Energy Program News

New Report Outlines Rapid Green Economic Recovery Plan; California Stands to Gain $13 Billion by Investing in Global-Warming Solutions

As the nation continues to debate its energy future, a new report released today shows that the U.S. can create two million jobs by investing in a rapid green economic recovery program, which will strengthen the economy, increase energy independence, and fight global warming. In California, investing in this green recovery program would bring more than 235,000 jobs and $12.7 billion in investments.

The “Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy” report was prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, under commission by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and released by a coalition of labor and environmental groups including Environment California.  

“Solving our energy and environmental problems with an aggressive green recovery program will put more Americans to work at a time when many Americans are hurting,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Clean Energy Advocate with Environment California. “Our energy and environmental problems are linked and Congress should address these problems with comprehensive solutions.”

In addition to creating two million jobs nationwide over two years, this $100 billion green economic recovery package would:

• Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption.
• Create roughly triple the number of good jobs — paying at least $16 dollars an hour — as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.   
• Reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from 5.7 percent (calculated within the framework of U.S. labor market conditions in July 2008). 
• Bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing.  Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years due to the housing bubble collapse.  The Green Recovery program can, at the least, bring back these lost 800,000 construction jobs.

The recovery program aims to boost private and public investment in six energy-efficiency and renewable-energy strategies: retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems, wind power, solar power, and next-generation biofuels.

The report shows that the vast majority of the two million jobs would be in the same areas of employment that people already work in today, in every region and state of the country. For example, constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting requires roofers, insulators and building inspectors. Expanding mass transit systems employs civil engineers, electricians, and dispatchers. 

“This green economic recovery program is part of a comprehensive low-carbon energy strategy and would be a down payment on a 10-year policy program recommended by the Center for American Progress, including the immediate adoption of a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as targeted standards and incentives to spur the transition to clean energy,” said Bracken Hendricks from Center for American Progress.

The green recovery program investments would fund:

• $50 billion for tax credits. This would assist private businesses and homeowners to finance both commercial and residential building retrofits, as well as investments in renewable-energy systems. 
• $46 billion in direct government spending. This would support public building retrofits, the expansion of mass transit, freight rail and smart electrical-grid systems, and new investments in renewable energy.

• $4 billion for federal loan guarantees. This would underwrite private credit that is extended to finance building retrofits and investments in renewable energy.

For the complete report findings go to www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery or www.environmentcalifornia.org.

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About the Authors of the report: Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. James Heintz is Associate Research Professor and Associate Director of PERI. Heidi Garrett-Peltier and Helen Scharber are Ph.D. students in Economics and Research Assistants at PERI.

Environment California is a non-profit environmental organization and the California affiliate of Environment America.

NOTE: In little more than two weeks, people of all backgrounds, in all corners of the country, will organize events to demonstrate the reality and promise of green jobs.  On Saturday, September 27, 1Sky, Green for All and the We Campaign are joining with tens of thousands of Americans for Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy.   This day of action will make it clear that to the next President, Congress and the nation that we are ready to build an inclusive green economy, strong enough to lift people out of poverty and solve the climate crisis.  To learn more about Green Jobs Now go to: www.greenjobsnow.com

peri_report.pdf

peri_ca.pdf