Yesterday, environmental and labor groups stated that a $100 billion US government investment in advancing energy efficiency and independence could create two million “green” jobs in industrial sectors such as steel and construction.
The claim was based upon a report commissioned by the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and written by Dr. Robert Pollin and University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute economists.
The report demonstrates how a $100 billion infusion from Uncle Sam over two years would “create 2 million new jobs, with a significant proportion in the struggling construction and manufacturing sectors,” by investing in wind, solar power, and advanced biofuels, building retrofits to increase energy efficiency, improving electric grids, and expanding mass transit.
Specifically, the report suggests that $50 billion of the investment be issued in the form of tax credits to assist businesses and people in making their buildings and homes more energy efficient; $46 billion in the form of direct government spending on retrofitting buildings, expanding mass transit and freight rail, making “smart” electrical grids and new investment in renewable energy; and $4 billion in federal loan guarantees to finance investments in energy efficiency and alternative power.
While $100 billion may seem like a hefty sum of money, it represents $68 billion LESS than the cost of the recent Congressional economic stimulus package - that check you got in the mail from the government which wasn’t a tax cut, wasn’t terribly effective, and passed along the cost to your kids.
So what would Americans get for $100 billion? According the report, a lot of jobs - nearly four times more jobs than could be obtained spending the money within the oil industry. The report also claims the Green Recovery Program would bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing, which have lost nearly 800,000 jobs since the housing market began its tumble in 2006. The estimates were embraced not just by environmentalist, but also by various labor unions, including steelworkers.
“From the point of view of the steelworkers union, the view is quite simple, that a energy efficient green economy creates jobs and it can create jobs in America,” said Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers.
The report went on to claim that the green stimulus package would reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from July’s 5.7 percent rate (it is now 6.1 percent) and help lower oil prices by lowering domestic demand. Intuitively the numbers make sense, but whether our legislators will also make sense and pass a measure such as this is another story.
From our friends at 
“The EPA’s refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming,” Cuomo said in a press release.
