Posted by:
Steve Dubb
House bill proposes $22.5 million
Last December, the Green Jobs Act and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program were approved as part of federal energy legislation. The Green Jobs Act, authorized at $125 million, is an initial pilot program designed to identify needed skills, develop training programs, and to train workers for jobs in a range of renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. It targets a broad range of populations for eligibility, but focuses 20 percent of its funds on “green pathways out of poverty"—that is, programs that target individuals from households who earn 200 percent of the poverty line income or less. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, authorized at $2 billion a year, is a grant program for local governments that is modeled on the Community Development Block Grant program. The Energy Block Grants are designed to assist cities to finance building retrofits and related measures to save energy and combat global warming. Both programs have the potential to spawn the development of thousands of green-collar jobs in the process.
However, as Van Jones, Founder and President of the nonprofit group Green For All and a leader in the effort to create green collar jobs noted in a recent public letter, the 2007 Energy Act’s provisions “will mean very little if the programs do not receive funding in the 2009 Appropriations Bill.”
It is highly unlikely that the Green Jobs bill will get funded at $125 million as authorized, but a major step forward to at least get the program some funding did occur when Rep. David Obey (D-WI), Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies proposed $22.5 million for Fiscal Year 2009 in the “mark-up” of the appropriations bill. For more information, see this Green for All campaign site.
Estimates of job growth stemming from “green jobs” remain difficult to come by. But the green economy actually means two things in relationship to the job market: new green jobs for some and increased job security for those with job skills that are in increasing demand as a result of the push for energy efficiency. A June 2008 report from the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst written by Center Co-Director Robert Pollin and Assistant Research Professor Jeannette Wicks-Lim provides a snapshot of the kinds of jobs are needed to build a green economy in the United States. They focus on six key strategies—building retrofitting, mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power, and cellulosic biomass fuels—and identify 45 occupations whose skills are required for these six strategies. All told, 14.3 million Americans, or roughly 9 percent of the labor force, work in these sectors. As the report authors write:
“[N]ew job activities will certainly be created in building the green economy and implementing global warming solutions, such as installing solar panels and researching new ways to build efficient biofuel engines. But the vast majority of green jobs are in the same areas of employment that people already work in today, in every region and state of the country. For example, constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting relies, among others, on roofers, insulators and building inspectors. Expanding mass transit systems employs civil engineers, electricians, and dispatchers. So green jobs don’t just mean new jobs—they can also mean greater job security for people who already work in these fields.”
The Amherst report is produced in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Later this summer, the authors intend to release a more detailed study on green investments, sponsored by the Center for American Progress.