2009 the year of Green Jobs
Posted on January 5th, 2009 by Bruce
2009 the year of Green Jobs
From the LA Times Jan 5/2009
President-elect Barack Obama wants to spend $150 billion over the next decade to promote energy from the sun, wind and other renewable sources as well as energy conservation. Plans include raising vehicle fuel-economy standards and subsidizing consumer purchases of plug-in hybrids. Obama wants to weatherize 1 million homes annually and upgrade the nation’s creaky electrical grid. His team has talked of providing tax credits and loan guarantees to clean-energy companies.
His goals: create 5 million new jobs repowering America over 10 years; assert U.S. leadership on global climate change; and wean the U.S. from its dependence on imported petroleum.
Renewable-energy proponents such as former California Treasurer Phil Angelides say stupidity would be to stick with current U.S. energy policy, which has turbocharged global warming, super-sized the trade deficit and propped up oil-rich regimes hostile to American interests.
Angelides heads the Apollo Alliance, a coalition promoting clean industries as a means of rebuilding U.S. manufacturing and lessening the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
“It’s the best path to recovery and the best chance of creating jobs that can’t be outsourced,” he said.
Although Angelides’ organization takes its name from the space program that put Americans on the moon, creating green jobs isn’t rocket science, said Oakland activist Van Jones, author of “The Green Collar Economy.”
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