Hill Heat

Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality resigned Saturday night. Below is the text of his resignation letter, sent to Chair Nancy Sutley:

I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.

On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.

I have been inundated with calls – from across the political spectrum – urging me to “stay and fight.”

But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.

It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement.

I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.

From the Wonk Room.

On Earth Day, President Obama is visiting a “wind turbine manufacturer in Iowa” to “champion his push to cap greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable alternatives to fossil fuels,” as top officials testify before Congress on behalf of action on green jobs for a green future.

Oil-patch and Blue Dog Democrats like Gene Green (D-TX) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) yesterday called for subsidies for the oil and nuclear industries to be added to the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill, while criticizing federal renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for taking initial steps to obey a Supreme Court mandate to regulate global warming pollution, saying, “if alphabet agencies can do what they want without regard to what Congress believes, there’s something wrong with the system.”

Transforming the economy through environmental solutions — creating good jobs and exploring green technologies that reduce global warming and increase energy independence — is key to our future.

Solving global warming can now be centered on reinvigorating disadvantaged communities. The economy can be focused on buildups rather than bailouts. And the focus of energy independence will shift to clean energy and new technologies.

Connect with 2,000 government leaders and decision-makers, as well as business, labor and environmental organizations at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference for three days of exceptional educational programs, renowned speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

The 2009 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference will alternate between plenary sessions and workshops. The plenary sessions will provide a stage for prominent national experts while the workshops will allow participants to explore new ideas and exchange best practices. The conference will focus on how solutions to environmental challenges can be used to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.

Green Jobs Expo

• 8:00 a.m. Breakfast
• 8:30 a.m. Morning Keynote
• 9:30 a.m. Plenary Panel
• 10:45 a.m. Breakouts
• 12:00 p.m. (noon) Lunch
• 1:30 p.m. Keynote or Panel
• 2:30 p.m. Break
• 2:45 p.m. Breakouts
• 4:30 p.m. Keynote
• 6:00 p.m. Networking Reception

Location: Marriott Wardman Park

Transforming the economy through environmental solutions — creating good jobs and exploring green technologies that reduce global warming and increase energy independence — is key to our future.

Solving global warming can now be centered on reinvigorating disadvantaged communities. The economy can be focused on buildups rather than bailouts. And the focus of energy independence will shift to clean energy and new technologies.

Connect with 2,000 government leaders and decision-makers, as well as business, labor and environmental organizations at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference for three days of exceptional educational programs, renowned speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

The 2009 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference will alternate between plenary sessions and workshops. The plenary sessions will provide a stage for prominent national experts while the workshops will allow participants to explore new ideas and exchange best practices. The conference will focus on how solutions to environmental challenges can be used to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.

Schedule

• 7:30 a.m. Registration
• 9:00 a.m. Welcome
• 9:30 a.m. Morning Keynote
• 10:15 a.m. Plenary Panels
• 12:00 p.m. (noon) Lunch
• 1:00-6:00 p.m. Advocacy Day – Capitol Hill / Breakout sessions for those not participating in Advocacy Day

Location: Marriott Wardman Park

Wal-Mart, in partnership with the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council (W-GJC), will host a briefing for Members of Congress, their staff, Congressional Committees, and the public on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 from 2:00 – 3:00 P.M. EST in the Cannon House Office Building Room 340 to discuss success stories in creating green jobs. The interactive panel will be moderated by Wal-Mart’s SVP for Sustainability, Matt Kistler, and will include:

• Chris Sultemeier, Senior Vice President Fleet and Transportation, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Kim Saylors-Laster, Vice President Energy, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Dan Lashof, PhD Director of the Climate Center, Natural Resources Defense Council
• Jackie Prince Roberts, Director of Sustainable Technologies, Environmental Defense Fund
• Susan Herndon, Vice President, Lennox Industries
• Chris Spain, Chairman of the Board and Chief Strategy Officer, Hydropoint Data Systems

The panel will build on the key findings of an October 2008 meeting of the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council at which top companies identified the key catalysts and barriers to green job creation. Many other Wal-Mart executives will be available for discussion after the briefing, as well as several of the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council participants representing leading suppliers in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, waste reduction, and water efficiency.

RSVP by 12 P.M. on February 2 to Terrence Bogans at terrence.bogans@wal-mart.com

Senate Finance Committee member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Energy and Commerce Committee member Jay Inslee, D-Wash., will join Laborers’ International Union general president Terence O’Sullivan, Sierra Club political director Cathy Duvall, and clean energy business leaders and workers for a news conference on Tuesday, February 3 at 11 a.m. ET at the United States Capitol to urge Congressional leaders to take bold action to create a new Green American Dream for working people by making sure the newly created green jobs are good jobs that can sustain families and fuel economic recovery.

Speakers will release a new report analyzing the varied quality of existing green jobs (some paying as little as $8.25 an hour), and urge Congress to take bold action to ensure that the major public investments in Congress’ economic recovery and reinvestment plan create a green economy that rebuilds the middle class and renews the American Dream for America’s workers.

The report release comes a day before hundreds of labor, environmental and business advocates go to Capitol Hill — on Wednesday, February 4 — for Green Jobs Advocacy Day to educate lawmakers about the job-creating opportunities that exist in the green economy.

Participants

• Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
• Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.
• Terence O’Sullivan, general pres., LIUNA
• Cathy Duvall, political dir., Sierra Club
• Michael Peck, dir. Human Resources, Gamesa
• Dennis Wilde, Gerding Edlen Development
• David Foster, exec. dir., Blue Green Alliance
• Perrette Hopkins, trainee, Garden State Alliance for a New Economy

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing to discuss the opportunities for green jobs in the United States and the policies needed to support them. Amidst the growing global recession, debate among American policymakers is centering on the need to create well-paying, secure jobs and stimulate the national economy. At the same time, there is a call to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and our climate change-inducing greenhouse gas emissions. The renewable energy and energy efficiency industries can meet these needs, if bolstered by federal policy that accounts for these positive externalities and levels the playing field with long-established energy industries.

This briefing will focus on a recently released green jobs report by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and Management Information Services, Inc (MISI). The report provides a sector-by-sector analysis of opportunities in the rapidly changing renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) industries as well as a case study of the development of the RE industry in Colorado. A key finding of this report is that the RE and EE industries provide more than 9 million jobs and more than $1 trillion in revenue in the United States (as of 2007) and could generate another 37 million jobs by 2030. Speakers will also discuss policy options such as a national renewable portfolio standard, long-term extension of the production tax credit, effective net metering policies, and policies that improve access to electric transmission infrastructure, and their potential impact on the development of a green-collar workforce. Furthermore, the panel will explore the success of Germany’s renewable sector – a global leader which already generates $240 billion in annual revenue, employs 250,000 people, and is expected to provide more jobs than the country’s auto industry by 2020.

Speakers for this event include:

• Brad Collins, Executive Director, American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and Publisher, SOLAR TODAY magazine
• Roger Bezdek, President, Management Information Strategies, Inc.
• Mario Soos, Counselor on Environment and Energy, German Embassy in Washington, DC

This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, please contact Amy Sauer at asauer@eesi.org or (202) 662-1892.

From the Wonk Room.

President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly completed his Cabinet with the selection of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) as Secretary of Labor. Solis, a five-term representative from East Los Angeles, is a progressive leader in the fight for green jobs, as both a “stalwart friend of the unions” and the author of the first environmental justice law in the nation. At this summer’s National Clean Energy Summit, convened by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Solis spoke about her commitment to solving global warming through a clean energy economy for all:

Our nation is at a crossroads right now. We can choose to transition to a clean energy economy that secures our energy supply and combats climate change or we can continue down the same old path of uncertainty and insecurity that we’re currently in. Current economic conditions, particularly for under-served, under-represented minority communities underscore the need to transition to clean energy technology.

Watch it:

The Green Jobs Act authored by Solis and passed into law as part of the 2007 energy bill was not funded at all. Green For All and the Center for American Progress are calling for full funding of this legislation.

At a time of fiscal belt tightening, when some would put environmental priorities on the back burner, there are many who believe that investing in a green economy now is the best way to achieve both short and long term economic solutions. A recent paper by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute, “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy,” finds that to promote economic mobility, growth, job creation, and regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, we must fundamentally change how we produce and consume energy in this country and transform our economy to a low-carbon model. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will enable the United States to regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, grow our economy, reduce global warming emissions, and invest in national security.

Please join the Center for American Progress and three of the country’s leading advocates for investments in a green economy for a discussion on how each step of an economic recovery package (stabilization, stimulus, recovery, and growth) can be greened, and explore both national and state perspectives on policy solutions towards transforming our economy to a low-carbon model.

Copies of Hot, Flat, and Crowded will be available for purchase at the event.

Introduction by:

• Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Featured Speakers:

• Governor Ed Rendell (D – PA)
• Thomas Friedman, columnist, New York Times; author, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America
• Carol Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC

Moderated by:

• Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Live webcast.

Last Saturday, September 27, tens of thousands of Americans organized nearly 700 Green Jobs Now events in all 50 states calling upon their elected officials to make an inclusive green economy a top priority. The national day of action may now be over, but our movement is just beginning! Join 1Sky Campaign Director Gillian Caldwell, Green for All President and Founder Van Jones, and We Campaign CEO Cathy Zoi for a national conference call this Friday to discuss how we can build upon the momentum from September 27.

Please RSVP here for this call. You will receive the call in number via e-mail upon completion of the form.

Have questions for the guest speakers? Email them in advance to josh@greenforall.org.