The Blue-Green Alliance, a partnership of the Sierra Club and
the United Steelworkers Union, sponsored the Good Jobs – Green Jobs
conference in Washington, DC on February 4-6, 2009. The alliance organized
“Advocacy Day on Capital Hill” for the first day of the conference; Advocacy Day
gave conference attendees the opportunity to lobby the United States Congress in
support of a green collar economy. The prospect was exciting to most
participants, especially Greater Philadelphia Green Economy Task Force, since we
never thought to find ourselves in such a position.
The day’s mantra: “We come
together as a coalition representing a broad range of communities and
stakeholders including labor, environmentalists, community activities, business
and academia to help shape policies, which we believe can make states and cities
across America cleaner, healthier, and more efficient places to live and work;
lift Americans out of poverty and revitalize our nation’s middle-class by
creating a new generation of well paid, green collar jobs; allow America’s
businesses to lead the world in clean energy products and services; and
stimulate the flow of private and public capital into clean energy and energy
efficiency”. (Blue- Green Alliance) With our marching orders in hand, the day’s
events did not disappoint.
The Philadelphia delegation had
scheduled hourly meetings with Representatives Chaka Fattah, Robert Brady,
Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Allyson Schwartz, and Senators Arlen Specter, and
Robert Casey. We had seven hours to convince our political representatives to
vote in favor of appropriations for the Green Jobs Act of 2007. The bill had
passed the House and Senate with an allocation of $125 million, instead of the
proposed $500 million; however no appropriations had been made yet.
After seven hours of walking
between the House and Senate office buildings, I am convinced that Congressional
offices should be organized by state and region, if for no other reason than to
limit the number of security searches to which one must be subjected. But the
meeting schedule and logistics were not our greatest challenges. While we were
lobbying for a green collar economy, the Senate had received the House’s
proposal for the President Obama’s economic stimulus package and was consumed by
the voting process.
The news for the green jobs
delegation was not promising. The sheer size of the proposed allocation for the
economic stimulus package virtually guaranteed that additional funding to
support the Green Jobs Act would not be approved by Congress. Essentially, if
the green collar economy was to be funded then the new green jobs would be
included in the proposed 4 million jobs borne out of the economic stimulus
package. Furthermore, appropriations would be funneled through traditional
funding streams, which predated discussions about green jobs. Consider for
example the appropriation of stimulus funds for a pipeline of infrastructure
projects awaiting federal dollars. There is no assurance that efforts will be
made to revisit the scope of primarily grey infrastructure projects in an
attempt to introduce green infrastructure options.
Ultimately, political support for
a green collar economy was most in jeopardy on the Senate side of Congress. The
Philadelphia delegation’s best chances for success was to join forces with
Pittsburgh supporters and present ourselves as constituents of Pennsylvania; so
we blurred municipal and regional boundaries for the sake of a statewide
coalition. The newly-formed coalition lobbied Senator Specter for green jobs,
sustained by products manufactured in America, shored up by matching funds from
private interests, and free from barriers to entry for all Pennsylvania
residents. One hour later, unsure of our persuasive powers, we made our way to
Senator Casey’s office for the final meeting of the evening; he however was
detained on Capital Hill.
Minutes before the votes on the
economic stimulus package were tallied for the night, Senator Casey invited the
delegation to Capital Hill to make one final pitch for green jobs. Our numbers
strengthened by the Pittsburgh supporters, Senator Casey’s staff transported us
via the congressional tram to Capital Hill. One text message later and the
Senator joined the coalition just outside the voting chambers. Armed with
knowledge of what Pennsylvania had to offer in the way of green jobs, we touted
Governor Rendell’s renewable energy portfolio, promoted green infrastructure
over grey infrastructure, and endorsed weatherizing industrial-age homes –
including the installation of 400,000 solar panels. Days later, Congress
approved the Green Jobs Act at full funding, $500 million. The true success of
our adventure will become apparent when appropriations are made.
Three weeks later, the Greater
Philadelphia Green Economy Task Force met with Vice President Joseph Biden for
the kick-off meeting of the Middle Class Task Force on February 27, 2009.
According to the Vice President, “The new 21st
century economy will be led by green jobs.” While the focus of the
meeting was green jobs, Vice President Biden opened the meeting by thanking
Senator Arlen Specter for his bipartisan support of the stimulus package - to
which the audience responded with a standing ovation. The introduction of White
House Cabinet members, Congressional members, and municipal officials was
followed by well-received speeches in support of green job development.
John Podesta of the Center
American Progress praised the model sustainable energy utility in Delaware,
noting that “families spend more on energy than healthcare. While 150,000 homes
are retrofitted each year in the United States, 75% of the 138 million homes
(104,000,000) in America need to be retrofitted.” Van Jones of GreenforAll
emphasized the opportunities for workforce investment training and asked the
Vice President to inspire at-risk youth to “put down a hand gun and pick up a
caulk gun.” Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell highlighted the success of
incentives for alternative energy in his state, 564 projects and 8300 jobs.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter assured Vice President Biden that Philadelphia
is stimulus-ready. “Weatherizing Philadelphia’s 400,000 homes provides 2500
green jobs for a decade or more. Philadelphia has a green job for you whether
you have a G.E.D. or a PhD.” Vice President Biden closed the meeting by urging
supporters of a green collar economy to “get this right, [as development of a
green collar economy] could be a platform or a tombstone.”