Green Jobs Now!

Comment

Comment by Tom Bailey on January 16, 2010 at 3:56am

Thanks Michael!

The latest petition " Energy indepenence now petition" is a new one we all need to sign.

Please take a second to do it.
Thanks for all you are doing as the labor continues!

Best; Tom

Comment by Wayne J.R. Bowser, LEED AP on January 9, 2010 at 10:34am

Great way to create jobs and keep them HERE in the good ol' U.S. of A.!!!

Comment by Michael T. Vender on January 8, 2010 at 5:01pm

I just signed the Pickens Plan Energy Independence Petition. Join me and tell your legislators we need a plan NOW!

Comment by Robert Schultz on January 6, 2010 at 4:30pm

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-05-it-takes-a-community-to-sustain-a-small-farm/

The ultimate in Green Jobs, become a local food producer, processor, or seller.


It takes a community to sustain a small farm
by Steph Larsen - GRIST Magazine

These days it seems the most popular person to be in the food system is the “local farmer.” Farmers markets are popping up everywhere, and their size and popularity grow all the time. Local food is trendy—even the First Family is in on it.

But as anyone who has ever raised grain or livestock can tell you, the farmer is not the only person in the chain of players from her farm to your fork. In addition to producers, your food chain includes processors, distributors or transporters, and retailers.

In other words, to have a truly local food system, we also need local butchers, bakers and millers, local truck drivers, local grocers, and a community that supports them in all their efforts.

In the world of farm and food policy, we’ve paid a lot of attention to production end of the food system. It’s an obvious place to start. We have programs within the Farm Bill to develop new or “beginning” farmers, help them secure loans and down payments, and transition to organic agriculture. But most products aren’t made to eat directly out of the field. Even salad greens or apples, things we typically eat raw and straight from the field, must be washed and sorted before your local farmer will sell them.

Comment by Wayne J.R. Bowser, LEED AP on January 5, 2010 at 2:41pm

Know anyone in your State and circle of friends opposed to Natural Gas? Let's talk...Not everyone, even in the Pickens Army, supports this so called "bridge fuel".

Often times when we are passionate about a particular issue we are blind to the other side and often can appear confrontational - let's not allow this to happen and let's keep the dialog open.

Join me tomorrow on The Green Revolution Show as we discuss the pros and cons of Natural Gas.

Comment by J Jay Pirko on December 22, 2009 at 7:17pm

Notice to Entrepreneurs in the New Energy Economy:

ADVANCED-ENERGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR IN WARREN, OHIO

The Youngstown-Warren Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania) is a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, another example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader


NorTech to Help Launch Warren Incubator
-- 12/15/2009
Dec. 22, 2009 6:48 a.m.
By Dennis LaRue
WARREN, Ohio -- Possessed of a vision and fortified with $2.7 million in federal and state grants and another $1.7 million in private funding, a steering committee of 26 will, over the next 10 months, work toward the birth of an advanced-energy business incubator downtown.

Midwife to this birth is Rebecca O. Bagley, president and CEO of NorTech, a consulting firm based in downtown Cleveland whose tagline is “Growing Northeast Ohio’s High Tech Economy.”

Bagley, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-32 Hubbard, state Rep. Tom Letson, D-64 Warren, and Mayor Michael O’Brien, outlined their vision Monday of what such an incubator might achieve in the fields of “advanced energy and flexible materials.”

Long on optimism and short on specifics, the four expressed hope the incubator will rejuvenate manufacturing in Mahoning Valley through infant enterprises that one day produce parts for windmills, geothermal, solar and nuclear energy plants and sources of energy other than petroleum, coal and natural gas.

“Four hundred tons of steel go into a windmill,” Ryan noted.

Bagley offered a number of people she expects would be employed in the incubator -- “50 to 70 jobs” – rather the number of companies that would be housed there.

“We have done some market testing,” she said later, reporting that “450 firms” in the region are interested.

The incubator is incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that will be funded by both the public and private sectors.

The site of the incubator, whether it will be a converted building or a brand-new structure, and its design all must be worked out, to be determined by the steering committee that includes “nine CEOs or CEO-level executives,” Bagley said.

Mike Garvey, president of M 7 Technologies, Youngstown, and William Letson, president of the Trumbull 100, were present at yesterday’s press event in Ryan’s Warren office. So, too, were leaders from organized labor such as Gary Steinbeck, Sub-District 1 director of the United Steel Workers of America, and Mark Catello, business manager of Local 573 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Tony Iarusso, executive director of Warren Redevelopment and Planning, “will be involved,” O’Brien promised.

“Our role is facilitation,” Bagley said, “walking the steering committee through the process.”

The steering committee will look closely at the Youngstown Business Incubator, which Ryan called “a successful model [that will help the committee] avoid landmines.” He praised its success, noting it has earned national attention and, he hopes, the Warren incubator will too.

O’Brien voiced great optimism about the incubator, which in conjunction with the main campus of Eastern Gateway Community College to be established in Warren, should boost his city’s economy. Bagley and Ryan expect a partnership will develop between the community college and incubator.

“From North Park [Avenue] to Main Street,” O’Brien predicted, “within the next year, all [vacant buildings] will be filled.”

After nearly 30 years of neglect from Washington and Columbus, he rejoiced in the funding for the incubator and the development of the community college campus.

O’Brien pronounced himself “thoroughly impressed by the connectivity” of the Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio Senate and Congress that allowed the public funding of the incubator.

Before founding NorTech, Bagley served as deputy secretary for the Technology Investment Office of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development under Gov. Ed Rendell, says the biography provided by NorTech. There she “was responsible for the administration of several major state programs and initiatives, including the Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the Keystone Innovation Zone program, the research and development tax credit program and the manufacturing strategy.”

In that role, she managed “more than $1.7 billion in investments for Pennsylvania.”

Before that she was an investment banker in New York City where she was involved in oil and gas mergers and raising capital for various energy ventures.

She earned her baccalaureate in marketing at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

Comment by Gregory L. Smith on December 21, 2009 at 5:17pm

My huge issue with Solar Energy today is that there isn't one clear set of standards to fit into the systems everyone runs! If we use NABCEP requirements, do they meet Federal guidelines and is it acceptable to use this nationwide? Is this the key to getting Solar Energy started in the fields we live in across the USA and Europe? If so, Let's force the Obama Administration to so respond by making it a requirement for tax incentives that the install is done by NABCEP qualified installers. And if it isn't acceptable, which I believe is the case, then force the Department of Energy to create a better installation process certification, and get all the country to agree to follow it under the NEC guidelines for new and remodeling construction rules! We can't mess around people! It needs to be done very soon, to prevent the loss of good workers that just have no clue what system they are supposed to learn in order to comply with the government regulations that are so weakly enforced and will eventually get someone hurt or killed! Michael, if you are reading this, use your contacts to get me connected to the DOE so I can explain how I believe it can be done by the end of 2010 and have state by stae training done by those companies already and wanting to join in the effort to fully train employees, so we can have safe and most useful solar energy resources, both in residential and commercial applications! Hope you will respond by phone at 405-650-5101~ Thanks! ANd anyone thus connected with DOE, please share your contects so we can get this done correctly for the nation and for the workers in the field!

Comment by J Jay Pirko on December 20, 2009 at 1:27pm

Global Green USA Finds City (Youngstown) Fertile Ground

To the Pickens Plan Army:

You have heard me describe the Youngstown Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania) as a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, an example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader

Global Green USA Finds City Fertile Ground
Dec. 18, 2009 6:32 a.m.
By Dan O’Brien
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city missed out on the technology revolution during the last decade and it won’t make the same mistake with the “green” revolution, vow U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17, and Mayor Jay Williams.

Ryan and Williams announced Thursday a partnership with Global Green USA, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, Calif., that pledges to help the city get grants and philanthropic contributions to boost its stature in environmental and neighborhood redevelopment.

“We are committed to make sure that we don’t miss the green revolution that’s coming,” Ryan told reporters during a conference call. Ryan and about 30 other members of Congress joined world leaders in Copenhagen yesterday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“We have a partner with Global Green that’s internationally recognized and is going to help re-brand Youngstown and put Youngstown back on the map,” Ryan said. “This is something that totally takes Youngstown to the next level.”

Ryan said Global Green’s expertise in the field “expedites what we thought would take much longer” to accomplish.

Matt Petersen, president of Global Green, said his company would help the city craft an environmental and neighborhood sustainability component to its Youngstown 2010 plan.

“We were looking for a community to work with in the state of Ohio for awhile,” said Petersen, also on the call from Copenhagen. He noted that the organization wanted to work with an area in which it could “create a model that embodies everything we need to do in this world, such as green jobs and affordable energy to low-income families.”

The idea has already received $25,000 in contributions from Youngstown State University alumnus Jack Scott, president of Applied Systems and Technology Transfer. That figure was matched by the Raymond John Wean Foundation, which has taken an aggressive role in promoting and supporting housing and neighborhood revitalization projects.

Petersen said he’s impressed with the work that’s already been done relative to Youngstown 2010, the city’s long-range land use plan that was launched six years ago.

“It will help us contribute to Youngstown 2010 in regards to the ‘greening’ of the city,” Williams said.

That could translate in identifying new ways to adapt green space in the city that’s been vacated as a result of demolition projects, Williams said. “Global Green has got a strong history on finding productive ways to reuse this space,” he said.

As an example, the mayor said green parcels could be reused to develop an urban agriculture program. “It could be a plan to provide fresh food in the inner city to a small-scale economic venture,” he said.

The partnership with Green Global would also yield a design competition to redevelop areas of the city, in specific a neighborhood along the south side.

“It’s still in the early stages,” Williams said. “I think by early next year we’ll have more to report.”

Here are the goals of the partnership, as stated in press materials:

• Create a climate action and sustainability plan that builds on Youngstown 2010 and could be implemented near to mid-term.

• Establish a neighborhood-specific plan on an as-yet unidentified area of the south side that suffers from devastating levels of blight.

• Attract provocative and creative ideas through design competition that could bring national attention and resources to the project.

• Establish measurable indicators of progress, documenting model policies and best practices t hat would be shared with regional and national leaders.

• Leverage existing investments and secure funding commitments from local and regional organizations and congressional appropriations.

• Create a regional framework of ideas and next steps that will identify how the “greening” of Youngstown could influence the greening of Rust Belt communities in the Midwest.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

Comment by Robert Schultz on December 18, 2009 at 9:31am

Latest issue of Solar Today has an article on learning to be a Solar Installer, with links to best places for training in USA.

http://www.solartoday-digital.org/solartoday/20100102#pg1

http://www.solartoday-digital.org/solartoday/20100102/?pg=32&pm=2&u1=friend

For more info go to www.ASES.org

Comment by Robert Schultz on November 18, 2009 at 10:58am

Hey there,

President Obama is visiting China this week, making brave speeches about our worrisome trade deficit and pressuring local officials to buy more American goods. But the person who can really make a difference is still sitting back in Washington -- Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

China spends a fraction of what we do on tanks and bombs, and earns a fortune selling us products we could make ourselves.2 But today, all the news and pundits are saying that China has the economy to watch, while America is faltering.

There's a lesson there for the people who write our budgets. And they need to hear it right now, because they just started writing the next budget. I just told Budget Director Peter Orszag to write a budget that invests in our priorities. Can you do the same thing?

This website makes it really easy:
Click here to tell Peter Orszag that it's time for a budget that invests in our priorities.

Thanks!

-------------------------------------------

Thanks for all your work!

Drew Hudson
TrueMajority / USAction

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