July 1, 2008
Small Cities Can Join Big Ones in Pursuing Green-Collar Jobs
Apollo’s Jerome Ringo Spreads The Clean Energy Word

By Heidi Pickman
Apollo News Service

	Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo explains the importance and opportunities of green-collar jobs to Mayor George L. Grace, Sr. of St. Gabriel, Louisiana at the National Conference of Black Mayors in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS -- From San Jose, California, a city that wants its energy consumption to be 100 percent renewable by 2023 to Newark, New Jersey, a city that is committed to building a sustainable economy, big cities are implementing policies and programs with the goal of building a green energy economy.

In contrast, most small cities are not taking advantage of this historic opportunity. And some of those small cities have African American mayors.

Last month, Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo addressed the National Conference of Black Mayors annual meeting here about the importance of the green-collar economy.

Ringo should know. He spent 22 years in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry until he realized that the current industrial structure isn’t sustainable. In the years since, he has been an influential voice in the push toward a new green economy. With over 300 speeches in the last 12 months alone, he has been tireless in spreading this message. In New Orleans, Ringo’s goal was to help mayors understand that if they fail to jump on the clean energy opportunity now, they and their constituency will be left behind.

“Even though two out of three African Americans live within same zip code of a land fill,” Ringo told 500 mayors and their staffs, “even though when you talk about Cancer Alley, Louisiana - that’s a petro chemical plant and a neighborhood - our people live in close proximity to the fence line of the industries, and we have a cancer rate that is about the national average, but we’re not involved. There’s a problem there.”

Small City Mayors Learning About Clean Energy and Jobs
Among those on the dais with Ringo were Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and George L. Grace, Sr., mayor of St. Gabriel, Louisiana, and the president of the National Conference of Black Mayors. St. Gabriel is a small town near Baton Rouge whose economic base has gone from agriculture to petrochemicals. African Americans make up 72 percent of the city’s 5,500 residents.

Much of the audience had more in common with Mayor Grace than Mayors Nagin and Nutter. They are mayors of small rural towns who rightly are concerned with jobs, keeping their major employers happy and protecting constituents. For most, ‘green’ doesn’t figure into the daily vernacular, and global warming is something that happens in the Arctic Circle and affects polar bears. For many of these mayors, Ringo’s speech was the first time they considered environmental stewardship as a priority, or considered a green-collar economy as a way to thrive in the 21st century.

Green-collar jobs, energy efficiency and renewable energy aren’t opportunities reserved only for large cities. Ringo’s message was that cities of all sizes and need to realize they are part of the solution and minority communities are no different. In fact their leadership has an obligation to their citizens to become involved as it has been shown over the years that minorities disproportionately suffer the consequences of environmental degradation and pollution.

Part of Environmental Justice Movement
In the 1970’s there was some recognition that minorities are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, but the issue didn’t attract national attention until 1982. That year, the governor of North Carolina gave the go ahead for a toxic landfill in Warrenton, a predominantly African-American town. The landfill was built despite citizen protests, but the protests were enough to inspire a U.S. government investigation. The results: in the Southeast, three of four hazardous waste landfills were located in communities that were mostly African-American, while African-Americans made up about 20 percent of the population.

More recently, a study by the Associated Press published in December 2005 found that in 19 states blacks are up to 2 times more likely to live in a polluted neighborhood than whites. In 12 states Hispanics are twice as likely to live in a high-risk area than non-Hispanics and in 7 states Asians are more likely to live in a high-risk area than whites. Also, neighborhoods in highly polluted areas tend to be poorer, have a higher rate of unemployment and a less educated population than neighborhoods in cleaner areas.

Big city mayors understand the opportunities a clean energy economy can offer. From Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, to Mayor Martin Chavez in Albuquerque, to Mayor Mark Mallory in Cincinnati, to Mayor Cory Booker in Newark big city mayors are appropriating money for green-collar job training, instituting energy efficiency retrofitting requirements for city-owned buildings, planting trees and attracting investment in renewable energy companies.

Mayors big and small can take the lead in re-inventing their cities to include a cleaner environment while simultaneously creating jobs. The first step is for all mayors start a green jobs program in their city.

Green-Collar Jobs Pledge
The Apollo Alliance has joined forces with the Center for American Progress, Green For All, and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability to ask mayors and other local leaders around the country to sign a green-collar jobs pledge. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez introduced the pledge at the ICLEI meeting in May 2008 with County Executive Ron Sims of King County, Washington as a co-signer. The pledge asks mayors to focus on green-collar jobs as a central strategy for advancing environmental, economic, and climate protection goals; to grow an inclusive sustainable economy that creates green-collar; and to execute tangible actions that place priority on genuinely building an inclusive green economy.

Learn more about the Green-Collar Jobs pledge and how to create a green jobs program in your city. (underlined words will link to the pledge page.)

Heidi Pickman, a radio producer and writer, is the communications associate at the Apollo Alliance. Reach her at pickman@apolloalliance.org

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Get Involved

Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities

Community Jobs in the New Economy

Greener Pathways

National Conference of Black Mayors

Jerome Ringo

Apollo Alliance Production June 6, 2008 Understanding Green Jobs Big cities understand green-collar jobs.  It’s time that all cities understand green-collar jobs.  Apollo President Jerome Ringo introduces the concept to the National Conference of Black Mayors.