Efficiency Help Wanted

[irishbobcat]

Efficiency Help Wanted
New York Times
Efficiency Help Wanted By Kate Galbraith Energy efficiency is a top
priority for President-elect Barack Obama. Yesterday he called
for "modernizing" over 75 percent of federal buildings, and
increasing the energy efficiency of two million homes. It is easy to
visualize the types of jobs needed to manufacture and maintain wind
turbines and solar panels, two other planks of Mr. Obama's green-
energy platform. But what kinds of jobs might be generated by the
drive for increased home energy efficiency? A study last year by
Robert Pollin and Jeannette Wicks-Lim of the Political Economy
Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst lists
job opportunities in a variety of clean-tech fields. For building
retrofitting, the opportunities include: electricians, heating/air-
conditioning installers, carpenters, construction equipment
operators, roofers, insulation workers, carpenter helpers,
industrial truck drivers, construction managers and building
inspectors. (Plumbers apparently did not make the list.) In an e-
mail message, Lane Burt, an energy policy analyst with the Natural
Resources Defense Council added project managers and energy
auditors — and the office staff to support them — as well as a
variety of manufacturing jobs aimed at making more efficient
appliances, and the vendors and dealers who will sell them. Training
and technical schools would also be needed to teach some of these
skills, Mr. Burt said — adding that, in all, some 56,000 new workers
and 14,000 project managers would be needed to realize Mr. Obama's
one-year goals. "Then there would be thousands of new accountants
and office staff needed to support this volume of work, folks to
verify savings and quality assurance professionals," Mr. Burt
said. "Someone will have to train all of these new employees and
someone will have to manufacture the products they install."
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This weekend blizzard here in Ohio is a perfect example!

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Greens
Ohio Green Party

www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/