SustainableBusiness.com Newswire
12/04/2009 01:29 PM ET
News from: Apollo Alliance
Apollo Unveils Clean Energy Job Growth Plan to Coincide with White House Jobs Summit
This Thursday, the White House sponsored a Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth to generate ideas from CEOs, small business owners, labor leaders, nonprofit directors and others about how to grow the economy and put Americans back to work. The Forum included break-out groups on rebuilding America's infrastructure, small business growth policies, and green jobs, among others.
To coincide with the White House Jobs Summit, the Apollo Alliance unveiled a new plan to boost clean energy job growth by more than 1.2 million jobs. Apollo believes as the country acts to address the high unemployment rate that is causing suffering for so many American families, we must simultaneously act to stabilize the climate and re-establish the U.S. as a leader in the global clean energy marketplace.
Apollo's proposal would create 1.2 million domestic jobs in the short and long term while moving us toward a future that ensures climate stability, energy security, and broadly shared economic prosperity. "While we must take immediate action to create jobs, these actions must be combined with comprehensive energy and climate policies that encourage public and private investment in the clean technology sector," said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance.
Apollo's job creation recommendations - for inclusion in a larger Congressional and administration plan to spur economic recovery and create jobs - include:
1. Creating 255,000 jobs by driving short-term investment in efficiency and renewables in ways that will leverage private capital in the long term. Apollo's proposals include expanding and improving innovative retrofit and conservation programs at the state and local level by amending the Qualified Energy Conservation Bond (QECB) program; and leveraging private funding to expand large-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy system installation through the creation of a federal financing authority.
2. Creating 278,000 jobs by laying the groundwork for a 21st century transportation system. Apollo proposes that we rebuild our nation's infrastructure by prioritizing transportation investments that rehabilitate existing infrastructure and repair our roads and bridges, intercity rail, public transit, and bicycle and pedestrian pathways; support public transit operations to retain jobs and keep workers connected with their jobs; and expand the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) programs that were authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
3. Creating 700,000 manufacturing jobs (and an additional 1.9 million indirect jobs in related industries) by supporting American manufacturers in retooling and expanding their operations, and positioning domestic clean energy manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace. Apollo proposes the expansion of technical assistance to our nation's manufacturers by providing $50 million in short-term support for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program; and the creation of a two-year, $30 billion revolving loan fund to help small and medium-sized manufacturers retool to produce clean energy components and parts and become more energy efficient, as proposed in U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown's Investments in Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technologies (IMPACT) Act.
4. Creating a large-scale financing mechanism that drives investment and creates jobs researching, developing, and manufacturing the technologies and products of the clean energy economy. Apollo recommends the establishment of the Clean Energy Deployment Authority (CEDA), which would fund a wide variety of clean energy technologies, leading to long-term job creation.
5. Creating 31,000 jobs by putting Americans back to work serving their communities and preparing a workforce to build the clean energy economy. Apollo proposes the full funding of the America Serves Act, which will expand support for national service programs such as AmeriCorps, VISTA, YouthBuild, and the youth service and conservation corps.
Visit our website to read Apollo Alliance's full 5-Point Plan for Boosting Clean Energy Job Growth. We also recommend that you look at the job creation proposals of several other organizations, including the Center for American Progress' Meeting the Jobs Challenge: How to Avoid Another Jobless-or Job-Loss-Economic Recovery and the Economic Policy Institute's American Jobs Plan.
Meanwhile, in California, the California Labor Federation sponsored a jobs summit in Sacramento the day before the White House Jobs Summit. Click here to read an article about the Sacramento event.
For more information please contact:
Andrea Buffa
Apollo Alliance
buffa@apolloalliance.org
