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June 5, 2007

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

**Re: Co-Sponsor the Sanders-Clinton Amendment on**

**Workforce Development for the New Energy Economy**

Dear Senator:

I write to urge you to co-sponsor an amendment that Senators Sanders and
Clinton will offer during the upcoming debate on S. 1419, the *Renewable
Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007*, that
would help America develop the specialized workforce skills needed to
ensure robust growth of the renewable energy and energy efficiency
industries. The Sanders-Clinton Amendment would establish an *Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy Workforce Training Program* to be
administered by the Department of Labor (DOL) in coordination with the
Department of Energy.

The purpose of this initiative is twofold -- to expand our nation's
capacity to identify and track the new jobs and skills associated with
the growing energy technology sector and to develop national and state
skill training programs that will demonstrate best practices in
addressing skill shortages that have already begun to impair the
expansion of energy technologies that are crucial to national security,
economic competitiveness, and curbing global warming.

Industries eligible for training services under the program would
include: energy-efficient building, construction, and retrofits;
renewable electric power; advanced automotive drive trains; advanced
bio-fuels; and the deconstruction and materials use industries.

As Congress advances programs to enhance our energy security and address
global warming, workforce shortages are emerging in the utilities sector
that could stymie growth of the renewable energy and efficiency
industries. According to the American Public Power Association, half of
current utility workers will retire within the next decade. However, our
nation is not training enough new workers to fill their places. For
instance, the number of high school graduates with technical training
has declined by 35 percent over the last decade.[^1]

Already, the renewable and energy efficiency industries are feeling the
pinch. A 2006 study from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)
identified the shortage of skills and training as a leading
non-technical barrier to renewable energy and energy efficiency
growth.[^2] In particular, the NREL study identified a number of
critical unmet training needs, including lack of reliable installation,
maintenance, and inspection services, the shortage of key technical and
manufacturing skills, and failure of the educational system to provide
adequate training in new technologies.

Leading companies in the renewable energy and efficiency sector
experience lack of skilled workers as a key business constraint.
According to Steve Cowell, CEO and Chairman, of Conservation Services
Group (CSG), a leading provider of building efficiency and renewable
energy services, "the growth of the industry is constrained by the
challenges of finding experienced, trained people.... CSG has identified
this issue as our...industry's most significant constraint on
growth."[^3]

The program established by the Sanders-Clinton Amendment would help
ensure that our nation has the best models for training workers in the
many new skills required to properly manufacture, install, maintain, and
operate clean energy technologies. For instance, grant funding provided
under the amendment could train workers in such substantial new skills
as wind turbine siting, airfoils and composite repair, and weather
patterns that affect turbine performance.

While the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries use many
skills that can be transferred from other industries, specific, targeted
skill enhancements are often needed to take maximum advantage of the
newer energy technologies. For instance, investments in training of
building maintenance workers and building superintendents and engineers
can improve the operations of today's sophisticated heating and cooling
systems by as much as 10 percent in large public and commercial
buildings, according to the National Association of Energy Services
Companies. Such training could save millions of dollars per year in
energy costs in larger public or commercial buildings.

The Sanders-Clinton amendment is unique among many of the new energy
polices that Congress will consider for providing a pathway for working
Americans to earn a family-supporting livelihood in our new energy
economy. This Amendment honors the sacrifice of our veterans by
including them among groups targeted for training. In addition, the
Amendment helps to tap the full range of our nation's human capital by
offering training opportunities to those displaced by national energy
and environmental policy, economic globalization, individuals seeking
pathways out of poverty, formerly incarcerated, adjudicated and
non-violent offenders who seek to play a constructive role in society,
and incumbent workers in the energy field needing to update their
skills.

The \$100 million dollars authorized by the Sanders-Clinton Amendment is
needed to implement programs of sufficient size and scale to achieve the
dual goals described previously -- enhanced labor market information as
well as national and state demonstration training programs. The
Amendment would authorize up to \$40 million in grants on a competitive
basis under a National Training Partnerships program and up to \$40
million in grants to states to implement labor exchange and training
programs. Preference would be given to states that show leadership in
promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions. Eligible entities would include non-profit
organizations that are composed of partnerships between industry and
labor, taking advantage of established programs in order to ensure the
highest-quality training possible. The Sanders-Clinton amendment also
provides funding for national and State industry-wide research, labor
market information, and labor exchange programs.

Using the average costs of attending a community college,[^4] we
estimate that funding would be sufficient to train between 20,000 and
30,000 workers per year. These numbers represent just a small fraction
of the 3 million workers that would be needed, according to our own
estimates, if the country launched an ambitious ten-year Apollo-like
effort to build a new energy future. However, we believe it is prudent
to begin with a pilot program on the scale proposed by Sen. Sanders to
ensure we fully understand the kinds of training needed and future
workforce trends before investing in a larger effort.

Worker training, we believe, will be crucial to the wider market
penetration of innovative renewable energy and energy efficient
technologies. With passage of the Sanders-Clinton Amendment, businesses
can, for instance, have greater confidence that an expensive solar array
or geothermal heat pump will be properly installed, reducing the
perceived risks of investing in relatively unfamiliar technologies. As
skills improve, costs will come down. That will, in turn, pave the way
toward making renewables and efficiency a core component of our
country's energy mix.

Thank you for considering our request to co-sponsor this vital
amendment. If you have any questions about this legislation, please feel
free to contact Jessica Maher in Sen. Sanders' office at 202-224-5141 or
Dan Seligman, Apollo's National Campaign Director, at 202-955-5665.

Sincerely,

![](media/image2.png){width="1.6756944444444444in"
height="0.7805555555555556in"}

Jerome Ringo

President

Apollo Alliance

[^1]: Public Power Magazine, "Confronting the Coming Labor Shortage:
    American Public Power Association," November-December 2005.

[^2]: R. Margolis and J. Zuboy, "Nontechnical Barriers to Solar Energy
    Use: Review of Recent Literature," National Renewable Energy
    Laboratory, 2006.

[^3]: Steve Cowell, CEO and Chairman, and Mark Dyen, Senior Vice
    President, Conservation Services Group, May 2007.

[^4]: See
    [*http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html*](http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html)