Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan – Green MAP
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| Samuel Allen repairs a cold solder on a solar panel at the Sharp Solar plant in Memphis, Tennessee.Photo courtesy of Sharp Solar. |
Green Manufacturing Action Plan (MAP) work: growing clean energy jobs in America.
Since 2008, first under the Apollo Alliance and continuing today as a project of the BlueGreen Alliance, we have been working to grow clean energy manufacturing jobs in America.
More work remains to be done as governments around the world are putting in place 21st century policy frameworks to capture these jobs to be created in the transition to a cleaner economy. Despite the setbacks, it is notable that the Brookings Institutions’ Sizing the Clean Economy report has found that 26% of green jobs are in manufacturing as compared to 9% of the economy as a whole.
The original Green MAP
In April 2009, Apollo released Make it in America: The Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan and received resounding endorsement from a broad coalition of labor, business, environment, economic development and community organizations. Subsequently, Senator Brown introduced the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009, which includes several of Apollo’s key GreenMAP recommendations. IMPACT would have authorized $30 billion in funding to create and capitalize state-level revolving loan funds to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers retrain workers and retool facilities, including energy savings upgrades, for clean energy production. It would also expand funding for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership to help manufacturers enter clean energy supply chains. The IMPACT Act was included in the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act that the U.S. House of Representatives passed in June 2009, but the Senate failed to pass the bill. The IMACT Act is likely to be reintroduced again in the future.
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For More Information Chris Busch
Make It In America: GreenMAP Executive Summary
Make It In America: GreenMAP Report Michigan Green Manufacturing Action Plan Executive Summary Michigan Green Manufacturing Action Plan Report Endorse the Michigan Green Manufacturing Action Plan Green Manufacturing Action Plan Contributors Apollo Letter to Senate Leadership (6/8/09) Apollo Letter to Congressional Leadership (4/17/09) Apollo Letter to Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi Other resources: Energizing Prosperity: Renewable Energy and Re-industrialization - REPP Wind Turbine Development: Location of Manufacturing Activity – REPP Solar PV Development: Location of Manufacturing Activity - REPP Domestic Manufacturing by State: Michigan – REPP More state case studies: www.repp.org Manufacturing Climate Solutions – Duke University/EDF study State and Local Best Practices: |
In the fall of 2008, the Apollo Alliance brought together representatives from academia, industry, labor, and environmental groups to develop strategies for rebuilding domestic manufacturing for the growing clean energy economy. This group, which includes the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, the American Wind Energy Association, the Solar Energy Industries Association, Environmental Defense Fund, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing, the International Economic Development Council, Johnson Controls, Inc., General Motors, the Renewable Energy Policy Project, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, and the Campaign for America’s Future, among others, developed a set of federal policy recommendations to spur domestic green manufacturing:
- Provide direct federal funding for clean energy manufacturers to retool their facilities and retrain their workers to develop, produce, and commercialize clean energy technologies.
- Attach standards to funding: condition federal support to manufacturers on their ability to meet labor and domestic content standards.
- Increase funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, both to expand its role in strengthening the clean energy supply chain and to establish partnerships with regional/local development and manufacturing support organizations.
- Increase funding for the Green Jobs Act and direct funds administered under the Act toward workforce and skill standards development for the clean energy manufacturing industries.
- Create a “Presidential Task Force on Clean Energy Manufacturing” to bring together a range of federal agencies to make the manufacturing of clean energy systems and components a national priority.
State-level Green MAP work
In 2011, Apollo turned our attention to state level Green MAP work, again with the objective of helping to get in place the policy framework needed to help grow clean energy jobs.
In the spring of 2011, Apollo began worked with our network of state and local affiliates to convene diverse task forces in Michigan, Ohio and California to develop policy recommendations. These task forces include manufacturers, labor organizations and environmental and community groups, as well as economists, economic development experts and policymakers.
To guide the development of the recommendations, Apollo conducted research on current policies, incentives, manufacturing trends, and improvements that are needed to strengthen the clean energy manufacturing sectors in each of the three states. In addition, Apollo conducted research on existing federal clean energy manufacturing incentives to identify areas of opportunity to leverage state policies.
The work has continued as a signature effort BlueGreen Alliance’s Apollo Project without missing a beat after the merger of the BlueGreen and Apollo Alliances.
