Green Jobs Programs work across the country, Why not Ohio?

[irishbobcat]

Green Job Programs work across the country, Why not Ohio?

October 1, 2008

As Green Party Candidate for Congress in the 6th district, I have read reports of Green Job programs springing up all over the country. Why not Ohio? Why not the 6th District?
Is it because Charlie Wilson is told what to do by the coal lobbyists?

What is the rest of America doing?

Last year another group founded by Jones, the Oakland Apollo Alliance, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, secured $250,000 from the city of Oakland for a program that trains youth in jobs including installing solar panels and weatherizing buildings.
Los Angeles established a Green Career Ladder Training Program to link low-income people with jobs from green investment by the city.
In Milwaukee, a private program known as Milwaukee Energy Efficiency, or Me2, aims to funnel up to $500 million of private capital into residential and commercial building retrofits. The funds will be paid back over 10 years in energy savings, split between lenders and program participants (i.e., building owners).
In Chicago, a Greencorps program trains participants, including ex-offenders, in four tracks: landscaping and urban gardening, computer refurbishing and recycling, household hazardous waste handling and home weatherization. The city has promised to hire 5,000 to 10,000 people in positions constructing, designing and auditing green buildings. And with two megawatts of solar power generation, city officials say they have the most municipal solar power outside the Southwest. With "green-washing" rampant among corporations and politicians in this day and age, it is worth reserving some skepticism until these programs actually show significant results.
At this point most of the green jobs training programs are still in the early stages, and it remains to be seen to what extent permanent jobs are created and how much savings are actually generated and how those savings are used. Some skeptics say such programs and promises, especially without revised building codes or binding local ordinances to back them up, are a low-cost way for cities to bolster their green credentials while much more challenging environmental issues are slow to be addressed.
That's where federal policy comes in.
"There are a lot of reasons green jobs will continue to grow," said Hays, noting that private investment in the green sector is "vertical" -- escalating rapidly. "However, the growth probably won't happen fast enough on its own to save us from baking the planet -- so we need a smart carbon reduction policy."
Green For All and other advocates are pushing for a "cap, collect and invest" strategy.
"That would not only create a market for clean energy technology, it could also create a huge revenue stream that could finance and support the growth of these things," said Hays. "You make polluters pay for the right to emit under the cap, and take that money and invest it into supporting both the technology and enterprises as well as training programs."
Meanwhile, one of the silver linings to sky-high fuel prices is that they do create a free market incentive for renewable and alternative energy sources and hence a green job market. For example Flint, Mich., is among several U.S. cities following Sweden's example in fueling vehicles with clean-burning biogas. With gas prices more than double those in the United States, Sweden has pioneered technology to make biogas from decomposing household waste, slaughtered cow carcasses and even human sewage. A project under way in Flint, funded by the company Swedish Biogas, will use biogas from waste from the city's municipal wastewater treatment agency to fuel city buses and other vehicles.
"The Swedish technique has been advanced because we have been forced to come up with alternative sources," said Stig Berglind, press counselor at the Swedish Embassy. "In Flint, they're trying to find alternative energy sources, which could take care of some of the thousands of jobs lost in the auto economy. You get away from foreign energy dependence, you can produce energy with your own waste -- isn't that a marvelous thing!"
ELECT!!!!
DENNIS SPISAK FOR CONGRESS
Green Party Candidate for Ohio's 6th District
The ONLY PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE
Running against a Conservative Democrat and Republican!

Renewable Energy Green/Blue Collars Jobs
Single-Payer Affordable Healthcare
Solar Power/Wind Power/Geothermal Energy

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