Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Stimulus to generate green jobs
By Marli Stewart
University Chronicle, St. Cloud State U.
February 20, 2009

President Obama's administration is working on creating jobs for citizens across the entire United States in his economic stimulus plan.

One can relate it to Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps, which was created after the great depression. The CCC was designed to aid relief to unemployment stemming from the Great Depression and to carry out a broad natural resource conservation program.

Minnesota itself may benefit from getting jobs out to thousands of its citizens, and community colleges have been at the forefront of working to help those citizens become qualified for green jobs.

The Academy for Educational Development and The National Council for Workforce Education are working with community colleges across the country to train individuals in fields relating to Obama's economic stimulus plan.

Jobs in the green sector for which community colleges are preparing workers for include wind power installers, solar engineers and designers, green architects and designers, ethanol plant technicians, biodiesel laboratory technicians, indoor air quality auditors, and sales representatives for those fields.

Mindy Feldbaum, director of workforce development programs at the AED National Institute for Work and Learning said, "This is going to create green jobs and provide a pathway for those who have been laid off and unemployed for a while. Federal Agencies are about to get a huge infusion of green job training."

Politicians, community colleges and employers are all waiting for this to help benefit them.

SCSU's professor of environmental and technological studies Anthony Akubue said, "Anytime we are talking about the environment we must point out that the greatest source of environmental pollution is energy production and consumption. Fossil fuels, oil, natural gas, and coal are our major sources of energy and they are going to be here for a long time."

"These jobs will be created and will help to stimulate the economy, but don't let the green factor swoon you into thinking that this is something that will change our energy sources or get us out of the war," Akubue said.

"Scientists and environmentalists have been working to create cleaner sources of energy for the environment and improvements have been made but our approach to the energy issue has to be an integrated approach where every energy sources is to be used."

"We cannot discount oil companies because we are at war across seas."

Not to say that creating these jobs is a bad idea. It will do many things to benefit our economic hardships. But many believe when it comes to energy efficiency the public needs to keep in mind that solutions are not as simple as go green and create jobs for the planet.

"How can you reach all these green jobs and resources to those who are poor?" asked Balsy Kasi, Professor of Environmental and Technological Studies at SCSU.

He mentions that the economic stimulus plan should be integrated with cost benefit analysis.

"There are grandiose inventions such as hybrid cars and electric vehicles but they don't look at the social justice issues," he said. "Poor communities are not able to afford these technologies."

Many believe small things can be done by community members to focus on going green.

How efficient are furnaces, stoves and refrigerators? Both Kasi and Akubue mentioned that citizens can focus on sealing air leaks in our homes, using low flow fixtures in shower heads and using smarter water heating to use less energy, therefore reducing energy pollution.

For more information about Environmental and Technological Studies at SCSU visit www.stcloudstate.edu/ets/.

Tuesday night in Denver Obama signed a $787 billion package into law. He also got a $50 billion foreclosure rescue for legions of Americans, who are in danger of losing their homes, ready.

According to msnbc.com the stimulus plan is designed so most wage-earners will soon see the first paycheck of evidence of tax breaks that will total $400 for individuals and $800 for couples.

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