BLUEGREEN ALLIANCE
1. Create Clean Energy Jobs
Get off the sidelines through innovative financing for clean energy.
Innovation creates new markets and new markets create new jobs. Although the global market for clean energy is estimated at $1.7 trillion to $2.3 trillion over the next decade, the U.S. is falling behind in the competition to create clean energy industries and the good, green jobs they involve. We’ve already let China eclipse us in producing wind turbines and solar panels, and China is now pumping $12 billion a month into its clean energy sector. Expanding access to low-cost financing is urgently needed to increase U.S. investment in renewables and energy efficiency, to reduce the cost of deployment and to bring innovative technologies to market.
- The federal government should provide additional financing support for energy efficiency and emerging renewable energy technologies to enable the private sector to help solve the capital-related issues that weigh down American clean, energy businesses today relative to their Chinese counterparts. One example of such a mechanism is the implementation of a well-designed Clean Energy Deployment Administration.
2. America’s Economy Requires 21st Century Transportation
We are well into the 21st century, but American transportation is still rooted firmly in the 20th. Our highways, transit and rail infrastructure need massive investment; further delay only hinders our economy and limits employment potential. Investments in a 21st century transportation system, as well as building the next generation of cleaner and electric vehicles, will create manufacturing jobs across the nation. These investments, coupled with incentives to domestically source many of the components of our vehicles and infrastructure and expand production of clean fuels, will help ensure America remains the world’s leading economy while also reducing pollution and ending our dependence on foreign oil.
- Empower ports to create good, green jobs. Reauthorization must also include Congressman Nadler’s Clean Ports Act of 2011 to ensure programs like the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program can be fully implemented in order to improve the public health of the 87 million Americans who breathe diesel soot-contaminated air every day, improve working conditions for our nation’s 100,000 port truck drivers and create quality jobs at ports across the country.
- Pass a Comprehensive Transporation Reauthorization Bill. The 112th Congress needs to pass a comprehensive Transportation Reauthorization bill that moves people and goods more efficiently, and simultaneously increases our energy independence, protects our environment, and creates good jobs. By passing a Transportation Reauthorization bill, America is investing in our highways, rail, transit systems, and biking and walking infrastructure that can create millions of jobs in manufacturing, operations, and prevailing wage construction jobs.
- Ensure American leadership in the next generation of vehicles. We need to support American automakers as they retool to build highly-efficient vehicles, and invest in advanced/ electric vehicles, battery and component R&D, and manufacturing. These investments have demonstrated that they create jobs and enhance U.S. competitiveness in critical emerging industries. Congress should prioritize the development of electrified infrastructure to make these advanced vehicles a more viable component of our transportation system and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Download full version (PDF): Invest in a Prosperous and Healthy America
About BlueGreen Alliance
www.bluegreenalliance.org
“The Blue Green Alliance is a national, strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.”
Tags: BGA, BlueGreen Alliance, Reauthorization
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