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.

Green Affordable Housing in Indian Country

Green Affordable Housing in Indian Country is a “hands-on” green-construction training program involving Native American tribes in the upper Midwest, architects and landscape architects, builders and contractors, and students and faculty from the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The project is oriented toward community development on Indian reservations through technology transfer and job skills training in sustainable housing construction techniques based on natural systems, organic materials, local labor, and energy efficiency. Read more

DOL Announces Green Jobs Training Grants to Create Pathways Out of Poverty

Following on the heels of its announcement last week of $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants, the Department of Labor announced another set of green jobs training grants this week: the Pathways Out of Poverty Grants. These grants are especially meaningful to the Apollo Alliance, as they represent the fruition of years of work by Apollo on the Green Jobs Act, which was passed as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and authorized $125 million per year in funding to train workers for jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy. It also represents our more recent work on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which finally provided the funding for the green jobs training programs authorized by the Green Jobs Act.

The Pathways Out of Poverty Grants were awarded primarily to organizations serving communities with poverty rates of 15 percent or higher. The $150 million in grant funding will go toward programs that not only train workers in the skills they need for jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy, but also provide trainees with basic literacy and job readiness skills. Many of the programs will also provide support services like assistance with childcare and transportation.

Trainees served by the programs come from populations that face a variety of barriers to employment—high-school drop outs, ex-offenders, veterans, people with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities, among others. If the programs succeed, they will ensure that our growing green economy “lifts all boats” and “connects the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done,” as Van Jones, former Apollo board member and founder of Green For All, who was instrumental in the passage of the Green Jobs Act, testified before Congress last year.

Among the 38 programs that will receive Pathways Out of Poverty grants are many the Apollo Alliance is familiar with. Goodwill Industries International will employ a four-phased model in its training program, designed to move job seekers from an intensive individual assessment through a job placement in energy efficient building construction or renewable energy in six cities: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Grand Rapids, Phoenix and Washington, DC. Jobs for the Future Inc. will partner with the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute to ramp up pathways for unemployed and disadvantaged individuals in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Philadelphia to move into green industries like energy-efficient building, construction and retrofitting. The National Council of La Raza will provide linguistically and culturally competent training in energy efficiency and clean energy for individuals with limited English proficiency in San Jose, San Diego and Chicago.

Many other deserving programs will receive Pathways Out of Poverty grants. For a full list, visit the Department of Labor website.

White House Also Announces Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit Awards

Meanwhile, at the end of last week, the Obama administration announced the beneficiaries of an ARRA reward that could create some of the jobs that Pathways Out of Poverty trainees might eventually attain. The clean energy manufacturing tax credit will benefit 183 manufacturing facilities in 43 states, by providing them with a 30 percent tax credit for investments in facilities that produce renewable energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, advanced batteries and other clean energy products. The administration estimates that the $2.3 billion in tax credits will provide much-needed support to the domestic clean energy manufacturing sector and generate more than 17,000 jobs.

In December, the Obama administration proposed expanding the clean energy manufacturing tax credit by $5 billion because the program was oversubscribed by a ratio of 3-1, which meant many qualified manufacturing facilities that applied for the tax credits were not approved.

 “The Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program, which supports the building and equipping of factories to make the products of the green economy, has been wildly successful since its inception,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance.

You can read the press release about the companies that will be awarded the tax credit on the White House website. Visit ApolloAlliance.org to read our statement on the proposal to expand the tax credit.

In other news …

*Center for American Progress says there’s good news about U.S. clean energy policy. This week, the Center for American Progress released an evaluation of the Obama administration’s progress on clean energy issues over the last year. The report, A Breath of Fresh Air: Obama Seizes the Energy Opportunity, says that despite setbacks like the failure of the Senate to vote on a clean energy and climate bill in 2009, the President and Congress made significant progress last year in the transition to a clean energy economy. They list the limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles; the announcement that the EPA will regulate greenhouse gases; the inclusion of $100 billion in the Recovery Act for clean energy programs; and several other achievements that will have real-world impact. To read the report, go to the Center for American Progress website.

*Coming Soon: Clean Energy Week. Led by ACORE (the American Council on Renewable Energy), some 40 national organizations (including the Apollo Alliance) are organizing a week of action from Feb. 1–5, 2010, to encourage enactment of federal clean energy and climate measures. Clean Energy Week will consist of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, receptions, workshops, press conferences, rallies and outreach activities on Capitol Hill and across Washington, DC, sponsored individually by the participating organizations. To find out how you can participate, visit CleanEnergyWeek.org.

How You Can Find a Green-Collar Job

Though much of Apollo’s work is focused on systemic changes in clean energy and green-collar job policy and practices, our work also is particularly useful to people who don’t have a job or are looking for a new one. The following green-collar job information resources should help.

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San Diego Creates Green Pathways Out of Poverty

During a campaign speech last year, President Obama made a promise that the United States would weatherize at least 1 million low-income homes each year for the next decade. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act took the first steps toward making that promise a reality by including $5 billion to expand the Weatherization Assistance Program, a move that has the potential to create over 78,000 jobs in the construction industry each year, according to the Department of Energy, and generate huge demand for workers with specific technical knowledge of energy efficiency. Read more

Apollo Alliance Unveils Five-Point Plan to Boost Clean Energy Job Growth by More Than 1.2 Million

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2009
CONTACTS: Sam Haswell: (415) 371-1700 x201

Proposal Emphasizes Short-term Job Creation, Reducing Dependence on Foreign Oil

SAN FRANCISCO - The Apollo Alliance released a clean energy investment plan today that will create up to 1.2 million domestic jobs while increasing U.S. energy security and climate stability. The release of Apollo’s 5-point plan coincides with today’s urgent White House jobs summit and amid intensified talk by Congressional leaders of an emergency jobs bill.

“America is facing twin crises of economic instability and a global clean energy race that is quickly leaving us behind,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance. “By making targeted investments in our transportation infrastructure, energy efficiency and renewables, and domestic clean energy manufacturing, we will create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and help restore America’s leadership in the global clean energy marketplace.”

Apollo’s job creation recommendations - for inclusion in a larger Congressional and administration plan to spur economic recovery and create jobs - include:

1. Creating 255,000 jobs by driving short-term investment in efficiency and renewables in ways that will leverage private capital in the long term.
2. Creating 278,000 jobs by laying the groundwork for a 21^st century transportation system.
3. Creating 700,000 manufacturing jobs (and an additional 1.9 million indirect jobs in related industries) by supporting American manufacturers in retooling and expanding their operations, and positioning domestic clean energy manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace.
4. Creating a large-scale financing mechanism that drives investment and creates jobs researching, developing, and manufacturing the technologies and products of the clean energy economy.
5. Creating 31,000 jobs by putting Americans back to work serving their communities and preparing a workforce to build the clean energy economy.

The plan calls for investments of approximately $60 billion in the program outlined above.

“While we must take immediate action to create jobs, these actions must be combined with comprehensive energy and climate policies that encourage public and private investment in the clean tech sector,” said Angelides.

In October 2008, Apollo released the New Apollo Program, a comprehensive strategy for generating broad economic prosperity, energy security and climate stability. Earlier this year, Congress invested more than $100 billion in renewable energy development, transportation projects, energy efficiency and weatherization, technological research, and workforce training as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This down payment on the transition to a clean energy economy has already resulted in the retention or creation of more than 640,000 jobs, according to the federal government’s Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.

The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of unlikely and diverse interests - including labor, business, environmental, and community leaders - advancing a bold vision for the next American economy centered on clean energy and good jobs.

Apollo Unveils Clean Energy Job Growth Plan to Coincide with White House Jobs Summit

This Thursday, the White House sponsored a Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth to generate ideas from CEOs, small business owners, labor leaders, nonprofit directors and others about how to grow the economy and put Americans back to work. The Forum included break-out groups on rebuilding America’s infrastructure, small business growth policies, and green jobs, among others.

To coincide with the White House Jobs Summit, the Apollo Alliance unveiled a new plan to boost clean energy job growth by more than 1.2 million jobs. Apollo believes as the country acts to address the high unemployment rate that is causing suffering for so many American families, we must simultaneously act to stabilize the climate and re-establish the U.S. as a leader in the global clean energy marketplace.

Apollo’s proposal would create 1.2 million domestic jobs in the short and long term while moving us toward a future that ensures climate stability, energy security, and broadly shared economic prosperity. “While we must take immediate action to create jobs, these actions must be combined with comprehensive energy and climate policies that encourage public and private investment in the clean technology sector,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance.

Apollo’s job creation recommendations – for inclusion in a larger Congressional and administration plan to spur economic recovery and create jobs – include:
 
1.     Creating 255,000 jobs by driving short-term investment in efficiency and renewables in ways that will leverage private capital in the long term. Apollo’s proposals include expanding and improving innovative retrofit and conservation programs at the state and local level by amending the Qualified Energy Conservation Bond (QECB) program; and leveraging private funding to expand large-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy system installation through the creation of a federal financing authority.

2.     Creating 278,000 jobs by laying the groundwork for a 21st century transportation system. Apollo proposes that we rebuild our nation’s infrastructure by prioritizing transportation investments that rehabilitate existing infrastructure and repair our roads and bridges, intercity rail, public transit, and bicycle and pedestrian pathways; support public transit operations to retain jobs and keep workers connected with their jobs; and expand the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) programs that were authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

3.     Creating 700,000 manufacturing jobs (and an additional 1.9 million indirect jobs in related industries) by supporting American manufacturers in retooling and expanding their operations, and positioning domestic clean energy manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace. Apollo proposes the expansion of technical assistance to our nation’s manufacturers by providing $50 million in short-term support for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program; and the creation of a two-year, $30 billion revolving loan fund to help small and medium-sized manufacturers retool to produce clean energy components and parts and become more energy efficient, as proposed in U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Investments in Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technologies (IMPACT) Act.

4.     Creating a large-scale financing mechanism that drives investment and creates jobs researching, developing, and manufacturing the technologies and products of the clean energy economy. Apollo recommends the establishment of the Clean Energy Deployment Authority (CEDA), which would fund a wide variety of clean energy technologies, leading to long-term job creation.

5.     Creating 31,000 jobs by putting Americans back to work serving their communities and preparing a workforce to build the clean energy economy. Apollo proposes the full funding of the America Serves Act, which will expand support for national service programs such as AmeriCorps, VISTA, YouthBuild, and the youth service and conservation corps.

Visit our website to read Apollo Alliance’s full 5-Point Plan for Boosting Clean Energy Job Growth. We also recommend that you look at the job creation proposals of several other organizations, including the Center for American Progress’ Meeting the Jobs Challenge: How to Avoid Another Jobless—or Job-Loss—Economic Recovery and the Economic Policy Institute’s American Jobs Plan.

Meanwhile, in California, the California Labor Federation sponsored a jobs summit in Sacramento the day before the White House Jobs Summit. Click here to read an article about the Sacramento event.

In Other News …

*Countdown to Copenhagen. The international climate talks in Copenhagen begin next week.  Several Apollo Alliance board members, including Apollo President Jerome Ringo, plan to be there, discussing our clean energy, good jobs vision with delegates and observers alike. Many websites will be covering the Copenhagen talks. Check out Grist’s Copenhagen Central and the Green section of the Huffington Post. We also hope to have updates from Copenhagen on the Apollo Alliance blog.

*Make an end-of-the-year donation to the Apollo Alliance! Help the Apollo Alliance seal the deal on America’s clean energy and climate policies in 2010. The House of Representatives has already passed the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, but now the Senate needs to step up and pass its version of a new, national energy policy. Donate to the Apollo Alliance today to help us make 2010 the year of clean energy and good jobs!

Veterans Have a New Mission: Making America More Secure Through Conservation Service and Energy Efficiency

Veterans who once crawled around attics and other claustrophobic spaces in homes in Iraq and Afghanistan, searching for hidden weapons and suspected terrorists, are now crawling through homes in the United States to track down air leaks and missing insulation. They are part of a new wave of veterans who are turning the skills and determination they developed in the military to a new mission: that of reducing Americans’ energy use and carbon emissions. Read more

Green Jobs Resources

Though much of Apollo’s work is focused on systemic changes in clean energy and green-collar job policy and practices, our work also is particularly useful to people who don’t have a job or are looking for a new one. The following green-collar job information resources should help.

Recovery Act Information Center
First is our own Recovery Act Information Center, which provides up to date information on how and where federal investments in clean energy and green-collar job training from the $787 billion stimulus bill is and will be spent. The important section for job seekers is Federal Guidance and Implementation Resources, which provides a state-by-state breakdown of clean energy investment. Other features in that section provide guidance on how cities are using Recovery Act dollars for clean energy programs and projects. Much of the Recovery Act spending will be decided by and funded through states and municipalities. The jobs developed with Recovery Act clean energy investments are and will generally be associated with existing state and local clean energy programs, and with contractors and private companies executing the energy efficiency upgrades, transit modernization, fix-it-first road and bridge construction, and the jobs to support these and other activities. You should also note that local one-stop career centers also are a good resource for find jobs generated by the Recovery Act.

Green Jobs Boards

A host of online job board resources are available for green-collar job seekers. They include the Green-Collar Blog, which hosts a jobs board with a strong list of online sites to locate and apply for jobs. Other green-collar job seeking resources include Green Dream Jobs, GreenBiz.com, EcoJobs, and EnvironmentalCareer.com., Sustain Lane’s Green-Collar Jobs Board, CareerBuilder and Renewable Energy Jobs. The solar energy industry association has a jobs board. The University of Michigan has job directory and a Directory of Green Job Training Programs that is searchable by state.

Take a look at our own Apollo Alliance jobs page for opportunities, and the jobs pages of other non-profits, community groups, businesses, and government organizations working in the clean energy space.

Volunteer Service
Opportunities are available to volunteer for a clean energy program or project through Americorps, Senior Corps, the Clean Energy Service Corps or other such program.

Online Clean Energy Information
There are dozens and dozens of online sites that cover the clean energy business and industrial sector from every conceivable perspective. Greener Design, for instance, offers news on businesses incorporating clean energy and efficiency to create sustainable products and practices and is one of the truly useful such sites. The American Wind Energy Association site is here. The Investor Network on Climate Risk, a project of CERES, is here. Businesses for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy, another CERES project, has good stuff. The Iowa Energy Office site is a good example of how states are promoting clean energy investment, a valuable way to understand where job development will occur. So is the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. The Environmental Defense Fund maps green companies across the country.

Green-Collar Job Research and Reports
The Apollo Alliance defines a green-collar job as well paid, career track jobs that contribute directly to preserving or enhancing environmental quality. Like traditional blue-collar jobs, green-collar jobs range from low-skill, entry-level positions to high-skill, higher-paid jobs, and include opportunities for advancement in both skills and wages. The Green-Collar Jobs section of our Green Room provides research, reports, and articles about the range of green-collar opportunities and where they are occurring. Last year, the Apollo Alliance published a report on the development of Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities. We published Greener Pathways to detail economic and workforce development opportunities in the energy efficiency, wind, and biofuels sectors. Two years ago Apollo published Community Jobs in the Green Economy that, among other things, outlines a range of green industries that exist in the U.S., and the types and number of jobs associated with each.

The Environmental Defense Fund, one of our Apollo Alliance supporters, published a useful guide to green-collar careers and how and where they will unfold in the coming years. Jim Cassio published a Green Careers Resource Guide. TriplePundit.com posted a map of green companies.  And our own Signature Stories page provides a national snapshot of the companies and existing jobs in the clean energy sector. Each story includes a ‘For More Information’ sidebar with email, telephone, and other contact details.

Green for All has a resource page for green-collar jobs.

Your Knowledge
You also can help. Tell us what you know in the comment section below. The Apollo Alliance Web site reaches tens of thousands of online visitors.

Can An Electric Whirr Secure the Auto Industry’s Future?

DETROIT - The old sound of Detroit’s automakers was an octane-stoked Vroom! The sound of Detroit’s future, say top auto industry executives, is an electric whirr. General Motors plans to introduce its breakthrough Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in November 2010.

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