From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,sci.energy,talk.environment
Subject: NEWS: Call for Clean Energy Transition with Worker Protection
Followup-To: sci.energy,talk.environment
Date: 29 Dec 1992 01:19:56 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Keywords: energy environment press

[Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]
  
CONTACT: Steve Kretzmann, Tom Lent, Greenpeace, 202/462-1177       
         Rod Rogers, Tony Mazzocchi, OCAW, 303/987-2229 
  
GREENPEACE, OCAW TAKE ON JOBS VS. ENVIRONMENT CONFLICT;
CALL FOR CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION WITH WORKER PROTECTION
  
WASHINGTON DC, November 23, 1992 (GP) Signalling a new
partnership of labor and environmental concerns, Greenpeace
and the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) today
announced their intention to work jointly towards the resolution
of the jobs vs.  environment conflict.  Greenpeace called on
President-elect Clinton to shift 5% (about $15 billion) of
current annual defense spending into a national priority
program to create jobs in clean energy technologies, while
OCAW emphasized the need to provide a Worker's Superfund to
serve as a transformative economic agenda.
  
The Greenpeace Energy for Employment proposal recommends
dramatically increasing the nation's use of energy efficient
and renewable energy technologies.  It focuses on improving the
ability of the market by providing renewable production tax
credits, low interest financing, government materials purchases,
revenue sharing, and incentives to state and local governments.
During the last 12 years, Federal funding for clean energy
technologies has fallen by 90%.  Current subsidies to the
fossil fuel and nuclear industries total over $50 billion/year,
while subsidies to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and
conservation measures combined are just $1 billion/year.
  
The Energy for Employment proposal uses Department of Commerce
economic models to project a net employment gain of more
than a million new jobs.  "Clean energy technologies create
significantly more jobs than conventional sources such as oil,
gas, coal and nuclear," said Energy for Employment author Tom
Lent.  "But no conversion as fundamental as this will come
without pain we need to be aware of these challenges, and meet
the issue of worker displacement head on, rather than sweeping
it under the rug."
  
Tony Mazzocchi, representing OCAW, noted that any proposal to
make broad based changes in the nation's energy policies will
ultimately cause the dislocation of thousands of workers. To
address this conflict between jobs and the environment, OCAW
has proposed a Superfund for Workers which is modeled after
the GI Bill of Rights and the concept of "polluter pays" in the
Superfund for abandoned toxic sites.  Similar to the G.I. Bill
for vets returning from World War II, the Worker Superfund calls
for workers to receive education with full income support as an
alternative to unemployment, poverty, or welfare.
  
"The intellectual capital for the post WWII boom was fueled by
the G.I. Bill," commented Mazzocchi, who benefitted from the GI
Bill when he returned from Europe along with 14 million other
vets from around the world.  "We need to recall the time when
this nation made its most successful economic transition from
war time to peace time and be guided today by that same vision
in the post Cold War era as we contemplate a green growth
economy."
  
Mazzocchi added, "Few workers can advocate for the elimination
of their jobs, no matter how concerned they are for their
environment and public health."  Recent US Department of Labor
statistics revealed that only 25% of industrial workers who lost
their jobs in the last 5 years found new jobs with the same or
higher pay.  Thirty-one percent were forced into lower paying
jobs and 36% were still unemployed as of January 1992.  When
you add it up over 2/3 suffered a decline in their standard of
living.
  
"We believe the Superfund for Workers must become a central
principle for making transitions and not merely a peripheral
consideration whether we're considering toxics reduction, global
warming, ancient forest protection, deindustrialization, or the
military builddown," stated Mazzocchi.
  
"The U.S. economy and environment desperately need both these
measures," said Steve Kretzmann, Director of Greenpeace's Energy
Campaign. "Other countries already recognize that the fossil
fuel age is over, and are rushing to gain the competitive edge
in clean energy.  The transition to a clean energy economy is
inevitable we need to ensure that it occurs in a way that is
both environmentally and socially sound."
  
Greenpeace has 1.8 million supporters in the U.S, and over 4
million worldwide.  The Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union
represents approximately 100,000 workers in the U.S.
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive