SEATTLE - This is an absolutely magnificent American city. And it’s earned its reputation for being among the cleanest and greenest big cities in the world. The air is clear. The mountains, already capped in snow, are close by and grand. The waterfront along Elliot Bay is the setting for one of the important debatesin the United States about rebuilding or dismantling a half-century old elevated freeway, an artifact of the cheap energy, unlimited prosperity, rising personal income, drive through American way of life that looks like it finally called it quits this month.

The bus system here gets passengers where they want to go fast, and for a buck and a half. The Democratic Mayor, Greg Nickles, promised to meet the Kyoto climate change standards several years ago and he’s convinced more than 700 other communities to join him, by far the most important policy initiative to curb climate change in the United States. We could go on. 

The Apollo Alliance arrived in town on Friday to describe in detail its 10-year, $500 billion clean energy, job jobs economic development strategy at the Puget Sound Industrial Excellence Center, a training facility for industrial jobs and the construction trades that has embraced a very green, energy efficient curriculum. After our event a cement truck pulled up to the LEED-certified classroom and training building next door and a crowd of hard hat wearing students gathered around to pour pervious cement designed to allow water to drain through, a water conservation and purification practice that is very popular in construction projects here.

The Apollo Alliance event occurred during a day long Green Expo, a day of exploring new sustainable building practices and approaches, all of them intended to increase employment in the high-earning building trades. The Apollo keynoter, U.S. Representative Jay Inslee, was joined by Apollo Chairman Phil Angelides, Apollo President Jerome Ringo, and Patrick Neville, our Washington State Apollo Alliance representative. Almost 100 people were in the audience.

This was the third of six rollout events across the country.  Each one of them has occurred against the backdrop of the worsening financial crisis in New York and Washington. The juxtaposition has not been lost on the rollout speakers.”We know one fundamental truth,” said Inslee, noting the steep drop in the Dow this week. “If we want to make a clean break from the economic doldrums we’re in, we have to provide clean energy to the world. That is the vision of The New Apollo Program.”

Echoing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inslee continued: “The antidote to fear is confidence and action. To those who say over the next few months we should be passive, they’re wrong. The antidote is action. The antidote is The New Aprollo Program. That’s how we solve economic doldrums in this country. This is the moment for Uncle Sam to lead the growth of the economy by creating green-collar jobs, by creating clean energy investments. We are going to beat fear with confidence and action.”

Such sentiments are not lost here. Washington State is on the forefront of the clean energy, good job revolution, helped in part by an Apollo Alliance chapter. In 2007, with the help of the Washington State Apollo chapter, Governor Christine Gregoire and the Legislature set goals to reduce the state’s global warming pollution and fossil fuel dependence, and to increase the number of green jobs in Washington. That advocacy led to The Climate Action and Green Jobs bill, signed by the Governor on March 13, 2008,  and a critical next step in Washington’s New Energy Economy and the fight against global warming. A significant feature of the bill is its emphasis on training people for green-collar jobs.  It’s the first statewide legislation to combine carbon reductions with green jobs development and will be a model for emerging federal and state bills. It provides a framework to show the country how the dual challenges — constringed opportunities for family-wage jobs and global warming — can be addressed together and that in reducing our global warming pollution we can also recognize broad opportunities to build a new energy economy with a more widely shared prosperity. 

Inslee, the co-author of ”Apollo’s Fire” with Apollo founder Bracken Hendricks, was raised in the region and is a recognized leader in Congress on energy issues, and has been since 1998. He is the sponsor of the 2006 New Apollo Energy Act, which borrowed heavily from our 2004 New Energy For America clean energy policy prescriptions.

On Friday, Inslee vowed to get the statute approved after the new president takes office in January. “The New Apollo Program is the most unifying message and strategy in America today. Let me say this about the Apollo Alliance. We’re going to get this job done.”  

– Keith Schneider

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Phil Angelides, the chairman of the Apollo Alliance, pulled into Ohio’s capital early this afternoon to “raise the banner of The New Apollo Program,” and called the organization’s 10-year, $500 billion plan a “sweeping investment program to put Americans back to work.”

Moments later Ohio’s Democratic Governor Ted Strickland (see pix above at podium, with Phil, Jay Inslee, and Jerome Ringo) declared his unqualified support for the plan. “If we do what The New Apollo Program encourages the next president and Congress to do we will see a renaissance in America’s and Ohio’s economy. I am happy to do what we can as Buckeyes to facilitate this effort.”

Representative Jay Inslee, a Democrat of Washington State, who is helping us roll out The New Apollo Program in Seattle on Friday, also attended the event here. His view: Ohio is a logical place for clean energy investment. The state uses more energy than all but five other states. It just approved a renewable energy standard for state utilities, and enjoys robust capacity in its agricultural, research, industrial, and manufacturing sectors. Those are the building blocks of a clean energy sector. Ohio also has history, reflected in the inventiveness of Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers, who were born and raised in Ohio, and characterized by the courage of John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, two more native Ohioans.

“This is the place for The New Apollo Program, and the time for Apollo,” said Inslee. “Some may not think this is the time for bold ideas. But this is exactly the time. These are the moments that see the United States rally around optimism and confidence. The New Apollo Program is the perfect challenge because it attacks the thing that challenges us right now, our fear and our confidence.”

The nation’s economy and the federal credit bailout were very much on the minds of journalists and union members who attended the event, which was held at the IBEW Training Center on Goodale Boulevard. Angelides addressed the point directly. “If we can afford $85 billion to rescue AIG,” he said, “we can afford $50 billion a year to put our own people back to work.”

Phil added: “There is every reason to believe that Ohio can be at the forefront of these investment dollars. We think if we do this right, Ohio can create 400,000 green collar jobs.”

Indeed, unemployment is rising in Ohio, and currently sits at 7.4 percent, a 1.7 percent increase since 2007 and the highest it has been in the last decade.  That means that over 444,000 Ohio workers are currently without jobs.  Ohio lost almost 7,000 jobs just in the month of August, and a total of 90,000 jobs have been lost since last year.  Manufacturing has been hit the hardest - Ohio lost over 15,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 12 months.  Additionally, over 5,900 construction jobs were lost over the past year.

Still, there are bright spots. The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that there are currently 16,884 green jobs in Ohio. These jobs are focused on renewable energy, biofuels, and energy efficiency. They include jobs in the renewable power, agriculture, engineering, research, manufacturing, construction, and government sectors.

• A $500 billion federal investment in clean energy would generate an additional $233 billion in ongoing economic stimulus (GDP, personal income, and retail sales).
• Of the $500 billion federal investment, $22 billion would go to Ohio.
• A  $22 billion federal investment in Ohio would create 155,899 direct, permanent jobs over 10 years, including:
  • 42,855 on-site manufacturing jobs
  • 17,756 on-site construction jobs
  • 4,265 transportation jobs

A broader calculation takes into account not only direct jobs, but also indirect and induced jobs created.  These include jobs such as materials transportation, retail sales, business services, accounting, and other support services. 

Calculating the broader employment impacts, based on data from the Center for American Progress:

• Start with a proposal to invest $100 billion over 2 years, with a $3.66 billion federal investment in Ohio.  Scaled up to meet our proposal of a $500 billion federal investment over 10 years, this would mean a federal investment of $18.3 billion in Ohio.
• This $18.3 billion federal investment would result in a total of 401,800 direct, indirect, and induced jobs in Ohio over 10 years.

Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2008

Ibid.

Global Insight.  Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy (U.S. Conference of Mayors, October 2008)

Pollin, R. and Wicks-Lim, J.  Job Opportunities for the Green Economy (Political Economy Research Institute, June 2008).

The Perryman Group.  Redefining the Prospects for Sustainable Prosperity, Employment Expansion, and Environmental Quality in the US: An Assessment of the Economic Impact of the Initiatives Comprising the Apollo Project. (Apollo Alliance, November 2003).

Political Economy Research Institute.  Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy.  (Center for American Progress, September 2008).

– Keith Schneider, Elena Foshay

Pedro Peinati (left) and Gagan Bahad (right) are new students to the 5-year apprenticeship program offered by The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595.  They’ve been in the program only two months, but Pedro is very enthusiastic about it and his future.

Listen to what Pedro has to say.

The IBEW local 595 serves Alameda, San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties in Northern California.  According to its website:

IBEW Local 595 inside wiremen provide electrical services to a wide range of companies, such as the Port of Oakland, the Lawrence Livermore Lab, NUMMI, and many others. (Their) skilled electricians build new homes, condominiums, and apartment developments constructed in the Bay Area as well as Stockton. Members in the VDV (Voice/Data/Video) sector work in such areas as wireless, fiber optic, cell sites, network systems, AV systems, security systems, fire/life safety systems, and CATV.

Stay tuned for video of a tour of the IBEW Training Center.

– Heidi Pickman

The Alameda County IBEW Electrical Training Center is usually quiet on a Saturday.  But yesterday, the center buzzed with activity.  The caterers prepared busily for lunch.  Television news crews unloaded their gear.  Union members, local government officials and community members arrived by the dozens.  Organizer Mike Roth (see pix left) checked his list and checked his list again to make sure every last detail was in order.  The excitement of the morning was the arrival of Senator Barbara Boxer and the launch of the Apollo Alliance’s The New Apollo Program. Apollo Chairman Phil Angelides welcomed the crowd and local luminaries and introduced his guest panel.

The panel from left to right (see pix above) included:

• Ian Kim, Green-Collar Jobs Campaign Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and leader of the Oakland Apollo Alliance
• Carl Zichella, Director of Western Renewable Programs, Sierra Club
• Senator Barbara Boxer
• Phil Angelides, Chairman of The Apollo Alliance
• Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor Federation
• Lisa Mortenson, C.E.O. of Community Fuels
• Bob Balgenorth, President of the California Building and Construction Trades

Phil began the program by explaining how necessary The New Apollo Program is to our country.  We live in a time such that the government has to spend $700 billion to bailout an irresponsible Wall Street.  We live in an economy that shed 159,000 jobs in September and that’s before the recent bank failures.  In this light, Phil stressed the need for a new way of thinking, a new bold economic development plan. And The New Apollo Program embodies a new way forward, one that calls for a $500 billion investment over 10 years that will create 5 million jobs, turn our economy around, invest in our infrastructure, end our dependence on foreign oil and stabilize the climate.

Senator Boxer (see pix right) took the microphone next and re-iterated the need for such a vision as The New Apollo Program.  The Senator cited her dream position as Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works as a perfect vehicle to advocate for the types of programs that The New Apollo Program calls for - energy efficiency, renewable energy infrastructure, a 21st century power grid, and world-class transit systems to name a few.  She underscored the need to support policies that keep jobs in the United States and pay a good wage. And of course on everyone’s mind was the events of last week.

Boxer also defended her yes vote in the Senate on the bailout, citing the need to ease the credit crunch for everyone’s sake.   She said, “Wall Street may have caused the problem, but the impact goes all the way to Main Street….(This country needs) to put familiy first not special interests.”  She added that the Senate’s work isn’t done.  It will “get to the bottom” of the crisis in hearings that are expected to start in the coming weeks.  But more relevant to the issue of the day is that the bailout bill included an 8-year extension of the renewable energy tax credits.

Panel members were received by a receptive audience (see pix above.)  They weighed in on everything from green-collar job training to biodiesel to social justice issues.

Bob Balgenorth talked about the 50,000 trained union employees in California and programs that offer technical education in green technologies that will lead to good, family-supporting careers.

Lisa Mortenson’s company has union friendly stance that include procurement policies that resulted in components being made in the U.S.A. and its Stockton facility being constructed with 100% prevailing wage contracts.

Art Pulaski emphasized the need to help workers understand the current structural changes in our economy and technology.

Carl Zichella spoke about how environmentalists and labor need to work together to improve public health and to turn our challenges into opportunity.  He made a very salient point that 100 years ago there were no gas stations or highways; in World War II we went from a horse-led army to  the best army in the world in less than 4 years because we dedicated ourselves to the effort; so it is ludicrous to think that we can’t build a new infrastructure based on a clean energy economy.

Ian Kim said that people are ‘thirsty for a solution’ and that The New Apollo Program is a ‘game changer’ that with its strong ‘four-legged table’ of environmental, business, labor and community involvement can become a reality.

The consensus agreement in the room between these different diverse constituents was evident and they are working together and eager to bring everyone under the tent.   The Congress passed the renewable energy tax credits that will give the market stability for companies to thrive and innovate, which in turn will fuel demand for skilled union workers.  The unions have training programs to teach people the necessary skills for a new green economy and help them transition.  Community groups are working with their local municipalities and community college systems to bring young people into the fold.  And environmentalists are making sure that the policies that are passed in Congress bring us cleaner air and a healthier environment.

Angelides said in conclusion, “We are closing a chapter on policies that didn’t work and opening a new chapter of those that do.”

– Heidi Pickman

It might actually rain over the next couple of days, but if you’re interested in green-collar jobs and you live in California the forecast is sunny.  Who would have guessed?

Seriously, California leads the nation in adopting aggressive clean energy policies that result in increased demand for a skilled and trained workforce - not to mention reductions in pollution and greenhouse gases.  And the California Apollo Alliance is on the forefront, leading the charge.  Earlier this week several clean energy, good jobs bills that involved the California Apollo Alliance became law.

Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nuñez had help from the California Apollo Alliance in crafting AB 3018.  The bill creates a Green-Collar Jobs Council that will develop a comprehensive approach to address California’s emerging workforce needs that come with its budding green economy.  The Council will identify needed skills and link them to workforce training and job opportunities; develop statewide and regional labor market data on CA’s emerging green industries and workforce needs; and provide policy guidance for job training programs in the clean and green technology sectors to assist and prepare at-risk youth, displaced workers, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, and others facing barriers to employment.

The CA Apollo Alliance and the State Building Trades Council of CA co-sponsored and helped craft AB2855 (Loni Hancock.)  AB2855 designates Career Technical Education Partnership Academy programs in grades 10-12 in Green Technology and Goods Movement.  That means that the state has made it a priority to teach high school students environmentally sound practices in design and construction skills and in the Goods Movement industry.

The CA Apollo Alliance supported Mark Leno’s AB1451 which continues the solar property tax exemption.

These laws will strengthen California’s clean-tech economy, boost business development and add high quality jobs, while improving our natural environment.

The Apollo Alliance has four state and local alliances in California:

• California Apollo is led by Western Regional Director Carla Din.

• San Diego Apollo is convened by the IBEW.

• Los Angeles Apollo is convened by the community group SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education).

• Oakland Apollo is convened by the social justice organization, The Ella Baker Center, and led by Ian Kim.

Graphic courtesy of Cameron Maddox.

– Heidi Pickman, Carla Din

SAN FRANCISCO — On Saturday, in 650 events across the country that included one sun-splashed gathering here in Golden Gate Park, some 100,000 Americans rallied in support of government intervention in a market that hasn’t received the attention it really should at this moment — the job market. Apollo Alliance Co-Director Kate Gordon (see pix above) addressed the Golden Gate crowd. The events in all 50 states, in support of Green Jobs Now: A National Day of Action To Build The New Economy, couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

In Washington, lawmakers worked feverishly for a week on a legislative “rescue” package that leaders of both parties said was intended to shore up the bottom lines of small businesses and regular folk. But it failed today because not enough of their colleagues were convinced that was true.

There will be all manner of blame and finger pointing for the package’s demise. Yet amid all of the commentary one reason is plainly apparent. Regular people didn’t feel as though they needed to pay off the bad decisions of people not like themselves who ought to have known better. The White House/Congressional plan was seen not as a down payment on economic recovery but as a payout for shoddy work.  

There is a better way and the national leadership should take a close look at it. The Apollo Alliance, after nearly a year of close study and evaluation, and in collaboration with experts from our own allied organizations and others, has published The New Apollo Program, an economic strategy to rescue the American economy. The New Apollo Program calls for clean energy, good jobs investments in new technology, new practices, and new equipment made in America and used in America to grow wealth and cut costs.

The 10-year, $500 billion proposal will produce 5 million family-supporting jobs. And The New Apollo Program builds on the great American economic principle of recognizing market opportunities in the clean energy economy unfolding here, and then earning and building and inventing and sweating and honestly working to become a global leader in the fastest growing industrial sector on the planet. 

By no means is the Apollo Alliance alone in its conviction that a clean energy investment plan makes more sense than the $700 billion payoff. Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, called over the weekend for “greening the bailout.”

Van Jones, an organizer of the National Day of Action and an Apollo Alliance board member, told Friedman, “It’s time to stop borrowing and start building. America’s No. 1 resource is not oil or mortgages. Our No. 1 resource is our people. Let’s put people back to work — retrofitting and repowering America. You can’t base a national economy on credit cards. But you can base it on solar panels, wind turbines, smart biofuels and a massive program to weatherize every building and home in America.”

“Time and again,” we write in the introduction of The New Apollo Program, “periods of great risk have prompted America to mobilize its wealth, skills, leadership, natural resources, and entrepreneurial spirit to overcome challenges confronting us. Time and again we have emerged from crisis better and stronger.”

Green the Bailout. The rejection of the Washington/Wall Street rescue is really the clarion call from regular Americans for investment in people and jobs and a new way of life and commerce. We assert those goals are served by aggressively pursuing the pollution-free, clean energy market principles of this century. The best plan out there to do just that is our own The New Apollo Program. Read it. Pass it on. 

– Keith Schneider

When she joined us at the Apollo Alliance reception in Denver last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at some length on her determination to pass what she called a “comprehensive energy proposal” in September that accomplished several objectives. Pelosi (see pix above with Apollo Chairman Phil Angelides, Representative Ed Markey (l. rear), and Board Member Leo Gerard) said she would propose new rules that allowed oil companies to drill offshore in more places in the United States. And, she said, Congress would embrace many of the recommendations made in The New Apollo Program to spur development of alternative energy, biofuels, next generation vehicles, public transit, and the millions of jobs such an investment would produce nationwide.

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 236-189, approved the energy bill that Pelosi outlined in Denver. The compromise legislation proposes to both open up new areas of the country to oil extraction and significantly increase federal support and incentives for renewables, energy efficiency, and other clean energy programs. The bill calls for a national renewable energy portfolio standard of 15 percent by 2020. The Senate has begun work on its own energy initiative.

Here are the basic details of the House energy package, with a nod to Grist and several more Web sites for laying it out so clearly.

Oil Production

• Allows oil drilling off the nation’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree — but only 50 or more miles out. Beyond 100 miles, no state approval would be required. The drilling ban would remain in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
• Rolls back $18 billion in oil industry tax breaks and imposes new oil and gas royalties.

Clean Energy Provisions
The proposal calls for the following on renewables, clean energy programs consistent with those advocated in The New Apollo Program:

• Renewable Energy and Efficiency Tax Incentives. Extends and expands tax incentives for renewable energy, including incentives for plug-in vehicles, and retains and creates hundreds of thousands of American jobs. It expands and extends tax incentives for renewable energy, grass gas and other fuel from America’s heartland, as well as for plug-in hybrid cars, and energy efficient homes, buildings, and appliances. Investments in renewable energy create three to five times as many jobs as investments in fossil-fuel energy.
  
  Investing in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Home Heating Assistance, paid for by making oil companies pay their fair share for drilling on public lands. Creates a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to invest in clean, renewable energy resources and alternative fuels, promote new energy technologies, develop greater efficiency and improve energy conservation. It will also fund home heating assistance, weatherization, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and carbon capture and sequestration.
• Electricity from Clean Renewable Sources. Requires utility companies to generate 15 percent of electricity from renewable sources — such as wind power, biomass, wave, tidal, geothermal and solar — by 2020. A 15 percent Renewable Electricity Standard will reduce global warming emissions and lower energy prices, saving consumers $13-18 billion cumulatively by 2020. It permits utilities to meet up to 4 percent of their target through energy efficiency.
• Strengthen Energy Efficiency in Buildings, could save consumers at least $210 billion in energy costs through 2030 by updating energy codes for new buildings. New residential and commercial buildings will have to realize a 30 percent improvement in minimum building standards by 2010, and 50 percent by 2020. The residential and office and retail building sector alone accounts for approximately 48 percent of all energy consumed in the United States and of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
• Incentives for Energy Efficient Homes. Provides incentives to lenders and financial institutions, including the Federal Housing Administration, to provide lower interest loans to consumers who build, buy or remodel their homes to improve their energy efficiency. The average American consumer spends 9.7 percent of their annual income on energy, while low-income households spend more than 16 percent.
• Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act. Reduces transit fares for commuter rail and buses and expands service. The average commuter can save up to $8,000 a year riding public transit, based on today’s gas prices.

– Keith Schneider

Next month, the Apollo Alliance undertakes a nine-state rollout of The New Apollo Program, a clean energy, good jobs investment strategy. The New Apollo Program proposes a 10-year, $500 billion investment to build a new national purpose around solving the security, climate, energy, and middle class jobs crisis buffeting the United States, and restoring American prosperity. The New Apollo Program’s emphasis on investing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other renewable sources of energy is based on the proven capacity of these power sources to yield real financial, clean energy, and job results.

Our work to report on events and developments around the nation clearly shows that the clean energy, good jobs economy has already started in the U.S. and is gaining momentum. Take a look at these facts, many of them gathered by Seph Petta, our accomplished research associate here in San Francisco:

Solar Development

• Solar PV is becoming ever more cost-effective as research and production capabilities advance. Although solar energy currently accounts for only 1 percent of the U.S. energy mix, deployment of solar has exploded since 2005 due to a variety of conditions, including the price of fossil fuels, improved technology, energy security, and state and federal incentives. The U.S. solar market grew more than 48 percent from 2006 to 2007, thanks to state and federal policies, incentives, and to the construction of large projects such as the 14MW installation at Nellis AFB and big-box retail installations.
• Continued incentives and supply chain efficiency will help make the cost of solar competitive with fossil fuels, which industry experts claim will occur in 2015 or 2016.
• In 1954, approximately 1 watt of PV generating devices was manufactured; in 2004, approximately 1 billion watts were manufactured worldwide.
• The U.S. ranks 4th in the world for installed solar power, after Germany, Japan and Spain.
• Demand for solar PV cells now outpaces demand for computer chips.
• At the end of 2007, the U.S. had just over 3400MW of installed solar power (including PV, CSP, and solar hot water).
• Solar energy manufacturing grew 74 percent in 2007, led by expanded capacity of thin-film PV, silicon manufacturing, and other equipment production.
• In 2007, expansions of solar companies resulted in 6000 new jobs, 265MW of energy and more than $2 billion of investment in the U.S. economy by major Wall Street firms.
• The first utility-scale power plant in the U.S. in 18 years went online in 2007 in Nevada.

Source: Solar Energy Industries Association

Wind

• Using today’s technology, there is theoretically enough wind power flowing across the country to supply all of our electricity needs.
• The total amount of electricity that could potentially be generated from wind in the U.S. has been estimated at 10,777 billion kWh annually, more than twice the electricity generated in the U.S. today.
• Wind power generating capacity grew by 45% from 2006 to 2007, injecting an investment of over $9B into the economy.
• As of July 2008, U.S. wind energy capacity reached 19,500MW. Utility-scale projects now under construction will add at least 8000MW to U.S. capacity by the end of this year or early next year.
• U.S. wind farms will generate an estimated 48 billion kWh of wind energy in 2008, just over 1% of U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of over 4.5M homes. Minnesota and Iowa both get close to 5% of their electricity from wind energy.
• At least 14 new manufacturing facilities opened or were announced in 2007, according to AWEA estimates.
• According to Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, wind energy could supply about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity (a claim supported by the federal Energy Department’s 20 percent by 2030 prediction made public earlier this year). The AWEA believes that U.S. capacity is even greater. North Dakota alone has the wind resources to supply nearly a third of U.S. electricity needs.
• Germany is the world’s wind energy leader (with over 20,000MW installed), yet it has only a fraction of the wind potential that North Dakota has.
• Studies show that the “energy payback time” of a wind turbine is among the shortest of any energy technology: it typically takes only a few months (three to eight, depending on average wind speed at the site) to “pay back” fabrication, installation, operation and retirement costs.
• In good wind resource areas, a new, large wind project may produce electricity at less cost (over the 25-year life of a project) than any other new power plant, regardless of the fuel source.

Source: American Wind Energy Association

Other Fun Facts

1. Venture capitalists in the United States invested $2.7 billion in the clean energy sector in 2007, or 9 percent of all venture capital investment. In 2000, venture capitalists invested $599 million in clean energy development.
2. Revenue worldwide for solar photovoltaics, wind, biofuel, and fuel cells in 2007 was $77.3 billion, up from $55 billion in 2006, or a 40 percent increase. The United States accounts for a third of the market. This is the fastest growing industrial sector in the U.S. and globally.
3. Revenues for biofuel sales worldwide are projected to reach $81.1 billion by 2017, $83.4 billion for wind by 2017, and $74 billion for solar photovoltaics by 2017. That is a projected market for the three technologies of $238.5 billion by 2017, or triple the value of the market in 2007.
4. Researchers at land grant universities in the Midwest assert they are capable of developing the process chemistry and enzymes that will break down cellulose and launch an immense biofuels industry that can replace petroleum-based fuels gallon for gallon. And they say it can occur over the next 10 to 15 years. See our Apollo Alliance accounts from Michigan and Illinois.
5. Renewable energy accounts for less than 2 percent of all energy used in the U.S. But it is the fastest growing sector of energy generation. Onshore wind generation is now a $9 billion a year market in the U.S. and added 5,200 megawatts of new electricial supply in 2007, enough to power 1.5 million homes, and more new generating capacity than all other sectors except natural gas. (New York Times, 9/14/08) Even more wind generating capacity is being installed in 2008. The Energy Department released a study earlier this year that said the U.S. is capable of generating 20 percent of its electricity from wind by 2030.
6. Utilities spent an estimated $70 billion on new power plants and transmission and distribution systems in 2007 alone, according to Clean Edge. A sizable share of that investment is now going into renewable energy. In just the past year, a number of utilities and solar companies have announced aggressive programs to deploy large-scale solar power projects, including Southern California Edison’s plan to install 250 megawatts of distributed solar PV, Duke Energy’s stated goal of investing $100 million in rooftop solar, and Pacific Gas & Electric’s announcements to invest in thousands of megawatts of concentrating solar power in California’s deserts.
7. In 1988, voters directed SMUD to down nuclear Rancho Seco and pursue more affordable alternatives. Two decades later the utility generates 40 percent of its electricity from wind, geothermal, water, biomass, and other renewable sources of energy. The consequences for the utility, its customers, and its namesake city have been profound. SMUD provides its 600,000 ratepayers with some of the lowest priced electricity in the West. Electricity prices are a competitive advantage in the Sacramento region. California’s capital city has earned national distinction for being among the cleanest, greenest, and most energy efficient in America.
8. Renewable energy works. California generates 12 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. Per capita energy use in California is the same as it was in the late 1970s. Since 2002, Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest utility, has reached agreement with suppliers of solar technology, biofuel technology, and wind to generate 2,500 MW of renewable power. PG&E says it will have 14 percent of its energy delivered from renewable sources by the end of this year.

More specifically, Jerome Ringo is testifying in front of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means today

Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) is holding a hearing on policy options to prevent climate change.  The committee will be hearing from two panels.  The first panel is on design options of cap and trade.  The second (and the one in which Ringo will testify) will talk about the opportunities that can be created through addressing climate change and the cost of inactivity.  The goal of the testimony is to show that the cap and trade program can be a valuable resource that shouldn’t be given away to polluters.

The country can do a lot of good with the money that is raised through a carbon emissions permit auction.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates the proceeds of a carbon market to be between $50 billion to $300 billion per year. The Apollo Alliance’s new policy agenda, The New Apollo Program, estimates that an ambitious $500 billion in federal spending over 10 years would create over 5 million jobs. This includes a broad range of activities such as building efficiency, renewable energy investments, smart growth, advanced grid technology, Research & Development initiatives and a “cap and invest” program.  The economic potential, we believe, will be directly proportionate at a factor of almost 5 to the level of public investment.

One way to gather the funds we need for that investment is for the U.S. to enact a “cap and invest” policy (Apollo’s preferred nomenclature) that auctions off permits, in the same way they are auctioned in legislation sponsored by Representatives Markey (D-MA) and Doggett (D-TX.) (Rep. Markey spoke at Apollo’s D.N.C. reception as pictured.)

What follows are excerpts of Ringo’s written testimony:

On the major goals of a “cap and invest” policy

First, it has to set clear limits on carbon emissions, so that we can dramatically lower our national carbon footprint.  This will send a powerful market stimulus and begin to shift our entire energy economy toward low-carbon technologies.  Second, it needs to raise significant levels of public funding to reinvest in the new energy future, while ensuring these funds are not siphoned off for wasteful pork barrel projects.

On the objectives of a “cap and invest” policy

First, it should continuously bring new technologies to the mass market. Green collar jobs will develop amidst strong demand. Second, it should ensure that these technologies are manufactured domestically. Third, it should invest in the domestic workforce so that we have the skills needed in manufacturing, design, installation, maintenance and science.  The money should be invested in such projects such as a 21st century power grid, a world-class transit system, fixing America’s transportation infrastructure, rebuilding and re-tooling American manufacturers and Research & Development.  The investments should be made with an eye towards aiding workers and industries in transition and helping communities that have been disproportionately affected by the old energy economy to lift them out of poverty.

On the benefits of a “cap and invest” policy

An auction of permits can be a win, win, win – it can help stabilize the climate, provide energy security and stimulate the economy while leveling the playing field for those that have been disproportionately left out of the process.

On the potential pitfalls of a “cap and invest” policy

If emissions trading permits are given to companies instead of auctioning them off, then we make rich companies richer.  Exxon Mobil made $40.6 billion in 2007, which was three times the profit of Microsoft and four times the profit of Wal-mart.  In the meantime people lost jobs.  This is the wrong way and a lost opportunity, not only to foster the market for clean energy and revolutionize our economy (and lose the potential described [in The New Apollo Program,]) but also to assist workers and families caught in the transition and to lift those that have been disproportionately affected by a petroleum-based energy economy. Also, the European Union implemented a “cap and trade” program that gave away permits.  Not only have emissions not been reduced, but the E.U. didn’t raise funds to reinvest in R&D, infrastructure or its people.

Other legislation that might be discussed in the hearing include carbon tax legislation proposed by Representative Stark (D-CA) and Larson (D-CT).  Apollo prefers a cap on emissions because it sends a strong signal to the market that there is a limit on emissions that need to be incorporated into business decisions.  Taxes don’t do that and they can be passed on to consumers.

We hope the Committee hears Ringo’s message that not only do we need a regulatory strategy, but we need an investment strategy if we are going to build a new energy future with good, green-collar jobs for working Americans.

–Heidi Pickman

NEWARK, N.J. — Van Jones, the founder and president of Green For All, the Oakland-based nonprofit that is building national campaigns aimed at curbing global warming and oil dependence, and simultaneously creating good jobs, safer streets, and healthier communities, spoke Saturday afternoon at Newark’s Green Future Summit. His message to a group of more than 100 community activists and members of Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s staff:  “This is a very strong start.”

“You already in a one-year period have accomplished what it took four years to get to in Oakland,” said Jones, whose year-old organization was involved in organizing the summit. “You guys are connecting dots that we’re just getting to in Oakland.”

Just about this time last year, Jones arrived in the New York region with a new idea and a promising mission. During the three-day Clinton Global Initiative, held each year since 2005 in the Sheraton Hotel on New York’s 7th Avenue, Jones pitched his new organization, Green For All, which he said would be devoted to building  “a green economy that is strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”

The idea and the organization gained instant credibility. Jones had the policy chops and the street credibility. The Yale-educated lawyer and social justice activist had made a name for himself battling police misconduct in Oakland’s toughest neighborhoods. Jones has been a member of the Apollo Alliance’s board of directors since the earliest days of this organization’s founding in 2004. Jones was also building on the expertise and prominence of other African Americans who’d emerged as American environmental leaders, among them our own Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo, and Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx (see pix below of Carter addressing the conference from Newark City Hall).

These and other African American activists  – Baye Adolfo-Wilson, a young lawyer and planner who heads up the Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District here in Newark is another – added new clarity to America’s economic, energy, environmental, and national security crises. The nation’s economic dissipation could be solved, they argued, by building a new clean energy economy driven by market opportunities, and defined at the start by social justice ideals that provide, in Jones’ own words, “pathways out of poverty.”

The true brilliance of Newark’s Green Future Summit, Jones explained in his 20-minute address, is that those ideas are now becoming embedded in the policy apparatus of this city of 280,000 residents.

Newark, led by Cory A. Booker, who graduated from Yale Law School four years after Jones did, is the first major city in the United States to pursue a clean energy, green economic development strategy precisely to combat poverty. The clean energy economy, Jones explained, can provide thousands of new green-collar jobs here while it also greens neighborhoods, develop parks, provides entrepreneurial incentives for big and small businesses, and provides benefits never before associated with American environmentalism, like making useful, career-building work possible for the more than 1,500 freed prison inmates who return home to Newark each year.

It’s not at all clear how often Booker talked about these connections with Jones or Ringo or Carter and other African Americans who’ve emerged at the head of the nation’s clean energy, good jobs campaign. But it was plain during the two-day summit that Booker has gotten the message.

“You know that Dr. King fought to racially integrate a pollution-based economy,” Jones said. “He poured his blood on the ground to integrate that economy. I say that we should be willing to make sure the next economy is an integrated economy.

“Can people who were pushed down in the pollution-based economy — can they be lifted up in the new green economy?” Jones said. “Give our young people the tools and training and technology so they can be part of the biggest economy of all time.”

“Now we are starting to see some changes,” Jones concluded. “I believe that the country is ready for a new politics out of our cities. The country is ready for change. But hope is a fragile thing. It’s one thing to have an audacious plan and another to have an audacious plan and audacious people to implement that plan.

“That is what you have in Newark. It’s not Nirvana. It’s not easy. I don’t think I will come back in a year and see happy black people in jet packs installing solar roofs.  But it’s enough to start.

“We get a chance to be in a room like this with every color in the rainbow and from the beginning have a major impact. If you do it here in Newark, the whole world will have to believe that a brighter future is available for everybody. “

– Keith Schneider