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For 35 years, I pounded my body to the ground. Now, I feel like I’m doing something beneficial for mankind and the United States. We’ve got to get used to depending on ourselves instead of something else, and wind is free. The wind is blowing out there for anybody to use.
—

Arie Versendaal of Newton, Iowa.  For decades, he worked in a Maytag factory, but the plant closed last year, “taking 1,800 jobs out of [a] town of 16,000 people.”

Today, he has a new job in a manufacturing plant across the road from the old Maytag factory.  He’s making blades for windmill turbines and he’s helping to build the new green economy.

“A Splash of Green for the Rust Belt” tells similar tales across the country.  Peter Goodman writes:

No one believes that renewable energy can fully replace what has been lost on the American factory floor, where people with no college education have traditionally been able to finance middle-class lives.Many at Maytag earned $20 an hour in addition to health benefits. Mr. Versendaal now earns about $13 an hour.

Still, it’s a beginning in a sector of the economy that has been marked by wrenching endings, potentially a second chance for factory workers accustomed to layoffs and diminished aspirations.

November 9, 2008

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link Obama's Apollo mission

Obama said last week that his top priority as president is to launch an Apollo-style national project to build a new, clean-energy economy.

Consumer spending drove the economy over the past two decades, fueled on easy credit (and actual fuel, straight down the gullets of our gas-guzzling cars).  But that model has shown its inherent, untenable flaws, and Obama has promised to replace it with what Joe Klein of Time called “a new economic turbocharger.”

“There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy,” Obama said.  “That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office.”

Central to his effort is his plan to create 5 million green jobs.

It’s morning in America.

November 6, 2008

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text

A change is gonna come to the U.S. Department of Labor

I woke up this morning with the strangest thought.

I want to work for the Department of Labor.

Obama’s landslide indicates that, despite what right-wing ideologues tell us, most Americans want “big government” — so long as it is for the people and by the people.

Under President Obama’s guidance, government agencies can improve the lives of American people.  That is one of the most fundamental tenants of democracy, and yet it has been eight years since the American government has done anything but tax Americans for an evil war, spy on its people, and deny global warming.

And speaking of global warming: improbable as it may seem, I believe the Department of Labor will have at least one-third of the responsibility of drastically cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the existential threat of climate change.  (The EPA, federally-funded research and development, and the legislative branch — working proactively to cap emissions and create incentives for renewable resources — will also have major parts to play.)

The Department of Labor does not yet have a Green Jobs division.

But it shall.  And I hope to be a part of it.

November 5, 2008

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quote
[The] economic crisis is the perfect time to make the investments that are necessary to transform our energy infrastructure.[…] We need to create employment opportunities, and the shouldn’t just be ‘make work’ jobs. Let’s build what we need to build: renewable, clean energy infrastructure. That puts money in the pockets of people who will then help to get the economy moving in the right direction again — and not just based on senseless consumption but on sustainable economic progress.
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Al Gore

I run an internship program at CUNY, placing students in positions working to make NYC real estate more energy efficient.  I’ve been pitching a version of Gore’s argument to potential employers, who are understandably hesitant to hire anyone right now.  But now is the best time to invest in relatively inexpensive measures, like hiring an intern or retrofitting your buildings for better system performance, because they will put the companies ahead when the economy rebounds.  Plus, why pay more for energy than you have to?

October 30, 2008

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link Sign the petition: Jobs, baby, jobs!

You know how I feel about green jobs (a green collar economy can put America’s working and middle classes to work and help to wean the nation from dirty oil and coal). And you know I feel about increased off-shore drilling (it’s “like stopping at the crack house on the way to the rehab center”). So if you’re with me on this, please sign Apollo Alliance’s petition:

We demand that you help end America’s oil dependence. We demand investments in clean energy and green-collar jobs to jumpstart our economy.

We’ve had enough of sky-high energy bills, gas prices, and unemployment rates.

We demand… Jobs, Baby, Jobs!

October 27, 2008

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photo Van Jones’ book is out today. I’ve written about him here and here. Al Gore said: This book illustrates the link between the struggle to restore the environment and the need to revive the US economy. Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.

Van Jones’ book is out today. I’ve written about him here and here.

Al Gore said:

This book illustrates the link between the struggle to restore the environment and the need to revive the US economy. Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.

October 7, 2008

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photo The Green Jobs Now National Day of Action at the City University of New York Green jobs are an easy sell.  “They’re good for the planet and good for people,” I told nearly 100 students at two CUNY campuses, Baruch College and Bronx Community College (BCC), on Thursday and Friday.  Developing a green workforce is about taking the steps we need to mitigate the effects of global warming while creating and “up-skilling” jobs that can support working and middle class families. “People don’t have the same options these days,” I told many of the students, “My grandpa was a mechanic and he raised eight kids. They went to college. That’s not possible now.”  Teenagers and young twenty-somethings looked me right in the eye and nodded with recognition.  I found that humbling and inspiring, how readily they understood what is missing in America’s economy. With strategic collaboration between labor, workforce and community development organizations, coupled with long-term support from local, state, and federal government, we can put hundreds of thousands of people to work in the emerging sustainable economy. Worldwide, the UN predicted that 12 millions jobs will be created by 2030. Today, the Green Jobs Now campaign rallied 100,000 people at more than 660 events in all fifty states. If you haven’t already done so, sign the petition to law-makers to ask them to make good on the promise they made when they passed the Green Jobs Act in 2007. If you want to learn more… Read about the CUNY Building Performance Lab’s Intern Energy Project, which places students on projects helping to make New York City’s existing buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable. Green For All has created a green jobs clearinghouse. Check out an earlier 2050ad.org post about green jobs in New York state, and another post on a coalition that I’m a part of that is working on policy recommendations for New York City’s next administration. The photo mosaic at the top is of BCC students and staff (photo set here); the mosaic below is from Baruch (photo set here).

The Green Jobs Now National Day of Action at the City University of New York

Green jobs are an easy sell.  “They’re good for the planet and good for people,” I told nearly 100 students at two CUNY campuses, Baruch College and Bronx Community College (BCC), on Thursday and Friday.  Developing a green workforce is about taking the steps we need to mitigate the effects of global warming while creating and “up-skilling” jobs that can support working and middle class families.

“People don’t have the same options these days,” I told many of the students, “My grandpa was a mechanic and he raised eight kids. They went to college. That’s not possible now.”  Teenagers and young twenty-somethings looked me right in the eye and nodded with recognition.  I found that humbling and inspiring, how readily they understood what is missing in America’s economy.

With strategic collaboration between labor, workforce and community development organizations, coupled with long-term support from local, state, and federal government, we can put hundreds of thousands of people to work in the emerging sustainable economy. Worldwide, the UN predicted that 12 millions jobs will be created by 2030.

Today, the Green Jobs Now campaign rallied 100,000 people at more than 660 events in all fifty states. If you haven’t already done so, sign the petition to law-makers to ask them to make good on the promise they made when they passed the Green Jobs Act in 2007.

If you want to learn more…

The photo mosaic at the top is of BCC students and staff (photo set here); the mosaic below is from Baruch (photo set here).

September 28, 2008

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photo More than 100,000 people rallied today at more than 660 events in all 50 states for Green Jobs Now. I spoke to students at two CUNY campuses on Thursday and Friday — here I am at Bronx Community College.  More photos from both events to come. For now: please sign the petition that says to law-makers that Americans are ready for green jobs, jobs that are good for the planet and for people.

More than 100,000 people rallied today at more than 660 events in all 50 states for Green Jobs Now.

I spoke to students at two CUNY campuses on Thursday and Friday — here I am at Bronx Community College.  More photos from both events to come.

For now: please sign the petition that says to law-makers that Americans are ready for green jobs, jobs that are good for the planet and for people.

September 27, 2008

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quote
Getting to 350 means changing everything about our global economy. It means providing clean-energy jobs to rewire every corner of the world and catalyzing a global transformation built on principles of equity and opportunity.
—

Van Jones, civil rights and environmental activist, and founder of Green For All, a national organization “dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”

We’re working on these issues on a much smaller scale at the Building Performance Lab, and we’ve followed Jones’ work.  I’ve got a lot of admiration for him.

August 19, 2008

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