Education Creates Green Collar Jobs

The premise of Green Jobs is a job that involves working with the environment and/or renewable energy to make a difference in our future. It is a job with social responsibility.

Everyone is talking about Green Jobs and billions of dollars are coming down the pipe line to create Green Jobs, but almost no one is talking about how to create these Green Jobs in a sustainable way that will provide a mechanism of implementation on a community level or how to fund them.

NEWS ALERT: John Podesta, of Obama's Transition Team has a think tank called Center for American Progress with a website at:
http://www.americanprogress.org/

It has great reports on Green Collar Jobs and the directions being considered by the new President-Elect's Team including a report that has close to this concept in it!

This concept is one way to accomplish the goal of a Green Jobs based economic revolution in America that Obama wants to create using Renewable Energy!

Forty percent of the energy usage in America and a majority of the CO2 released into atmosphere comes from our energy usage for housing and commercial buildings.

We all know that conservation measures give us the best return on our investment dollar... "More Bang for the Buck!"

We know that we can cut our dependence on foreign oil, cut green house gas and save ourselves money by using renewable energy equipment like solar PV electric, solar thermal hot water heaters, wind turbines and ground source heat pumps on our homes and commercial buildings.

Installing these devices creates Green Jobs for the people who build that equipment, the people who sell that equipment and the people who install that equipment.

So, how do we jump start America into coming Green Age? How do we create the demand for the green products, train people to install them and finance the conversion costs as soon as possible?

We do not want to reinvent the wheel. We should look at what is already available to us and use proven mechanisms to accomplish our goals.

This concept utilizes existing institutions and programs to move forward with the least amount of resistance to create the Green Collar Jobs we need now.

The answer is to use the local Community College network across America as the lead mechanism in this "Rebuild America Now" program. The concept is these CC organizations would deliver an educational program that would train students, veterans, youth at risk, and Obama's Energy Conservation Corp in several key areas.

The second part of the equation centers around how we put these students to work in our communities creating change now. The answer is already in place with the US Government programs under HUD (Housing and Urban Development) programs. HUD already has a community outreach system that is designed to help our communities with development projects through their Community Block Grant Program and almost every community has a CDC... A Community Development Corporation which is a non-profit group run by local folks that administer these programs.

So the real infrastructure needed is already in place. We have thousands of community colleges available to teach programs and we have HUD in place from the Federal level to the community level to fund the projects.

Here is what we do.... The community colleges start a Renewable Energy/Conservation program. Students are first trained in Conservation. They learn how to become "Energy Auditors" able to go into a home and identify all the normal conservation measures that go along with the current HUD Weatherization programs now being funded.... But with a twist! These new EA techs are also trained in renewable energy equipment design and siting so along with conservation measures like insulation and caulking, they can recommend a solar thermal hot water collector, solar PV electric equipment or a ground source heat pump for the home owner or commercial building.

Students have classes in standard home energy conservation measures and how to run the equipment necessary to weatherise a home, but again they are also trained to install the renewable energy equipment recommended by the auditor. Everything from light bulbs to appliances.

This training is not simple and requires several thousand hours of class time and on the job training provided by licensed contractors, plumbers and electricians.

Others are trained in Energy Business Management to do the necessary paperwork for the grants, tax incentives, loans and rebates from the State, Federal Local and Utility partnerships that form to get this job done for CDC's and for profit contractors.

For HUD's part, on behalf of the Federal Government, HUD makes monies available to the Community Colleges to set up these Green Collar Jobs training programs and HUD sets up funding through its existing Community Development Block Grant Program to pay for the renewable energy equipment that MUST be manufactured in America....( Perhaps streamlined, quicker and energy efficient application process ???) Maybe now called the Community RENEWABLE ENERGY Block Grant Program??

This program, administered by the existing local Community Development Corp (CDC) would then use the students (who are required to have hands on experience) to weatherize and energy retrofit veteran, low income, disabled and senior housing under trained and licensed contractors. The students are paid a wage for their work to help afford their school. The Energy Block Grant pays for the conservation and renewable energy measures used in the retrofits at little or no cost to the homeowners. Studies show there are over twenty eight million homes in America that qualify for this type of "energy retrofit" today. Obama has stated a goal of One Million houses a year to be done to start.

After completion of the training programs, the students are Green Collar Workers, ready to move on into the work place with standard contractors who are doing retrofits on other community homes and businesses for owners that are using low interest loans and tax credit type incentives for their equipment because they are not senior or disabled and can afford to pay part of the costs.

This is our WIN-WIN-WIN situation. We are training green collar workers to install the equipment made by green collar workers in the United States of America and sold by green collar workers. We are retrofitting the homes of veterans, seniors and disabled folks who can least afford high energy bills or to pay for the equipment. We are putting real value into our communities with lowering dependence on fossil fuels, lowering green house gas emissions, and lowering the need for utility priced power.

We are building decentralized power generation faciities not dependant on new "clean coal" or nuclear power plants with their environmental costs and risks. How many homes and businesses can be retrofited with RE equipment and weatherised for the cost of building one Nuclear power plant and running it over its life cycle? What is the value of not building a " Clean Coal" power plant to the environment?

Bottom line is we are putting people to work in America, for America's future.

Herbert Hoover's Administration used the phrase, " A Chicken in every pot, and a car in every garage!" in the last great depression.

Maybe Obama's new phrase ought to be: "Solar Panels on every roof, and (an American built)
Eco-car in every garage!" to get us out of this mess.

We have to work our way out of this depression we are going into, and Green Collar Jobs created by the retrofitting of our homes and businesses is one of the best ways of doing it!

Please send this information to anyone and everyone you think needs to see this concept.

Thanks,

John R. Cogar
Sustainable Lake County Oregon