Green Jobs

We must reinvest in the American workforce and rebuild our economy.

Since 2000, 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost and corporations have shipped more than 525,000 white-collar jobs overseas. At the same time, energy costs are skyrocketing. A bold plan is needed to revitalize the American economy and lessen our energy needs.

A Greener Economy Will Create American Jobs

One solution is supporting green jobs, which will create thousands of new, good-paying jobs and help curb energy costs. We must demand that politicians get behind green jobs, instead of looking out for Big Oil.

A "green job" is more than just a job with an environmental consciousness. Green jobs provide a livable wage and a career ladder to move workers into higher-skilled occupations. Green jobs mean a sustainable economy, where environmental goals go hand in hand with social and economic goals.

Getting to Green

There are a number of strategies for promoting clean energy and green jobs:

• Modernizing the electrical grid;
• Retrofitting buildings;
• Mass transit;
• Energy-efficient automobiles;
• Wind power;
• Solar power; and
• Cellulosic biofuels.

These would create a number of good-paying jobs—jobs manufacturing parts for wind turbines or biomass refineries, retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient, installing solar panels on buildings and manufacturing American-made clean energy vehicles.

Bringing green jobs into communities has multiple benefits:

• Creation of new, good-paying jobs: 820,000 could be created nationwide;
• Increased demand for occupations in which workers already are trained—such as construction, welding and electrical—which could drive up wages for all workers in those fields. In every state, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs which could see job growth or wage increase in a green jobs economy;
• Enormous potential for energy savings and good jobs by modernizing and extending the 160,000 miles of high transmission lines that make up the electrical grid. This will increase energy efficiency by an estimated 20 percent and provide new, smart access for renewable energy projects;
• Rebuilding America's manufacturing and industrial base by creating and keeping jobs here;
• Creation of new domestic energy sources, which will curb skyrocketing energy costs and help take control back from special interests like Big Oil.

Five Tips

We can put America back to work building the clean energy economy, but we can’t solve all of our energy problems overnight. Here are some tips to help you deal with today’s sky-high energy prices:

• Keep Your Car in Shape—Proper tire pressure, a properly tuned engine, fresh filters, using the right grade of motor oil and taking extra stuff out of your trunk can all significantly increase your gas mileage.
  Estimated Savings: up to 84 cents a gallon!
• Avoid Speeding and Use Cruise Control—Speeding, aggressive driving and hard braking can dramatically lower your fuel economy. For every 5 miles per hour faster than 60 mph you drive, it’s like adding 30 cents a gallon to the price of gas.
  Estimated Savings: 29-94 cents a gallon!
• Turn up the Thermostat—Setting your air conditioner just 2 degrees warmer, your furnace just a couple degrees colder or lowering the temperature on your water heater can save you hundreds of dollars a year on your energy bills. Better yet, get a programmable thermostat to make sure you don’t waste energy heating and cooling while you’re not at home.
  Estimated Savings: at least $200 a year!
• Change Your Light Bulbs—Simply changing all of your light bulbs to new compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) can make a significant difference in your home energy bills. In addition to using less energy, they also put out 90 percent less heat than a regular bulb—and that will help keep your cooling bills down! Learn more about the effort to keep good jobs, jobs that help create a green economy, here in the United States by visiting ScrewThatBulb.org.
  Estimated Savings: around $10 per bulb, per year
  (even including the cost of the new bulbs)!
• Stop Your Appliances from Being Energy Vampires—TVs (especially new flat-screen models), DVD players, stereos and even such things as cell phone chargers all constantly draw power, even when they’re not on. Unplugging them when not in use or using a power strip that can be conveniently turned on and off with a switch will cut energy waste.
  Estimated Savings: up to nearly 10 percent of
  your total electric bill!