GreenForAll

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Comment by Bruce Eric Montgomery on December 21, 2008 at 8:41pm

Green Jobs Proponent Hilda Solis Picked for Labor Secretary

President-elect Barack Obama promised he would create jobs thanks to a clean-energy revolution. Now he’s named the Labor Secretary to do just that.

California congresswoman Hilda Solis has reportedly been tapped to head the Labor Department. A member of the House environment and commerce committee, and the House select committee on energy independence and global warming, Rep. Solis’ signature legislative achievement was the 2007 “Green Jobs Act.”

That bill, signed into law as part of the broader 2007 energy act, provides federal money for “green collar” job training, “such as energy efficiency retrofit and service, green building construction, and solar panel installation.” Rep. Solis figures green-job training could create as many as 3 million new jobs in the next decade. Other studies touted by the Obama administration talk of up to 5 million green-collar jobs.

Among Rep. Solis’ admirers is green-jobs evangelist Van Jones.

If Rep. Solis is confirmed, it will bring the Labor Department within the orbit of the administration’s energy and environment team. At the same time, it will mean that energy and environment team has an even stronger California flavor.

Comment by Jessee McBroom on November 24, 2008 at 5:54am

Hello everyone. My name is Jessee McBroom. I invite you all to visit my page and look at my profile and my blog to get to know me a little better. I look forward to taking the Pickens Plan to the Next Level. Sincerely: Jessee McBroom

Comment by Jane Drake on November 20, 2008 at 2:51pm

New from Environmental Defense Fund ( I thought it might be of interest to this GREENFORALL group)

Focus: "While some seek to pit the environment against economic growth,
this report shows real-world economic opportunity and job growth
that can come from building the technologies that will be needed
in a carbon constrained world."


Transition Report November 20, 2008

"The demand for climate solutions will create, very
directly, manifold job opportunities in many sectors, from core
industries such as renewable and energy efficiency businesses to
traditional areas such as construction trades, pipefitting and
electrical jobs."

-- from the introduction to Manufacturing Climate Solutions.

***********************

Climate solutions = jobs.

That's the headline from a new report released this week by Duke
University's Center on Globalization, Governance and
Competitiveness.

Manufacturing Climate Solutions builds upon an expanding body of
evidence that demonstrates how a transition to green energy
could create a massive wave of new jobs.

Joining Environmental Defense Fund in sponsoring this report
were The Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO),
Industrial Union Council (AFL-CIO), International Brotherhood of
Boilermakers, and United Association of Plumbers and
Pipefitters.

Go to the Green Room to hear from Jackie Roberts, EDF Director
of Sustainable Technologies, as she describes the report:
http://action.edf.org/ct/zp1foUF10RDn/

While some seek to pit the environment against economic growth,
this report shows real-world economic opportunity and job growth
that can come from building the technologies that will be needed
in a carbon constrained world.

-- Consider the Wind Turbine --

One wind turbine has 8,000 parts -- parts that need to be
manufactured, assembled, shipped and maintained.

The report also looks at a range of products that will help
power a clean energy economy, from solar panels to LED lights,
and finds in each case a complex "value chain" that translates
into millions of 21st Century jobs for the American workforce.

Many of these new jobs will spring up just where they are most
needed: in America's ailing industrial belt:

"These new technologies and products may be funded by Silicon
Valley and Wall Street, but the bricks and mortar jobs will be
in the manufacturing heartland of America, where hundreds of
companies are already benefitting from demand for renewable
energy and energy efficiency."

The American energy transformation could create as many as 5
million new jobs, at firms like:

-- Cree, Inc. of Durham, NC -- Cree makes LED lighting and has
enjoyed spectacular growth in recent years, from fewer than 900
employees in 2002 to more than 3,200 today;

-- Thermo-King of Bloomington, MN -- Thermo-King makes
energy-efficient auxiliary power units for trucks. Thermo-King's
3,900 employees helped generate more than $3 billion in sales last
year; and

-- Alpen Energy Group, LLC of Boulder, CO -- Alpen is a market
leader in high-performance, high efficiency glass windows. The
company grew 50% in 2007 and was acquired by Serious Materials
in June 2008, which plans to mainstream these highest performing
windows and will market them across the United States and
internationally.

At the end of the day, the green transformation will take place
community by community, and job by job.

The report offers ample evidence that if we can get the policy
right, we will leave our children both a healthier planet and a
more prosperous nation.

Thank you for your support,
Sam Parry
Director, Online Membership and Activism

P.S. Watch Jackie Roberts describe the report and then sound off
about it in the Green Room:
http://action.edf.org/ct/zp1foUF10RDn/

Comment by Jeri Francis on November 17, 2008 at 9:28pm

Hey Guys...just follow the link and you can vote for T. Boone as the person of the year...right now he is number seven...vote now and push him up the list!!

T. Boone for Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2008! Click on the link and rate Boone a '10' to give him your support: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1857576_1857573_1857557,00.html

Comment by Luis Garcia VA District 9 Leader on November 17, 2008 at 7:19am

Comment by Earl Allen Boek on November 15, 2008 at 3:22pm

Thanks for the great links. The way to start is to start. Locate some investment
capital, if you need it, find a good electical licensed engineer. Pre-select the products and services you want to offer. Do it the right way. Start a live canvess
effort in your city, county or state. I like California right now....

Do an energy survey and audit. Check the homeowners, insulation, windows
doors, weatherstripping, how they heat water, their homes, how they cool,
do they have extra energy needs or pools, spa,s , on site shops etc..

Recommend conservation measures, give install prices, offer a financing
package, give them an idea of the return on their investment and their
energy savings over the next 5 years, 10 years. Ask for the business...

Order the equipment, if you don't have it or cannot afford to inventory it,
schedule the install...as soon as your the sure the jobs going like it
should, ask the homeowner if you can invite the neighbors over for a little
solar party. Give small neighborhood seminars while the install is on
going. Put out a yard sign. Make sure you give them the proper documents, or better yet, send the rebate documents in for them. See that they get a
copy of that great warrenty you promised them. Inspect what you Expect.

Just some quick thoughts on the topic....

Comment by Wade Wilson on October 28, 2008 at 1:06pm

My name is Wade Wilson and I am President of Legacy Energy Group, LLC. Our primary focus at this time is Community Wind and Biomass Power projects. These type projects support local economies with good-paying jobs; landowner fees; and, taxes paid to schools, towns, counties and others.

A community organization such as Cities, Counties, Schools, Economic Development Organizations, Non-Profits or most groups serving the community as a whole may participate in up to 20% ownership of a wind farm with no capital expenditures and they have the OPTION to increase participation by an additional 10% with very little capital outlay. This program helps promote energy independence as well as providing good paying green jobs within the community and provides long term income that stays in the community.

Our program includes all development capital as well as construction funding. If you would like to help promote a community wind project in your community please join our group or contact us for more information. We are currently working on several projects and are more than willing to give references to serious parties.

Thank you,

Wade

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on October 23, 2008 at 11:52am

Comment by Mike Anthony Fernald Sr. on October 23, 2008 at 9:38am

An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
Concerning Reform of the Federal Tax Code
Dear Mr. President, Members of Congress, and Fellow Americans,
We, the undersigned business and university economists, welcome and applaud the ongoing
initiative to reform the federal tax code. We urge the President and the Congress to work
together in good faith to pass and sign into federal law H.R. 25 and S. 25, which together call
for:
• Eliminating all federal income taxes for individuals and corporations,
• Eliminating all federal payroll withholding taxes,
• Abolishing estate and capital gains taxes, and
• Repealing the 16th Amendment
We are not calling for elimination of federal taxation, which would be irresponsible and
undesirable. Nor does our endorsement call for reduced federal spending. The tax reform plan
we endorse is revenue neutral, collecting as much federal tax revenue as the current income tax
code, including payroll withholding taxes.
We are calling for elimination of federal income taxes and federal payroll withholding taxes.
We endorse replacing these costly, oppressively complex, and economically inefficient taxes
with a progressive national retail sales tax, such as the tax plan offered by H.R. 25 and S. 25 –
which is also known as the FairTax Plan. The FairTax Plan has been introduced in the 109th
Congress and had 54 co-sponsors in the 108th Congress.
If passed and signed into law, the FairTax Plan would:
• Enable workers and retirees to receive 100% of their paychecks and pension benefits,
• Replace all federal income and payroll taxes with a simple, progressive, visible,
efficiently collected national retail sales tax, which would be levied on the final sale of
newly produced goods and services,
• Rebate to all households each month the federal sales tax they pay on basic necessities,
up to an independently determined level of spending (a.k.a., the poverty level, as
determined by the Department of Health and Human Services), which removes the
burden of federal taxation on the poor and makes the FairTax Plan as progressive as the
current tax code,
• Collect the national sales tax at the retail cash register, just as 45 states already do,
• Set a federal sales tax rate that is revenue neutral, thereby raising the same amount of tax
revenue as now raised by federal income taxes plus payroll withholding taxes,
• Continue Social Security and Medicare benefits as provided by law; only the means of
tax collection changes,
• Eliminate all filing of individual federal tax returns,
• Eliminate the IRS and all audits of individual taxpayers; only audits of retailers would be
needed, greatly reducing the cost of enforcing the federal tax code,
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
-2-
• Allow states the option of collecting the national retail sales tax, in return for a fee, along
with their state and local sales taxes,
• Collect federal sales tax from every retail consumer in the country, whether citizen or
undocumented alien, which will enlarge the federal tax base,
• Collect federal sales tax on all consumption spending on new final goods and services,
whether the dollars used to finance the spending are generated legally, illegally, or in the
huge “underground economy,”
• Dramatically reduce federal tax compliance costs paid by businesses, which are now
embedded and hidden in retail prices, placing U.S. businesses at a disadvantage in world
markets,
• Bring greater accountability and visibility to federal tax collection,
• Attract foreign equity investment to the United States, as well as encourage U.S. firms to
locate new capital projects in the United States that might otherwise go abroad, and
• Not tax spending for education, since H.R. 25 and S. 25 define expenditure on education
to be investment, not consumption, which will make education about half as expensive
for American families as it is now.
The current U.S. income tax code is widely regarded by just about everyone as unfair,
complex, wasteful, confusing, and costly. Businesses and other organizations spend more than
six billion hours each year complying with the federal tax code. Estimated compliance costs
conservatively top $225 billion annually – costs that are ultimately embedded in retail prices paid
by consumers.
The Internal Revenue Code cannot simply be “fixed,” which is amply demonstrated by more
than 35 years of attempted tax code reform, each round resulting in yet more complexity and
unrelenting, page-after-page, mind-numbing verbiage (now exceeding 54,000 pages containing
more than 2.8 million words).
Our nation’s current income tax alters business decisions in ways that limit growth in
productivity. The federal income tax also alters saving and investment decisions of households,
which dramatically reduces the economy’s potential for growth and job creation.
Payroll withholding taxes are regressive, hitting hardest those least able to pay. Simply
stated, the complexity and frequently changing rules of the federal income tax code make our
country less competitive in the global economy and rob the nation of its full potential for growth
and job creation.
In summary, the economic benefits of the FairTax Plan are compelling. The FairTax Plan
eliminates the tax bias against work, saving, and investment, which would lead to higher rates of
economic growth, faster growth in productivity, more jobs, lower interest rates, and a higher
standard of living for the American people.
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
-3-
The America proposed by the FairTax Plan would feature:
• no federal income taxes,
• no payroll taxes,
• no self-employment taxes,
• no capital gains taxes,
• no gift or estate taxes,
• no alternative minimum taxes,
• no corporate taxes,
• no payroll withholding,
• no taxes on Social Security benefits or pension benefits,
• no personal tax forms,
• no personal or business income tax record keeping, and
• no personal income tax filing whatsoever.
No Internal Revenue Service; no April 15th; all gone, forever.
We believe that many Americans will favor the FairTax Plan proposed by H.R. 25 and S. 25,
although some may say, “it simply can’t be done.” Many said the same thing to the grassroots
progressives who won women the right to vote, to those who made collective bargaining a reality
for union members, and to the Freedom Riders who made civil rights a reality in America.
We urge Congress not to abandon the FairTax Plan simply because it will be difficult to face
the objections of entrenched special interest groups – groups who now benefit from the
complexity and tax preferences of the status quo. The comparative advantage and benefits
offered by the FairTax Plan to the vast majority of Americans is simply too high a cost to pay.
Therefore, we the undersigned professional and university economists, endorse a progressive
national retail sales tax plan, as provided by the FairTax Plan. We urge Congress to make H.R.
25 and S. 25 federal law, and then to work swiftly to repeal the 16th Amendment.
Respectfully,
Donald L. Alexander
Professor of Economics
Western Michigan University
Wayne Angell
Angell Economics
Jim Araji
Professor of Agricultural
Economics
University of Idaho
Ray Ball
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
Roger J. Beck
Professor Emeritus
Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale
John J. Bethune
Kennedy Chair of Free
Enterprise
Barton College
David M. Brasington
Louisiana State University
Jack A. Chambless
Professor of Economics
Valencia College
Christopher K. Coombs
Louisiana State University
William J. Corcoran, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska at
Omaha
Eleanor D. Craig
Economics Department
University of Delaware
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
-4-
Susan Dadres, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Southern Methodist University
Henry Demmert
Santa Clara University
Arthur De Vany
Professor Emeritus
Economics and Mathematical
Behavioral Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Pradeep Dubey
Leading Professor
Center for Game Theory
Dept. of Economics
SUNY at Stony Brook
Demissew Diro Ejara
William Paterson University of
New Jersey
Patricia J. Euzent
Department of Economics
University of Central Florida
John A. Flanders
Professor of Business and
Economics
Central Methodist University
Richard H. Fosberg, Ph.D.
William Paterson University
Gary L. French, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
Nathan Associates Inc.
Professor James Frew
Economics Department
Willamette University
K. K. Fung
University of Memphis
Satya J. Gabriel, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and
Finance
Mount Holyoke College
Dave Garthoff
Summit College
The University of Akron
Ronald D. Gilbert
Associate Professor of
Economics
Texas Tech University
Philip E. Graves
Department of Economics
University of Colorado
Bettina Bien Greaves, Retired
Foundation for Economic
Education
John Greenhut, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Finance & Business Economics
School of Global Management
and Leadership
Arizona State University
Darrin V. Gulla
Dept. of Economics
University of Georgia
Jon Halvorson
Assistant Professor of
Economics
Indiana University of
Pennsylvania
Reza G. Hamzaee, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics &
Applied Decision Sciences
Department of Economics
Missouri Western State College
James M. Hvidding
Professor of Economics
Kutztown University
F. Jerry Ingram, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and
Finance
The University of Louisiana-
Monroe
Drew Johnson
Fellow
Davenport Institute for Public
Policy
Pepperdine University
Steven J. Jordan
Visiting Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech
Department of Economics
Richard E. Just
University of Maryland
Dr. Michael S. Kaylen
Associate Professor
University of Missouri
David L. Kendall
Professor of Economics and
Finance
University of Virginia's College
at Wise
Peter M. Kerr
Professor of Economics
Southeast Missouri State
University
Miles Spencer Kimball
Professor of Economics
University of Michigan
James V. Koch
Department of Economics
Old Dominion University
Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Professor of Economics
Boston University
Edward J. López
Assistant Professor
University of North Texas
Franklin Lopez
Tulane University
Salvador Lopez
University of West Georgia
Yuri N. Maltsev, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Carthage College
Glenn MacDonald
John M. Olin Distinguished
Professor of Economics and
Strategy
Washington University in St.
Louis
Dr. John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
University of Texas-San
Antonio
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
-5-
Dr. Matt Metzgar
Mount Union College
Carlisle Moody
Department of Economics
College of William and Mary
Andrew P. Morriss
Galen J. Roush Professor of
Business Law & Regulation
Case Western Reserve
University School of Law
Timothy Perri
Department of Economics
Appalachian State University
Mark J. Perry
School of Management and
Department of Economics
University of Michigan-Flint
Timothy Peterson
Assistant Professor
Economics and Management
Department
Gustavus Adolphus College
Ben Pierce
Central Missouri State
University
Michael K. Pippenger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of
Economics
University of Alaska
Robert Piron
Professor of Economics
Oberlin College
Mattias Polborn
Department of Economics
University of Illinois
Joseph S. Pomykala, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Towson University
Barry Popkin
University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill
Steven W. Rick
Lecturer, University of
Wisconsin
Senior Economist, Credit Union
National Association
Paul H. Rubin
Samuel Candler Dobbs
Professor of Economics & Law
Department of Economics
Emory Univeristy
John Ruggiero
University of Dayton
Michael K. Salemi
Bowman and Gordon Gray
Professor of Economics
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Dr. Carole E. Scott
Richards College of Business
State University of West
Georgia
Carlos Seiglie
Dept. of Economics
Rutgers University
John Semmens
Economist
Phoenix College
Arizona
Alan C. Shapiro
Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson
Professor of Banking and
Finance
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern
California
Dr. Stephen Shmanske
Professor of Economics
California State University,
Hayward
James F. Smith
University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill
Vernon L. Smith
Economist
W. James Smith
Dean of Liberal Arts and
Sciences and Professor of
Economics
University of Colorado at
Denver
John C. Soper
Boler School of Business
John Carroll University
Roger Spencer
Professor of Economics
Trinity University
Daniel A. Sumner, Director,
University of California
Agricultural Issues Center
and the Frank H. Buck, Jr.,
Chair Professor,
Department of Agricultural and
Resource Economics,
University of California, Davis
Curtis R. Taylor
Professor of Economics and
Business
Duke University
Robert Vigil
Analysis Group, Inc.
John H. Wicks, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Economics
University of Montana
F. Scott Wilson, Ph.D.
Canisius College
Mokhlis Y. Zaki
Professor of Economics
Emeritus
Northern Michigan Universit

Comment by Green Metro West Massachusetts on October 21, 2008 at 2:58pm

Why green jobs are our future
DERRICK Z. JACKSON
Boston Globe
Why green jobs are our future
By Derrick Z. Jackson | October 21, 2008

HOW MUCH GREEN can you make off a green job?

Since the 1970s, California's energy-efficiency programs have created 1.5 million jobs, increased payrolls by $45 billion, and yielded $56 billion in energy savings that went toward other consumer spending, according to a University of California at Berkeley study. David Roland-Holst, the study's author, said the state's new mandates to curb greenhouse gases and further efficiency measures will add 400,000 green jobs, $48 billion in household income, and $76 billion to the state's domestic product by 2020.

"If the country can follow California's example, it will have a dramatic effect on our future emissions and energy independence," Roland-Holst told the Associated Press.

There have been several attempts to project what this would look like nationally. The US Conference of Mayors said an economy that shifts to generating 40 percent of its electricity from wind, solar, biomass, and other fuels will generate 4.2 million green jobs by 2038. The Apollo Alliance coalition of environmentalists and business leaders says a $500 billion investment over the next 10 years will create 5 million green-collar jobs. The alliance says the $50-billion-a-year average "is a smaller share of our gross domestic product than what we spent on the original Apollo program" to go to the moon. "It is one-third the amount that we spend each year in Iraq."

At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the Political Economy Research Institute is a bit more conservative, but still estimates an impressive net increase of 2.5 million green jobs over the next 10 years for an investment of $150 billion a year. Institute co-director Robert Pollin testified last month before the House select committee on energy independence and global warming - chaired by Ed Markey of Massachusetts - that the jobs could be created with the same kind of cash that President Bush plowed into those $600 stimulus checks (remember them?).

"It is actually very simple to think about," Pollin said by telephone yesterday. "For the most part we are talking about construction and manufacturing, retrofitting buildings, improving the electrical grid, boosting public transportation. Then, once you get the energy savings, then there is a lot of money around to spend on other things, instead of spending more on importing oil from Saudi Arabia. The money can go elsewhere in the American economy."

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has made a pledge of 5 million green jobs a staple of his stump speech, calling them "jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced; jobs building solar panels and wind turbines and fuel-efficient cars; jobs that will help us end our dependence on oil from Middle East dictators." What is unclear to researchers like Pollin is how Obama will get there if he is elected. Obama's pledge to spend $15 billion a year to create such jobs is well short of the annual investment estimates of Pollin and the Apollo Alliance. Also unclear is how Obama's pledge will weather the economic storms waiting for him.

"When I was testifying, someone suggested we can't do this because we're in a financial crisis," Pollin said. "We have to do this precisely because we're in a financial crisis. I just watched Ben Bernanke (the Federal Reserve chairman) call for another stimulus package. What we ought to be doing is rethinking regulating the financial market to channel credit into useful investments instead of useless, destructive speculations. Putting money into green jobs is useful in many ways."

The investments can come none too soon as America has already fallen, as Pollin put it, "dramatically behind" Europe and Asia in the wind and solar manufacturing sector. The Globe last week reported that wind turbine projects are being delayed for up to two years because the parts cannot be made fast enough, hurting one of the few big American players in this arena, General Electric. "You can't retrofit a building in Amherst in China," Pollin said. "You can't rebuild a subway system from abroad. The technology is there. We know we're going to get a fast payoff if we get going."

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

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