State of the Union? We Need Jobs and the Clean Energy Policies That Will Create Them

By Andrea Buffa Apollo News Service

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.

via State of the Union? We Need Jobs and the Clean Energy Policies That Will Create Them. : Apollo Alliance.