Report: Invest in Broadband to Go Green, Overcome Digital Divide
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To build a green economy, we must also invest in broadband and overcome the growing digital divide in our society, according to a new report. “Networking the Green Economy: How Broadband & Related Technologies Can Build a Green Economic Future” calls for new communication technologies to make our energy-hungry economy more sustainable and energy-efficient.
By transforming the way people and businesses use technology, the United States can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 20 percent by 2020–and potentially see gross energy and fuel savings of $2 trillion over the next two decades, the report says.
The Communications Workers of America’s (CWA) Speed Matters project, along with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club and the Blue Green Alliance jointly released the report today.
Specifically, the report calls for increasing grid efficiency through real-time monitoring, automation and self-healing capabilities, allowing various building systems to communicate with each other through smart technologies and extending communication technologies, such as broadband, to everyone.
Click here to read the full report.
Trade Commission Orders Duties on Paper Imports
The Obama administration today continued to support American workers by deciding to apply tariffs to subsidized and dumped coated paper imports from China and Indonesia.
The unanimous vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) clears the way for the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately impose antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of coated paper from these countries.
United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said the vote was a “strong confirmation” of the injuries suffered by American paper makers and workers.
Trade laws between nations must be enforced with government fact finding and the power to defend jobs and industries with strong tariff penalties for import violations.
UAW Joins Blue Green Alliance
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Citing its commitment to energy-efficient transportation, the UAW today announced it’s joining the Blue Green Alliance. The Blue Green Alliance is a partnership among nine unions and two major environmental groups dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.
The Alliance last week launched “The Job’s Not Done Tour,” a three-week, 17-state, 30-city bus tour to remind lawmakers that Congress has stalled on legislation to create and save millions of jobs across the country through a clean energy economy. The tour began Aug. 16 in Los Angeles and will end Sept. 3 in Richmond, Va. For more information and a tour schedule on the bus tour, click here.
In addition to the UAW, members of the Alliance include AFT, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Laborers (LIUNA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), SEIU, Sierra Club, Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), UAW, United Steelworkers (USW) and the Utility Workers (UWUA).
Union Workers Skilled for Clean Energy Jobs
Clean energy manufacturing jobs are the future of the American economy and unions are in the forefront of the movement to make sure these jobs are good jobs.
Union members already have many of the skills in electrical, welding, plumbing and other trades to build clean energy resources that will be needed to move to a green economy.
Speaking at the 2010 “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” National Conference earlier this month,, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:
Never before has the need been so urgent to produce clean energy, to use energy more efficiently, to prevent climate change and to protect our natural environment.
And not since the Great Depression have so many Americans needed new and better jobs with secure benefits and promising futures-jobs that can’t be off-shored, downsized or downgraded into temporary or part-time positions.
Trumka’s message is echoed in a new video produced by the Blue Green Alliance. The video, which was screened at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, rebuts the argument that creating a clean energy economy will cost good jobs.
Building Green Cars Could Create 150,000 Jobs
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Congress has the power to put thousands of Americans in some of the hardest-hit industries back to work and help protect the environment at the same time, according to a new report. New vehicle technology and the right policy choices, including incentives for higher fuel efficiency vehicles, could create up to 150,000 jobs for U.S. workers. But it will take strong, visionary action by our elected leaders to ensure those jobs are created here, the report says.
In “Driving Growth: How Clean Cars and Climate Policy Can Create Jobs,” the UAW, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Center for American Progress demonstrate how a new fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles would allow drivers to enhance energy security, reduce carbon emissions and put autoworkers and many others back to work.
The economic and environmental benefits underscore the need for Congress to pass strong clean energy and climate legislation that would promote good-paying domestic jobs and encourage investments in efficient, oil-saving technologies, the report says.
Clean Energy Could Create 850,000 New Jobs
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With more than 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs lost since the beginning of this recession in December 2007, a new report says developing a clean energy economy in the United States could create some 850,000 new manufacturing jobs.
The report, “Building the Clean Energy Assembly Line: How Renewable Energy Can Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing and the American Middle Class,” by the Blue Green Alliance, recommends major policy changes to build markets for clean energy and provide the financing and capacity building to create clean energy jobs.
Speaking at a telephone press conference today, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said federal policies gave a boost to the auto, medical and other industries, and they can do the same for clean energy.
Clean energy can revitalize U.S. manufacturing. Clean energy technology utilizes many of the same components manufactured for the auto industry. Done right, clean energy policy will create new demand for…manufacturing.
Environmental Community Supports Employee Free Choice
Happy Earth Day! It’s a great time to celebrate the cooperation between the environmental movement and the union movement in building a stronger, greener economy. A big part of that collaboration is making sure that green jobs are good jobs, so workers can bargain for health care, pensions, job security and fair wages.
That’s why it’s encouraging that so many environmental groups have joined the coalition supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill is critical to protect workers’ freedom to form unions, and give them a voice in the workplace and the ability to have a say in how their jobs impact their community.
Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthAction and Green America have joined the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, as has the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of union, environmental, business and community groups focused on building a new energy economy.
Blue Green Alliance: House Committee Takes A First Step Toward A Clean Energy Bill
A week after issuing its own principles for climate change legislation, the Blue Green Alliance said the draft bill released yesterday by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce takes the first step toward building a strong clean energy economy.
Last week, the alliance, a national partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, outlined its goals for climate change legislation that would rapidly put millions of Americans back to work building a clean energy economy and to reduce global warming emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Blue Green Alliance Reaches Historic Agreement on Climate Legislation
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The Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, today announced support for comprehensive climate change legislation. The legislation is an effective way to rapidly put millions of Americans back to work building a clean energy economy and to reduce global warming emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
The alliance called for a reduction of U.S. carbon emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and is supporting a renewed U.S. effort to forge a global treaty to reduce worldwide emissions by 50 percent by that same date. To meet these goals, domestic climate change legislation should reduce U.S. emissions significantly below 2005 levels by 2020, with individual partners advocating targets ranging from 14 percent to 25 percent.
Green Jobs Must Also Be Good Jobs
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Creating green jobs must be a key part of our economic future, and it holds the key to solving the dual issues of global warming and economic growth. But the jobs will only boost the economy if there are guarantees to prevent employers from seeking to make profits on the backs of workers.
For three days last week, more than 2,600 union and environmental activists and lawmakers gathered in Washington, D.C., to discuss how to create a new wave of green jobs that will both stimulate the economy and provide a clean future. Participants at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference focused on transforming the struggling economy through a range of environmental investments in green technology, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Conference organizers said the goal was to develop a “New Green Deal” that would create jobs, increase energy independence, reduce global warming and expand the clean energy and green technology markets.
In addition, the conference highlighted the potential of a green economy to build a new social agenda that lifts Americans out of poverty, improves public health and strengthens the middle class.
