Obama Announces $2.3 Billion For Green Energy Jobs

$2.3 billion in Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will be allocated towards the creation of green energy manufacturing jobs, President Barack Obama announced Friday.

“Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced,” Obama said.

The president added that the move will have the added benefits of weaning the U.S. off foreign oil and slowing the impact of climate change.

The administration expects the measure to directly create 17,000 jobs, with the creation of additional thousands anticipated following private sector investments.

Friday’s announcement comes shortly after the Department of Labor released new unemployment statistics showing little change in job numbers between November and last month, with unemployment in both months hovering around 10%.

Green Jobs Key To Putting Under-Served Americans To Work

By Laura Smith - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was the featured speaker at the sixth annual Latina Luncheon Series in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Solis discussed challenges faced by Latinos throughout the country, such as jobs.

Green jobs, said Solis, are going to be the key to putting minorities, including Latinos, African-Americans, American Indians, women, farm-workers and lower-class Whites to work.

Solis said that millions of dollars in grants from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, passed earlier this year, are helping working families get back on their feet and find jobs in green industries.

“Through the Recovery Act and other investments, $220 million was made available to help dislocated workers transition into new high-growth sectors like allied health and information technology,” said Solis. $114 million has been awarded to community groups nationwide to educate and train young people, she added.

“By providing the job training that will revamp blue-collar jobs into secure 21st century green-collar jobs, we are paving a pathway out of poverty, strengthening urban and rural communities and protecting the health of our citizens and planet,” boasted Solis.

Financial Analyst Warns Czars Are Costly, Undemocratic

In light of Anthony "Van" Jones’s resignation over the weekend, many are questioning why President Barack Obama has appointed so many czars to serve in his administration.

Bob Rinear, founder and publisher of InvestYourself.com and the Financial Intelligence Report, says the United States should pay attention to its administrative spending.

"When you look at the U.S. budget, obviously anyone that's been paying even a little bit of attention knows that we're in quite a mess... running trillion dollar deficits for as long as the eye can see," Rinear says.

He says that while it seems newly-created cabinets and commissions aren't a big deal, they can end up becoming a big chunk of the budget.

"Every time they...start something like this, it grows, and grows, and grows and pretty soon, it makes up an awful lot of the daily budget," Rinear says. "So we do need to keep an eye on this, as far as how much of these czars do cause federal deficits anyway."

"Just because you're a President doesn't mean that you're the smartest person on Earth," Rinear says. "You need input, and you need advice, and you need questions and answers from other intelligent people."

"Czars" are special advisers to the President and can be commissioned for any department. Much of the controversy surrounding Presidential appointees, or czars, is that they do not require Senate confirmation and are not subjected to Congressional oversight.

Rinear says czars, though not elected by the public, can play an influential role from a policy-shaping standpoint. The problem with this, he says, is that taxpayers fund their salaries, but don't know much about them.

"Let's just go to Van Jones, for a minute," Rinear says. "He was the special advisor on green jobs. So he was going to be very, very influential on shaping the greening of America. And yet, when we found out some of the things that he said and stood for in the past, enough people didn't like it, that he had to get shook out."

Jones, the former special advisor for green jobs in the White House Council for Environmental Quality, resigned under pressure late Saturday because of controversial statements about Republicans, and what critics are calling extremist views.

Under the Obama administration, an estimated 32 czars have been appointed and with Jones gone, 31 special advisors now remain.

The Obama administration hasn't named a replacement for "Van" Jones.

Green Jobs: Transforming The Blue Collar Worker Into The Green Collar Worker

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Business and political leaders are joining forces to ensure the creation of more green jobs in the United States. Vice President Joe Biden headlined Wednesday’s Green Jobs Summit hosted by the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee. Summit participants, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), are investing in clean energy and committing the U.S. to generating a stronger, environmentally friendly economy. 

“We have to act fast and we have to think of the future we want to build,” said Biden.
“The best part of building a clean energy economy [is that it] not only puts us on the path to a greener and more sustainable future but it necessitates the jobs that are going to get us there.”

Biden noted that the U.S. has to be competitive in the creation of a clean energy economy and become a leader in the twenty-first century. According to Biden, that means energy efficiency can not become an issue that gets put aside during the next four years. 

The Vice President also said we have a moral challenge to make certain that the younger generations inherit a safe and clean planet. 

“I am more optimistic about the place we are today. I’m more idealistic about what we can do today than I was when I was a 29 year old kid elected to the United States Senate in 1972. The slope is really steep but the opportunity is gigantic.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion dollar plan to stimulate the U.S. economy, was signed into law by President Obama in February 2009 and includes a three year extension of the renewable energy production tax credit which will be used to establish future investments in wind, geothermal, and biomass energy.

Green Jobs: Fact Or Fiction?

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

President Obama complements Spain as a "Green" industry leader, but according to Ben Lieberman, a specialist in energy and environmental issues, “if there really was a green jobs miracle to be had, we would be seeing it in Spain,” but the reality “is just not that."

Gabriel Calzada, Associate Professor of Economics at the King Juan Carlos University in Spain, said that although Spain energy is green, it is “very costly. It was green, but very risky.” Calzada warned that the richest families are profiting while consumers pay high prices on steeper energy bills and raised taxes.

In a study sited by Calzada, for every green job subsidized in the renewable field, “2.2 jobs would have been created in the rest of the economy.”

There are many energy companies advocating in favor of long term investments, but, "are they so stupid as to not realize, you could get immediate payback if you would just do something else,” said Tom Bogart Professor of Economics at York College.

Bogart warned that in order to sustain energy jobs, the U.S. will eventually have to borrow money from China. And, instead of creating a job market, the U.S. will have to rely on others for this new sector, he said.

“It is not true that you can have you cake and eat it too when it comes to green jobs,” said Robert Murphy, an Economist with the Institute for Energy Research.