Apollo Economic Recovery Act

We are at an historic moment. We face daunting challenges to our economy, climate, and national security. Yet with a new President and Congress taking office in January, we have a tremendous opportunity to put America on the path to economic recovery while also moving us toward climate stability and energy security. Now is the time to turn big ideas into reality - to look forward to bold solutions, not backward at past mistakes.

In September the Apollo Alliance and its national coalition of labor, environmental, business, and community leaders released The New Apollo Program, a comprehensive clean energy, job-generating strategy to restore America’s economic strength. This 10-year, $500 billion investment plan aims to create 5 million good-paying, green-collar jobs and broadly shared prosperity while helping to solve the climate crisis, the energy crisis, and the economic crisis facing our nation. The New Apollo Program calls for a sweeping set of actions - from bold commitments to energy efficiency, to dramatic increases in renewable energy use, to a reinvigorated manufacturing base - that will put Americans back to work here at home. The New Apollo Program renews our nation’s historic commitment to innovation, research and development, science, and workforce training and education. And it proposes a cap and invest system that puts a price on carbon and generates the financial resources needed over time to transition America to a clean energy economy.

For More Information: Download the PDF News Release Data Points: Economic Recovery Act Outcomes For Clean Energy Job Creation and Investment Comparing Stimulus to Apollo Economic Recovery Act Clean Energy Foundation of Proposed Stimulus The New Apollo Program Signature Stories

The crises facing our country demand immediate action. The Apollo Economic Recovery Act is a first year down payment on building a clean energy, good jobs “made in America” economy as envisioned in The New Apollo Program. Just as important, it is an immediate shot in the arm to boost America’s economy. We need to take steps now to support American businesses and workers so that they can set their feet firmly on the path to the new clean energy economy.

Coupled with other stimulus measures being considered by the President-elect and Congress, the Apollo Economic Recovery Act will give a critical jolt to America’s economy by investing approximately $50 billion to immediately create or retain over 650,000 direct jobs, and an additional 1.3 million indirect jobs in communities across the country. The Apollo Economic Recovery Act also will provide training for at least 300,000 more Americans to participate in the clean energy economy through workforce development, apprenticeship, service and education programs.

Leaders across America - from labor union presidents to venture capitalists to environmental justice organizers - support the Apollo program for clean energy and good jobs. They have called for the federal government to embrace bold solutions that will lead to immediate results. They have urged the President-elect and Congress to move this country toward a brighter, greener, more prosperous future.

There is no time to lose. We must:

REBUILD AMERICA CLEAN AND GREEN

Our buildings, transportation network, and power grid are the backbone of this country. If they crumble, our economy crumbles. Immediate investment to rebuild our infrastructure to be greener and more efficient will create hundreds of thousands of jobs today, save billions of dollars in lost energy costs tomorrow, and reduce our carbon footprint over the long term.

We must:

• Green our cities and communities by investing $6 billion in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, money that immediately can be used by cities, counties, and states for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. One billion dollars of the block grants should be set aside to leverage private investment in programs focused on large-scale, multi-building retrofit projects that provide job opportunities in urban areas. A $6 billion investment in building energy efficiency would create an estimated 267,600 direct and indirect jobs in construction, manufacturing, and other sectors. Moreover, every $1 invested in energy efficiency puts an estimated $20 back into the economy through private investments and avoided costs.
• Fix the Production and Investment Tax Credits for the renewable energy industry by making them refundable through 2009 or by allowing credits to offset taxes paid over the previous ten years. These changes will allow renewable energy projects to go forward even during the current credit liquidity crisis. An estimated 116,000 existing jobs will be lost if the wind and solar industries are unable to use these credits.
• Fully fund the Weatherization Assistance Program at $900 million to provide immediate weatherization and lower energy bills for low-income households. This investment would create approximately 136,000 direct and indirect jobs in construction, installation, and other sectors and provide $3.3 billion in energy savings and other benefits to low-income communities.
• Invest $10 billion in upgrading the transmission grid to better connect consumers to renewable energy resources, improve reliability and efficiency, enhance emergency response, and reduce the system’s vulnerability to natural disaster and attack. Investing in grid upgrades would create over 130,000 direct and indirect jobs.
• Invest $1 billion in “smart grid” and “smart metering” demonstration projects to make the electric grid more efficient and reliable, and provide a way for consumers to understand the real-time costs of electricity and to better manage their own energy usage. This investment would create at least 13,000 direct and indirect jobs, and affect over 1 million homes and businesses.
• Invest $1 billion in carbon capture and storage demonstration projects on coal-fired power plants to move this critical technology to maturity so it can be deployed in existing coal plants. The Future Gen carbon capture and storage demonstration project is estimated to create a total of more than 3,000 jobs, including 1,300 immediate direct construction jobs, 510 jobs in operations, and 1,225 indirect jobs in manufacturing, transportation, and other sectors. Once the technology is commercialized it will provide thousands more workers with construction and manufacturing jobs as they retrofit power plants across America.
• Invest $6 billion in ready-to-go public transit projects across the country, including intra-city rail, regional rail systems run by Amtrak, and bicycle/pedestrian facilities that connect transit options. A $6 billion investment in ready-to-go transit projects would create more than 246,000 direct and indirect jobs.
• Invest $8 billion to fix the bridges and roads that are crumbling across America. A “fix it first” strategy promotes more efficient land use patterns by fixing existing infrastructure before investing in new highways. As such, it will encourage in-fill development - discouraging sprawl, reducing fuel consumption and emissions, and improving traffic flow. An $8 billion investment in fix-it-first projects would create over 278,000 direct and indirect jobs.

MAKE IT IN AMERICA

America’s manufacturing sector is central to our economic success. In difficult financial times we rely even more heavily on this country’s ability to make and export tangible goods. Manufacturing jobs tend to be unionized and provide a family-supporting income, and in many regions they have anchored America’s middle class. Manufacturing is at the heart of the clean energy economy, making up nearly 80 percent of all jobs in the solar and wind industries, for instance. Targeted investments in this sector can shore up existing firms and keep them from closing their doors by helping them retool to produce greener and more efficient products; they can also help these firms become more “energy smart” and productive.

We must:

• Provide $25 billion in loan guarantees (at a cost of approximately $4 billion) for retooling and retraining, so that firms can transition to producing products and component parts for the clean energy and energy efficiency sectors and for industrial efficiency upgrades such as combined heat and power systems. A $25 billion investment in clean energy manufacturing immediately would create or retain 125,000 direct manufacturing jobs and an additional 362,500 indirect jobs in supply chains, transportation, and services.
• Invest an additional $200 million in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) network, which provides critical regional support to manufacturing firms that are struggling to retool, to retrain workers, and to take advantage of new clean energy opportunities. The MEP has a proven record of helping manufacturing firms create and retain jobs. Investing an additional $200 million in this program would allow the Partnership to reach an additional 6,000 manufacturing plants and create or retain 30,000 manufacturing jobs.
• Provide $8 billion in incentives to cities and states to replace aging buses and rail cars with new American-made clean energy vehicles. An $8 billion investment in new clean energy transit vehicles would create or retain up to 188,000 jobs in vehicle manufacturing.

RESTORE AMERICA’S TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP

An economic stimulus package must immediately invest in our current infrastructure and industries. It also must provide incentives for private investment in new and emerging industries and into better solutions to our current technological challenges. Public investment begets private investment and provides critical investor confidence in uncertain financial times. In the past a doubling of federal investment in the medical and biotech fields in the 1990’s led to an 11-fold increase in private sector investment. The clean energy industry needs the same kind of boost.

We must:

• Provide an additional $2 billion in clean energy research and development funds to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), allowing the agency to better address the nation’s most urgent energy needs through research and the rapid development of cutting-edge, transformational technologies.
• Establish a National Energy Innovation Fund, initially funded at $1 billion, to commercialize the most promising clean energy projects and technologies currently emerging from our nation’s laboratories.

TAP THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

The opportunities for jobs in the clean energy economy are abundant. America’s workforce is up to the challenge of rolling up its sleeves and achieving the transition to a more sustainable future. To tap the immense potential of the workforce, we need to invest now in high-quality, green-collar job training programs that connect clean energy employers with the millions of unemployed and under-employed Americans who are at the mercy of the current economic crisis. Investing in our country’s green-collar workforce will get Americans to work while moving clean energy forward and providing the labor strength to get tomorrow’s projects off the ground as well. Our workforce is a vital part of our clean energy infrastructure.

We must:

• Invest $250 million in the Green Jobs Act for grants to national and state training programs (including community colleges and union apprenticeship programs) to prepare skilled workers for green-collar jobs. Some portion of these funds must be dedicated specifically to providing “pathways out of poverty” for low-income workers. These programs would train 70,000 workers in the first year.
• Provide additional investment of $300 million to the Service and Conservation Corps program to create a “Clean Energy Service Corps,” a civilian service program providing job readiness and a chance to give back to the country through projects focused on making low-income homes more energy efficient. With a $300 million startup investment, a total of 25,000 young adults and 200,000 seniors will be mobilized to serve their communities and gain experience in the clean energy economy.
• Invest $250 million to immediately provide 25,000 Clean Energy Tomorrow annual scholarships, at $10,000 each, to help students in these tough economic times pursue undergraduate degrees in science, math, or engineering. These scholarships will help give America the homegrown talent needed to build the new clean energy economy.

Conclusion

Unlike the nation’s first Apollo mission, the Apollo Economic Recovery Act isn’t rocket science. We can put millions of Americans to work right away by retrofitting the buildings in this country that consume nearly 70 percent of our electricity and are responsible for almost 40 percent of our carbon emissions; constructing public transit systems to connect our neighborhoods and cities; building a smart grid to recapture some of the $20 billion we lose each year to transmission inefficiency; and using the sun and the wind to generate clean electricity for our homes and businesses.

Our current economic crisis reminds us that financial engineering and manipulation are not substitutes for long-term investment and job creation. The time to change course is now.

Americans need jobs and relief from high energy costs. Our dependence on oil is putting our nation’s security at risk. Foreign competitors are moving to exploit the opportunities offered by clean energy. We can seize the opportunity to become the leader of a new global green economy. We’re Americans. Let’s do it.