 billion over the next two years for scaling up wind and solar development, biofuels processing, construction of a modern electric grid, building next generation clean vehicles, retrofitting public buildings to make them more energy efficient, and training and employing hundreds of thousands of people in good clean energy sector jobs.

The second trend is how the Obama administration and Congressional leaders have empowered clean energy advocacy organizations, reaching out to these organizations, seeking their counsel, inviting comment, and thanking their leaders for research and technical assistance in writing the initial draft of the Recovery Act. California Congresswoman Hilda Solis, the primary sponsor of the 2007 Green Jobs Act, designed to train green-collar workers, was confirmed as Secretary of Labor. The president signed the Recovery bill in a Denver science museum that generated a portion of its energy from a rooftop solar installation.

Green For All Founder and Apollo Board Member Joins White House
The Obama administration’s focus on rebuilding the middle class with clean energy employment has been unwavering. On February 27, the first meeting of the White House Middle Class Task Force focused on the clean energy sector and developing green-collar jobs. And this week, the Obama administration announced that Van Jones, the founder and president of Green For All, a longtime Apollo board member, and one of the nation’s most prominent advocates for a green-collar economy, would take up a new White House post as special advisor to the president for green jobs, enterprise, and innovation. Green For All, it’s important to note, played a central role in developing the California Principles for a Green and Equitable Economic Recovery.

In a blog post last week, Jones described his new role this way: “My job will be to help shape the administration’s energy and climate policy, so that climate solutions produce jobs and justice for all Americans.”

In interviews, clean energy industry executives and local and state officials from around the country said they welcomed the statements of principles because they provided consistency in pursuit of investment and job generating goals. They added that the principles offered the opportunity for clear guidance in a process to distribute huge amounts of money that is fast-moving, confusing, and devilishly complicated. Much of the money for clean energy projects will be distributed on a competitive basis. Federal agencies are now writing guidelines and rules for applicants.

In Puget Sound and Pennsylvania,  A Good Reception For Principles
Across the country thousands of executives and local officials are preparing applications for Recovery Act funds. In interviews, several said they welcomed the statements of principle.

“Frankly, it’s a good idea. Principles like these could really help. I’m open to knowing more about this kind of core principles statement,” said Stephanie Meyn, the program manager of the Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition, a collaboration of local governments and private industry in the Seattle region. The Puget Sound Coalition is racing to meet a May deadline to apply for some of the $300 million that the Department of Energy will spend on developing alternative transportation systems. The Coalition hopes to obtain funding for new electric municipal vehicles and charging stations, as well as other alternative fueling infrastructure and vehicles.

“The funding announcement does put emphasis on creating domestic green work force jobs in the application process, but it doesn’t go into specific principles beyond that,” said Meyn. “The Department of Energy really wants to see reporting on the estimates of environmental benefits, economic benefits, and what kind of jobs will be created in any grant proposal related to the Recovery Act.”

In Pennsylvania, Tony Kimmel, the program manager for that state’s weatherization program, is anticipating receiving $250 million of the $5 billion that the Recovery Act appropriates in the next two years to make the homes of low income households more energy efficient. Pennsylvania currently spends roughly $40 million a year to weatherize homes. Kimmel said he expects to develop new training centers and put 1,000 people a year through them, triple the current class, in order to have enough auditors, workers, accountants, and specialists to oversee the state program. Private weatherization companies also are recruiting new employees in anticipation of the new funds. But Kimmel said he doesn’t know yet when the money will arrive.

“Everything is moving fast,” said Kimmel. “By the very nature of work, weatherizing homes in low income areas, we expect to be able to train and employ more workers in good jobs that might not have that opportunity. Training and employment will be a requirement with these funds. This is a major focus on the use of these funds.”

Executives at several clean energy companies in the private sector said they already adhere to principles of green-collar job creation, employment, and clean energy investment that are consistent with those developed by advocacy organizations. Perhaps the most striking example is Serious Materials.
Despite the worst economic downturn in almost 80 years, the Sunnyvale, California-based maker of ultra energy efficient windows and environmentally sensitive wallboard is on a buying and job green-collar job creation spree in the United States.

Getting Serious At Serious
In June 2008, as the American economy began to wobble on the shaky foundation of soaring energy prices and dropping home values, Serious Materials purchased Alpen Windows, a Boulder, Colorado manufacturer and market leader in high-performance, energy-efficient windows and glass.

In January, 2009, as economic fundamentals pitched downward, Serious bought Kensington Windows in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Kensington’s plant there had closed in October, putting 150 people out of work after Kensington’s parent declared bankruptcy.

Meanwhile Kevin Surace, chief executive officer of Serious Materials, was already quietly engaged in negotiations to purchase Republic Windows and Doors, a Chicago manufacturer. Republic had been in the news for two months because the company’s former owner had abruptly shut the plant and put its 260 skilled union workers out of their jobs. The workers, mostly Latino and members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110, responded by occupying the plant to protest the loss of vacation and severance benefits.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invests $34 billion over the next two years to significantly upgrade existing buildings and encourage new ones to be much stingier with energy.

“We see a big opportunity as a result of the Recovery bill,” said Sandra Vaughan, chief marketing officer for Serious Materials.  “We are very focused on the U.S. market. We are focused on building good green American jobs to serve that market.”

Serious Materials currently employs about 200 people at its headquarters and manufacturing plant in Sunnyvale, another in Newark, California, and at its two other manufacturing plants in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Vaughan says the number of employees, who earn wages comparable to the prevailing manufacturing wage in their regions, plus health and retirement benefits, is expected to steadily increase.

Since January, Serious Materials has installed new equipment to make super-insulating windows and commercial glass at its Vandergrift plant. This week Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was the honored guest at a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the plant’s formal reopening.  Vaughan said 25 workers have been rehired and more will return to the plant as sales pick up.

Late last month Serious CEO Surace completed the purchase of Republic Windows and Doors. He also committed to eventually hiring back all the workers and honoring the union contract, which pays an average of $14.11 an hour plus benefits.

The Serious purchase was celebrated by workers in and outside Chicago, and at the top levels of the Obama administration. In a statement, the White House said that reopening the Chicago window factory clearly reflected the administration’s own core principles for Recovery Act spending. “The reopening of this factory and the rehiring of these workers provide an excellent example of how the money in the Recovery Act is targeted to spur job creation quickly,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “These workers will not only earn a paycheck again; they will go back to work creating products that will benefit America’s long-term economic future.”

Keith Schneider, a journalist, editor, and online producer, is the director of communications at the Apollo Alliance. Reach him at keith@apolloalliance.org.