Getting Past the Green Jobs Hysteria

Dexter Gauntlett

As recent developments have proven, there's never a dull moment in today's clean-tech political landscape. Early September offered an interesting and very ironic juxtaposition of green-job politics at its worst and best. It's a reminder that while clean tech has come so far, the dwindling number of climate deniers and holdouts are becoming increasingly fierce. Cool heads will be needed if the U.S. is going to have any chance at realizing the tremendous economic, social, and environmental opportunities presented by clean tech.

On one end was the Van Jones resignation brought on by calls for an investigation into the green-job czar from a number of Republican lawmakers spurred by pernicious attacks from right-wing groups and TV commentators. On the other end, a landmark piece of green-job legislation passed with near-unanimous bipartisan support thanks to the leadership of a New York State Senate Republican.

While the Van Jones story has been widely covered, the passing of the Green Job/Green New York Act (GJGNYA) was robbed of major media coverage as a result of the uproar around Jones' resignation, save for David Sassoon's great blog post on SolveClimate.com. The landmark bill passed the Senate on September 10 by a margin of 52-8 and 147-0 in the Assembly in June. The goal is to enable one million home and building owners to weatherize their property by financing the upfront capital costs over approximately 8 years with repayment via their utility bills. The bill also funds job training and is expected to create more than 14,000 permanent jobs. Thomas Morahan, a Republican that represents Rockland and Orange Counties is being referred to as a 'hero' for bucking his party leadership's call to oppose the bill. His individual leadership on the bill resulted in a cascade of Senate Republicans to lend their support as well. Governor David Paterson is expected to sign it into law soon.

The legislation is, in the words of Senator Morahan, building contractor Tony Listani, and labor union representative Jim Melius, — in a jointly issued opinion piece: "an unusually creative effort by business, labor, environmentalists, and elected officials to simultaneously tackle unemployment, rising energy costs and climate change." Morahan co-sponsored the bill with Democratic Senator Darrel Aubertine and worked closely with Dan Cantor, the executive director of the Working Families Party.

Similar to a city-level program in Portland and a state version for Oregon, that I covered last month, the NY legislation represents an interesting twist because it uses $112 million from Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction proceeds paid by power producers operating under the emissions cap effective in the Northeast region starting January 1, 2009. The $112 million will be leveraged with energy efficiency block grants, private investments and property owner funds to create a targeted $5 billion revolving loan fund that will result in significant economic and job benefits to the state struggling with 8.6 percent unemployment.

This is an illustration of how effective clean-energy policy requires that lawmakers drop outdated mindsets in the face of rapid improvement in clean-energy economics. And while the economic case for energy efficiency has existed for decades, new financing models enable cost- saving, job-creating initiatives like this to scale.

According to Morahan's op ed, the typical New York resident in an energy-inefficient home spends between $3000 and $4000 per year. The GJGNYA is expected to save $1.1 billion annually in energy costs – including in Morahan's Rockland County district where many houses were built before 1970 and unemployment has jumped from 5.2 to 7.4 percent in the last year.

Of course, Morahan is not the only one to buck outside pressure in support of good public policy. Since 2004, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has led the charge to make California a worldwide leader in clean energy. In 2007 Virginia Republican Jim Warner co- sponsored the failed America's Climate Security Act with Connecticut Democrat-turned-Independent Joe Lieberman. Texas oilman and swift boat ad funder T. Boone Pickens has become a household name thanks to his ambitious wind plans. And for years former CIA director James Woosley has been the leading voice for plug-in hybrids. The list goes on, and demonstrates that climate and clean-tech leadership can come from the most unlikely of places.

Is there hysteria around green jobs? Absolutely. Job estimating is an inexact science and the definition of ‘green jobs' varies widely. But in bleak economic times green jobs and a push to a clean-energy economy should be a rallying point regardless of political affiliation, as GYGNYA demonstrates.

Morahan's move is particularly poignant and inspirational because of its timing against the backdrop of the Jones' uproar. As the political climate boils over, I hope other free-thinkers further themselves from the rancor that surrounds important upcoming energy and climate (not to mention healthcare) legislation that will shape the next century.

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Dexter Gauntlett is a senior research and marketing associate at Clean Edge, Inc., and board member at Green Empowerment. Email him at gauntlett@cleanedge.com (Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook).