Fostering Good Green Jobs can Help Rebuild the Middle Class and Incorporate Job

[irishbobcat]

Fostering Good Green Jobs can Help Rebuild the Middle Class and Incorporate Job Creation into Community Development
Nationwide, wages are stagnant, manufacturing jobs are declining, and more than one in five working Americans hold poverty wage jobs.  At the same time, the development of a clean energy economy presents us with an opportunity to create good-paying green jobs, such as machinists and technicians.
The Clean Energy Sector:  States can help to rebuild the middle class by investing in the clean energy sector.  As the clean energy sector expands, numerous jobs directly correlated with creating, storing, and distributing renewable power will be created.  While currently this sector is less developed than more traditional green jobs, such as jobs in the pollution mitigation sector, it is growing rapidly.  Predicted to be the backbone of the clean energy economy, if fostered and structured correctly, the clean energy sector can be one of the major pieces in the rebuilding of a stronger and more environmentally friendly economy.
Loss of Manufacturing Jobs Negatively Impacts the Middle Class: This year Michigan saw its unemployment rate climb to 12.6%, in part due to the closing of many Detroit-based auto manufacturers.  In an attempt to rebuild its crumbling economy, Governor Granholm has created a "No Worker Left Behind" program, which in part, aims to create green jobs for Michigan residents.  Michigan is not alone in its need to find replacement jobs for manufacturer workers.  More than one million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost since December 2007, with a total of 4.6 million vanished since 1999.  Many of these were the country's best middle class jobs.  As these jobs disappear, with a substantial number of them going overseas, workers are often left unemployed or forced to take lower-paying jobs.  The result is a shrinking middle class and a deepening of the gap between the wealthy and the poor in our country.
Investments in Clean Energy Can Help Rebuild the Middle Class: It is estimated that by 2016 the domestic market for clean energy products, such as solar panels and wind turbines, will reach $226 billion annually.  Over the next 20 years, as demand for solar and wind power rises, approximately 70%-80% of new jobs created in these industries will be in the manufacturing sector.  Like traditional blue-collar jobs that have been disappearing from our economy over the past decades, these green-collar jobs, if structured correctly, will pay family wages, provide benefits, and offer opportunities for career advancement.  According to an Apollo Alliance report, for every $1 million invested in renewable energy systems, approximately five full time component manufacturing jobs are created.  And for every $1 million invested in energy efficiency programs, three to four building-material manufacturing and five energy efficient appliance manufacturing jobs are created.  In addition, even more "indirect" jobs, in areas such as finance, transportation, and installation, will be created as result of the sector's overall growth.
However, in order to benefit from the growing demand for renewable energy products in our country, the U.S. needs to invest in the necessary generation and production facilities, as well as worker training programs.  For example, currently, about half of America's existing wind turbines were built overseas and the U.S. ranks 5th among countries producing solar energy components, despite the fact that the solar cell was created here.  The U.S. must be proactive and focus our economic strategies on a green economy to fully capitalize on the opportunities at our fingertips and to ensure that we do not lose out to other countries who are prepared to deliver these products.
To bring back the middle class, Green jobs are a must for the 21st Century!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/