and gentlemen thank you for your patience in waiting for the beginning of this hearing but the floor schedule is completely outside the control of the members of the committee this hearing is called to order over the past five weeks our committee has examined some of the serious consequences of global warming and our oil dependence we have heard how these two challenges threaten our national security our economy and our environment all good reasons why we urgently need to implement policies that reduce global warming pollution and our oil consumption today we will examine another good reason to adopt policies that will green our economy the opportunity to create new jobs we will learn that actions which serve the national interest can also serve the public interest and that smart policies can provide a pathway out of poverty and into a green economy as we increase the energy efficiency and use the renewable energy of the united states we will need green collar workers to create manufacturer install and maintain these new clean technologies the range of jobs and skills requirements is wide but the potential employment impact is substantial in a recent analysis the clean tech venture network estimated that as many as five hundred thousand green collar jobs could be created by two thousand and ten we know that green collar jobs are already growing and having a broad impact on the economy as just one example the u s ethanol industry clearly has already created one hundred and fifty four thousand jobs throughout the nation's economy in two thousand and five alone boosting household incomes by five dollars seventy cents billion but that is just a fraction of the potential jobs and economic growth that the green economy promises even now workers trained for traditional jobs are translating their skill into green industries petroleum engineers have become biofuel entrepreneurs steel mill workers have become windmill makers and roofers have become powerplant builders as they install solar electricity shingles so that buildings can produce their own electricity in many communities green collar jobs will have multiple benefits pilot programs across the country already using low income weatherization programs to train people in the skills needed to upgrade the efficiency of buildings those families who increasingly struggle with the decision between heating and eating in the winter warmer homes lower energy bills while trainees expand their job opportunities in two thousand and five buildings accounted for nearly forty percent of global warming pollution in the united states so by combining upgrading  homes and job training global warming pollution will go down and the employment prospects of some of our poorest workers will go up in america as we become more efficient and more reliant on renewable energy the dirty power generation which currently exists disproportionately in low income areas can be replaced including these communities and the economic expansion promised by the green economy has the potential to bring large numbers of people out of poverty while improving the provide for those who have too little the same is true for the green deal america now needs in the green economy opportunities must be available for the many not just the few i look forward to learning from today's witnesses how the benefits of the green economy can be shared broadly i now turn and recognize the gentleman from wisconsin the ranking member of the committee mister sensenbrenner mister sensenbrenner thank you very much mister chairman today's hearing is about jobs specifically we are going to talk today about creating new jobs a topic that republicans know something about since congress passed tax relief in august two thousand and three the economy has added seven point eight million jobs i agree there is always room in the economy for more jobs and for better jobs whether they are blue collar white collar or what seems to be the latest in workforce fashion green collar we are likely to see today the republicans and democrats agree on the goal of job creation but take different paths to reach that goal i believe the free market forces of the private sector offer the best road to job creation i think that relying on the government to create jobs is a dead end one question i would like to see answered today what a green collar job is one of our witnesses mister van jones wrote in yes magazine that a green collar job includes construction work on a green building or even bicycle repair mister jones is devoted to creating more jobs and economic opportunities and for that he is to be commended he is also right to assert that some environmental projects will help create new jobs but i do think it is important that we distinguish between the new jobs created to develop advanced technology and jobs that play a supporting role to green technology the reason this is an important distinction is because part of today's focus is on government job training programs already the federal government spends am worried that by creating big government programs for so called green collar job training what we really would be doing is simply duplicating the job training programs that already exist it seems to me that many of the green collar jobs require the same blue collar skill sets that are already addressed by job training programs in both the public and private sectors is construction of a green building that fundamentally different than constructing a traditional building is installing a solar panel fundamentally different than installing a satellite dish i have serious questions about what type of job training will really be needed for the so called green collar jobs as mister thelen says in his prepared testimony with individuals who are in transition it is tempting to encourage them to train for the next hot job whether that is in health careers information technology or in this case green jobs i think we need to be cautious about creating job training programs for jobs that don't yet exist thanks to the private sector these jobs may be just around the corner but we shouldn't rush to train the labor force for jobs that don't yet exist and may not require special training anyway i do think that there are ways to promote jobs that are directly related to green technology in fact i joined three hundred and eighty eight of my colleagues in the house last month to approve a bill that i believe will help promote more green jobs it is called the ten thousand teachers ten million minds science and math scholarship act it will create a scholarship program to encourage college students to become math and science teachers these teachers will help to train a highly skilled workforce in the future i firmly believe that we must look to advance technology in order to address global warming issues and it seems that i am not the only one who believes that technology will play a big role in climate change policy promoting advanced technology in hybrid cars is the number one point in the apollo alliance's plan for good jobs and energy independence and i am happy that mister jerome ringo apollo alliance's president is here with us and i look forward to h what types of advanced technology have captured his interest in march the bank of america announced a twenty dollars billion program that will finance green programs including mortgages on green buildings not to be outdone citigroup announced in may a fifty billion ten year program devoted to funding green projects that is seventy dollars billion for green projects without a single dollar coming from the taxpayers already many companies are talking about green initiatives including wal mart which recently announced it would place solar panels on at least twenty two of their stores if these companies need specially trained employees they certainly have the wherewithal to fund it on their own green collar jobs will be good for the economy just like white and blue collar jobs i think the private sector is already on the path toward putting people to work in the green collar jobs but i am worried that more big government programs will only create a roadblock i thank the chair and yield back the balance of my time talk about the growth and innovation of the greening of our country we can't forget rural america or those low income areas so when we think about silicon valley think about also east los angeles the bronx and missouri so we need to be thinking big picture here i would also like to say that a part of what i see or envision here in this new era is that the environmental industries that are experiencing major job growth and i want to quote a paragraph from a letter that i just received from the mayor of  san francisco mister newsome he said that they are experiencing major job growth which includes green buildings energy efficiency retrofit and service renewable energy such as wind solar and biofuels being service intensive these industries produce high quality jobs that are less vulnerable to outsourcing i think a very very important aspect of this is that we are trying to keep our jobs here within the parameters of the u s a so i know we are going to hear about this i am very excited about this opportunity and am looking at introducing legislation along with my colleagues congressman tierney congressman miller and congressman mcnerney to see how we could better serve retrain retrofit our workers who have lost jobs that have gone overseas to keep them here and then address the issue of our youth underserved youth who we seem to be losing they can also be a big magnet in attracting new innovation and getting them more involved in the new technological future in the responding with lots of market alternatives to the green jobs and creating green jobs and that there are forces out there to try to fill the void i will waive my opening statement the chairman the gentleman waives his opening statement the chair recognizes the gentleman by recognizing our first witness he is the president and founder of the ella baker center for human rights in oakland california mister jones has spent his career advocating for social and environmental justice and can point to the city of oakland's adoption of his green jobs corps proposal as just one of his many successes mister jones welcome whenever you are ready please begin mister jones thank you very much  mister chairman and members i am very glad to be here let me just jump right in i really appreciated the comments from mister sensenbrenner i think they are right on point and i want to get directly to them first of all i think all of us here can agree on at least three things one is that all things being equal clean energy is better than dirty energy we would rather have clean energy than dirty energy in our communities it is more healthy for our children two conserving energy is better than wasting it the creator has given us so much energy we shouldn't just you know waste it the way we are doing right now and third if there is a way and a smart way to get a reduction in both poverty and pollution we can cut both poverty and pollution we would be foolish not to do so so i think those three values we all share the question is what is the proper role for government what is the proper role for markets i want to make an argument that there is a proper role for government moving forward number one as we move from a dirty energy wasteful economy to a conservation based clean energy economy we automatically create more jobs why is that we create more jobs because it takes more people to do energy the right way if you want one megawatt of energy and you want to use say natural gas to do it which is the cleanest of all the dirty energy forms one megawatt of energy will give you one job for an american worker one job if you don't go with the gas and instead you go with geothermal or wind you get six jobs if you go with solar power photovoltaic you get twenty two jobs so you create the same amount of energy but you create many many more jobs the problem that we have right now contrary to some of your earlier concerns is that our workforce development is actually lagging and lagging dramatically behind this opportunity we have the opportunity to grow the jobs but we are already encountering labor shortages in northern california where the green economy is moving forward most dramatically community colleges are not prepared our vocational training programs are not prepared and what we are hearing from eco entrepreneurs themselves the business leaders themselves in this field is that they are not getting the kinds of graduates from our programs that they need to be able to go to scale so it is the business community from which we are hearing at least in northern california that they need more help they need better trained graduates the challenge that we now face is that as you begin to meet the workforce development needs of the business community the cities and local municipalities cannot retrofit ourselves fast enough our community colleges don't have the money they don't have the resources to turn around on a dime and meet this need we need federal help we need we recognize that the federal government does do some work for us development frankly it has been doing less and less over time we think it is time now to begin to take advantage of this opportunity and to invest more and invest more dramatically i also want to speak to congresswoman solis point this is the biggest opportunity that any of us will have to begin to create green pathways out of poverty to begin to build a green economy that is strong enough to lift people out of poverty i for one am conservative enough i believe in work i believe people should work their way out of poverty but for too long we have been telling people in the neighborhoods where i work you are supposed to climb out of poverty a six story ladder with three rungs on it we have got to start putting rungs back on the ladder of opportunity and this green economy this explosion of opportunity means that we can actually begin to build green pathways out of poverty if you teach a young person how to put up solar panels that young person is on his or her way to becoming a solar engineer an electrical engineer they can join the united electrical workers union that is a pathway to a union job out of poverty you teach a young person to double pane glass so that building does not leak so much energy that young person is now on the way to becoming a glazer that is a union job that is a green pathway out of poverty and for too long the young people in this country have only heard one thing from us older folks which is don't do drugs don't shoot each other don't get pregnant and then we walk away from them and we just leave them there to figure out now what are they supposed to do i hope that both parties will say to this generation of americans we have work for you to do we want to reboot we want to retrofit this whole economy we want to do energy in this country in a clean way and by doing it in a clean way we want to take that handgun out of your hand and put a  your hand we want to give you some hope and some opportunity to do something beautiful for your country i think both parties should embrace that agenda we don't have any throw away resources we don't have any throw away species we don't have any throw away children or neighborhoods either thank you industry he has firsthand experience in the challenges faced by workers and the communities near chemical plants and the benefits that green collar jobs can offer american workers we welcome you mister ringo whenever you are ready please begin mister ringo thank you very m mister chairman and thank you to the committee for inviting us here today the apollo alliance is a coalition of labor activists business and environmentalists faith community what have you who believe that our nation can and must achieve a triple bottom line and that is profitability and markets for a growing clean energy future industry curbs on global warming pollution and good jobs for american families we have got to bring jobs back to america reduce our dependency on foreign oil and get off the oil barrel that we have been held over by foreign countries we at apollo believe that the ambitious three hundred billion in federal spending over ten years could create three million new good jobs for america it would be a big win but to win big we need to set forth and place the specific policy supports that seize the economic growth in jobs creation potential of new technologies we should view the development of a cap and trade system as an opportunity to create major job investment funds that would be used to develop more secure home grown energy supplies and create those good jobs such programs would control global warming pollution twice once by capping pollution then by supporting the new generation of clean power sources for instance we would very much front of the cart by creating a new energy investment fund that could be used proactively to ease any employment issues that might arise later from global warming pollution controls likewise we feel that we should match new regulations with positive job strategies for instance mandates to improve auto fuel economy should be packaged with the big retooling incentive to help the domestic auto industry transition to compete in the new marketplace also  any renewable energy standard will be more attractive if it is matched with loan guarantees for renewable energy manufacturing that way we create jobs manufacturing w billion to the treasury at the end of ten years so it pays for itself and just a few suggestions on how we can ensure clean energy for good jobs investment fund delivers on its promise for good jobs for working americans first we need to finance a big increase in clean energy research and development i know both chambers are moving arpa e legislation however please make sure america captures the jobs by requiring that any new and successful technologies be long term certainty in the clean energy market it is widely observed that inconsistent federal incentives have been a major barrier to clean energy development a two to three year time  simply does not provide the assurance that project developers and component manufacturers need to justify investment decisions and third we want to match long term market support with manufacturing incentives as  ability to produce clean energy systems and system components renewable energy is growing fast in the united states but european and asian manufacturers now account for more than eighty five percent of the global market and we need to build up our renewable energy manufacturing by strengthening the department of energy's loan guarantee program so it supports manufacturing of proven energy technologies not just pilot projects and finally we must do more to prepare the workforce for a green economy we are proud to support senator sanders efforts to create a clean energy workforce development program and senator sanders bill would not only ensure that we have the skilled workforce to meet the challenge but it would also make sure that the jobs created are going to be jobs that people deserve and need the most and senator solis thank you as she prepares counterpart legislation in the house that legislation is crucially important to apollo's strategy in creating  clean energy and good jobs the challenge for congressional leaders today will be to ensure that we all get there together working men and women alongside industry environmentalists and our national security community angeles her latest project involves developing a green career ladder training program to provide workers to upgrade the efficiencies of the l a city buildings ms barboza thank you for your testimony this afternoon good afternoon my name is elsa barboza i am representing scope a grass roots organizing and policy institute in los angeles and we convene a progressive alliance in los angeles called the los angeles apollo alliance and what we are about is to take the second largest u s city and shape its economy and transition its economy to a clean and sustainable and equitable economy and to address poverty in los angeles thank you for having this hearing today on green jobs and global warming it acknowledges that energy independence is a jobs issue it is a workforce development issue it is an equity issue i just want to spend a little bit of time talking to you about what our green jobs but let me give you the backdrop to the story the backdrop is that in los angeles the low income communities of color like south los angeles like east los angeles face the same underlying systemic trends as other low income major cities other low income communities in major cities economic restructuring and globalization so those high wage long term union jobs have been lost and they have been replaced by low wage short term temporary jobs shifts in public policy have rolled back the changes that have been made increased division along geographic racial and income lines resulting in thirty years of disinvestment in low income and communities of color severe environmental inequity and crisis level health impacts in poor communities so according to the world health organization in the united states such groups such as the inner city poor have extremely poor health poor characteristic more characteristic of a poor developing country rather than a rich industrialized one will skip over all of the data that talks about how one in four latinos and african americans live in poverty with all of that as a backdrop we have we are contributing to growing to the job sector of the green right now for los angeles for the next two five ten years in february of two thousand and six twenty three labor community environmental groups came together to make sure that that development is going to be green so we came together to create quality jobs in the new green industry and focus on the unionization of the new economy to ensure livable wage jobs and benefits for families and we also came together to focus on the workforce development training and access for communities of color in low income communities to lead and establish the needed work to make the move to a clean energy economy so our vision is to create a pipeline that upgrades the skills of existing workers backfills with new workers and addresses the basic skills gap of low income communities of color connecting to union apprenticeships where there is a job at the end of the training so that we are not doing training just for training's sake that we are creating healthier and safer communities and prioritizing the  environmental uplift of inner city communities and impacting the public sector to take leadership and grow and show a critical mass of results to move into the private sector l a is unique in the level of collaboration and political angeles two things one is the level of public education and organizing in los angeles is high we collected over six thousand signatures from angelinos calling for this new over fifteen thousand angelinos were educated and mobilized to vote using this division in the mission of the apollo alliance to gauge california propositions last fall why is there such a resonance because this really is a  large scale job creation in los angeles and in the country it is a way to link community members to union jobs and other type jobs as well as to promote environmental benefits of what is needed today so how we are able to put together the progressive majority in los angeles and in the country we think that we have a model to do that our first campaign is around conducting an energy audit of city buildings to identify the sites and job potential to make them energy and water efficient with those technologies to create two thousand union jobs to establish policies to see the development of local green building manufacturing in los angeles and to establish a green career ladder training program to connect inner city communities to green jobs and this is all in the short term so the possibilities for the green economy to help reshape our country  productivity of people and businesses by providing a world but what is the potential for green collar jobs in the united states an environmentally conscious population is looking for responsible corporations who reduce reuse and recycle they want to give these co rporations their business and as a result businesses are enjoying gains in brand name recognition and consumer confidence as world recognition increases the need for environmentally friendly lifestyles m businesses are recognizing that staying in business has much to do with environmental responsiveness for consumers who are supporting the products and services that they deem to be environment we know that the employers that will keep america running in the future and that will be important to the bottom line of america's corporations are those who have an understanding of environmental needs and specific business processes related to their needs one of my areas of interest and where i have spent my career is helping young people and adults develop their career plans and for adults who are dealing  transition helped them move through that transition we know that young people will be involved in eight to ten different careers during their lifetime it is particularly vital that we understand the changes in our labor market and how we prepare individuals to enter and reenter the labor market i think many of these green collar jobs are being filled by individuals with an existing set of know skills who are now choosing to apply these skills and knowledges to a new sector of the economy i e green industries this past winter i had an opportunity to spend a week in a training program  facility and it was very enlightening and as i was reflecting on this i realized that the typical ethanol facility has about thirty seven to thirty eight employees of those thirty eight employees thirty two of them were involved in were traditional manufacturing job classifications such as maintenance and repair workers equipment operators and transportation and material movers the industries in which these ind ividuals are applying their skills and knowledges may be new however the necessary knowledges and skills are not entirely new and i noticed this i went out to some of the green job boards and i noticed  the titles of the jobs that people were recruiting for were very traditional job titles such as cfo corporate attorney technical services director i even noticed that the company i worked for in college as a tree trimmer is now listed under green industry jobs so in most cases we are not preparing people for green collar jobs we are preparing people for jobs that at this stage in their life they are applying their skills  needs of industry that is focused on environmental concerns as an example a lab technician who today works at a brewery tomorrow may choose to work at an ethanol facility a true example and the person at the  work for seagrams so go figure so how do we understand and address these green jobs i think the most critical thing is helping people like myself our teachers our workforce people understand what are these jobs are there some new jobs or are many of them just transition or just sort of places where people are applying a traditional set of skills in a new environment so we need to figure out how to inform teachers the main thing as i work with teachers and counselors is i am helping them use quality career information we have to ensure that this information is out there and the main way we do that is through timeframe but it is so important we help these kids understand how they connect what they are learning in school to these real world applications we know that kids today who are in school must have high quality jobs let me just close with this in closing i would like to reflect on what a sixteen year old student told me about thirty five years ago when i asked him what he wanted to do what he said to me is as appropriate today as it was then don't ask me what i want to do until you show me what there is to do our responsibility is to help students connect academic studies to real world jobs thank you very much chairman the chairman thank you mister thelen very much and now we will turn and recognize that you face out in south los angeles as well as east los angeles could you describe for this committee how you go about engaging that community so that they also understand the kinds of opportunities or challenges that they need to be ready for and how you help prepare them involve community members in policy development and then helping to so part of what that looks like is going door to door and talking to people about what have been the job barriers and the workforce development barriers lots of people have been through a job training program lots of people get a job training certificate but a lot of people but a lot of training programs are not focused around actual training programs that result in a good paying job so we try to take people's experience and help to develop good training programs that are based on targeted industries that pay a high wage and a livable wage we also do voter education as well so to make sure that folks and the values that we believe in and the issues that we think are important that we take that to the ballot and we take those values to the ballot as well ms solis if you could and this is for the whole panel what two concrete steps could the federal government take to help ensure that our workforce and our communities advance with technology and i will start with mister jones  and it came up on the panel as well and there is a concern i think some people have this is just a bunch of hype right this is just another fancy way to package up you know traditional work i want to be very clear it is not we are talking about new categories of own to try to figure out how to turn around our public schools and our vocational schools to meet this opportunity the federal government needs to put money on the table to invest in us to be able to help our kids meet these opportunities number two recognize that the new business community the new eco entrepreneurs they are not as sophisticated as the established businesses they don't know how to come interact with you and ask you for what they need so recognize that in order to help business the new american business you are going to have to meet them  halfway interact with them engage with them don't assume that the voices of business that you are hearing are the voices of american business in total there are new businesses now that need your help in a new way listen to them mister ringo this committee is a committee on warming and we talk about work building a workforce as a result of dealing with issues like global warming energy independence we have got to you can level the playing field with respect to the good jobs and the training for those people that have been in the past disproportionately impacted by global warming and that is mainly the poor and the people of color i live in louisiana i am an evacuee of hurricane rita and today i think it is going to be announced the activity for the upcoming hurricane season which will probably be more active than last year we didn't even get one that hit the united states last year we didn't have one to do that but when we talk about the intensity of those storms due to global warming and then what do we do about reducing that impact on the environment and benefit from it we want to make sure that those people that are disproportionately impacted also can get a piece of the pie with respect to the benefits of the new jobs and what have you surely we talk about in building a green economy that there will be jobs created in retrofitted assembly lines to build hybrid cars but poor people can't afford hybrid cars poor people can't afford to buy a prius and so therefore there must be legislation taking place by the gatekeepers you the policymakers that are going to level the playing field and make it easier for the poor to reap the benefits of the good jobs and the training and also not be disproportionately adversely impacted as they have been in the past ms solis so we might have to target some of that funding to these kinds of barboza i listened to your testimony and the answers the previous questions quite carefully and you seem to be advocating using tax dollars for community  organizers voter education program and electoral and union organizing i don't think that tax dollars should be used for that purpose because it is designed to achieve a political advantage rather than to train people to do jobs whether it is green collar jobs or any other kind of jobs and i would hope that you would rethink what your organization is doing because i don't think you are helping poor people get jobs by training them to be community organizers you may end up winning a referendum question or electing somebody but i don't think that that is what we have in mind in terms of providing job retraining  funds that being said mister ringo nuclear powerplants have on average four hundred to seven hundred jobs depending upon how big they are and these jobs pay an average of thirty six percent higher than the average wages and salaries in local areas would you agree that these are green jobs because nuclear power doesn't omit any greenhouse gases mister ringo well i believe that it is important as we go into this new green economy that we diversify our energy portfolio but we diversify that portfolio with energy means that would not have adverse consequences to us we don't want to switch seats on a sinking ship and i am not saying i am anti nuclear but i believe that nuclear has a place on that portfolio list if we can guarantee that spent nuclear waste can be properly disposed and we don't create  now that is fair enough we do have a cap and trade system in existence in europe and one can buy carbon credits from that the bottom has dropped out of the carbon credit market in europe in the last six to eight months or so i am concerned that the thrust of your testimony appears to be that we would be financing these green trading programs  challenged and i think that we have just got to find effective ways to generate the necessary revenue that it takes to invest in research and development but also as i said level the playing field you know we are in our infancy with respect to what will work and i think that it is important that organizations like myself like apollo alliance and other organizations give real considerations to as i mentioned before investing in ideas that will not have adverse impact on the economy or on this country as a whole you know if it is not working in europe it does not mean it is not going to work here but it is surely worth a try and worth the investment  statement you mentioned you support retooling incentives for the auto industry mister ringo yes mister sensenbrenner would you support cafe standards being higher for the auto industry without the retooling standards even though it might unionized autoworkers their jobs mister ringo again i am talking about a level playing field it makes no sense to me to have standards that are going to have adverse consequences and i believe that if i believe that standards are important we are actually dealing with whether or not the government has a role and then how deeply should the government go in dealing with climate change and the industry that  to create another industrial age and this time minorities would have an opportunity to participate as the door opens as opposed to as it closed  how much of a hoax this whole issue is and so if we are talking about taking advantage of this new technology or advancing a new technology does it not present all kinds of issues that we have got to get beyond before we can make the kind of progress that we need mister jones mister jones my great hope is that this is the one issue that we can be one country about this really is the opportunity at this point nobody is proposing that the government is going to come in and fix it what we are saying is we want to set our eco entrepreneurs up to succeed we give the ecological entrepreneurs a world class as our colleague said a world class workforce so they can meet a world class challenge now i can't imagine that anybody here thinks that the government has no role in education i think all of us agree that one of the great strengths of the american system is that we do have a public education system and that we have invested in it what i hope will happen is that we will use what we already agree on which is that young people and displaced our veterans coming home deserve an opportunity to get well trained to be a part of this new opportunity i hope that this green wave can lift me that that is something that we don't want anymore it seems to me that we are concerned about welfare at some point there has to be a ladder of opportunity that we hold for people let them climb that ladder but there has got to be a ladder of opportunity i think this is our best opportunity to build that ladder and i hope that we can be one well put the ideological aside i mean i think that federal policy needs to include policy that is based on data and that data needs to talk about creating policy based on the labor market trends and so look at the climate change energy independence way and look at that labor market do long term planning for equitable economic development that creates quality job opportunities where there are jobs where the are interventions that can be made look at and support workforce development to ensure hard skills training to address the skills gap we all know there is a skills gap in this country supportive services and support overall regional economic development strategy and that is really what this is about is that this isn't just an environmental issue but this is an economic issue and we need to create federal policy that is based on all of those mister cleaver thank you are any of you familiar with the chicago climate exchange experts on it but cleaver the truth of the matter is we would not even be selling ethanol at the few stations in this country where it is sold but for the federal subsidy without the federal subsidy this would not be anything going on in this country i guess the point i am making is that the federal government has a history of always stepping in to launch projects and programs that are in the interest of the government and i am not in the interest of the virtue of the opportunity we are faced with an opportunity as van jones mentioned that we have never been faced within our history not only and it is an opportunity driven by the events of our time under the umbrella of global warming we are seeing events associated with global warming that are unprecedented that are affecting the lives of people in a way like it never has before katrina was that example the gas prices at the gas pump are a prime example being held over the oil barrel by foreign governments with respect to our dependency on foreign oil is a prime example and so this is a galvanizing issue that can galvanize america could be benefits from it that puts america back to work again stimulates our economy in a way like it has never been before we are going to create a new green economy as i keep alluding to we have just got to make it a level playing field to wh will ask the indulgence of the witnesses to stay here then for about twenty five minutes i will return if any members return i will recognize them and if they do not then i will ask my questions and then the hearing will end the chair recognizes the gen cost jobs and you were responding to mister sensenbrenner's question about cafe standards and of course higher cafe standards are absolutely going to cost jobs and i am just wondering if you could flesh out for me a bit when you talked about supporting retooling new green economy and surely i think when we talk about a new green economy we are talking about good jobs but we are talking about new jobs and there are going to be opportunities for new jobs that are going to take the place of those lost jobs now i am surely not saying that there will be an automatic major job loss because of cafe standards what i am saying is that there has to be a balance in that we do not overregulate ourselves to where it does cost jobs i think that we will have to make the necessary adjustment to minimize the economic impact but for those that lose their jobs we are looking at a creation of new good jobs in the area as a result of the research and development of new alternatives that would keep america working it doesn't necessarily mean that they will keep the same jobs they have some people will lose jobs but at least they won't remain unemployed there will be new opportunities for new jobs if we promote this research and development and because there is a sense of urgency to do something when you talk about global warming and the increase of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere there is a sense of urgency we have got to respond because we obviously i think two things one it is really not clear to me and i am not being ideological about it it is really not clear to me that the cafe standard changing that is going to cost jobs i know that people are trying desperately to buy hybrids they are trying desperately to buy more fuel efficient cars i think that we could be actually you know seeing a renaissance for detroit by giving detroit the encouragement to do what really i think there is a pent up market demand for anyway number one number catch up to where i think the pent up market demand is now how we help we may disagree but i like the idea of health care you know for hybrids that kind of a tradeoff where we maybe help detroit with some of their health care costs if they are willing to transition over we have got to be smarter about how we partner with our business community both the new eco entrepreneurs and those existing businesses that want to go in the green direction i don't have the final answer on that but i do think that we should not retreat into ideological camps on this it is too important for working job loss are you working with the uaw to assist some of these displaced auto workers which are just about to happen here with these higher cafe standards thousands hundreds of thousands perhaps mister thelen yes i have spent the last fifteen years of my life working with u in one capacity we have developed world class training programs with them and really have worked with a lot of uaw folks as they go into as they go through a transition it is very difficult they have been used to a lifestyle  terms of a wage and it is hard for many of these people to understand that there is a different market out there than what they have been involved with for twenty five years in terms of what they how the market management have drastically hurt the american auto industry and believe me it is struggling without our giving them any further encouragement or direction i think that it would help if they were encouraged to make the kind of cars that their own employees would like to drive not what the madison avenue power and speed and sexiness lobby and the whole advertising business wants them to try to sell us i also wanted to comment regarding  nuclear power being green i hold that it is not it is not renewable it is not green it is not new it is not alternative it is a fifty year old technology and were it not for giant subsidies from this government including insuring every nuclear plant the taxpayer insures via the price anderson act every nuclear plant in the country there would never have been a single plant built because they can't stand up in the market and they still can't stand up in the market so i personally i have one into the water system into people's wells and so on and we don't need terrorism when we have got leaking nuclear plants in our neighborhoods not to mention the fact that mohammad atta wrote about this plant as a potential  expired there are three minutes left on the house floor for this roll call the hearing will recess for about twenty minutes and we will come back if any members wish to ask questions please come back at that time ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for sticking around the unpredictability of the house floor schedule is something that is ultimately  an adjustment that each of us has to make to our own lives and the vagaries are so unpredictable they do lead to discomfort not only for witnesses and for those in the audience but also for the members of congress themselves we will let it stay there we will now turn and i will recognize myself for a round of questions for five minutes if any members come then they will be recognized and if they don't that will be the conclusion of the hearing for all the witnesses we have seen a number of analyses projecting large numbers of jobs that the green economy can create from your work in your communities what policies  i think the first thing we have to do is and i am coming from a background of working in workforce development and career development is help all of us practitioners understand what is the skill set necessary for these green jobs how are we going to communicate to people the difference between these green jobs and a traditional job i e let us say a construction worker how are we going to help that construction worker know what additional set of skills they need to function in this new environment and one of the roles of the federal government should be is to provide us good data on these emerging jobs think because germany and japan don't have any oil or natural gas that their adoption of this green collar agenda is something that comes more naturally to them but here in america the the gas the coal industry serves as a powerful counterbalance so that we don't make the transition and ultimately we could lose these job opportunities to other countries  each community will be different the green economy in north carolina will look very difficult than it looks in california and so we do need to make sure that each community is able to design its own strategy with support from the federal government barboza what is the single biggest problem in your mind in ensuring that these jobs actually get to the workers who are the next generation of blue collar the question right now is who pays right so is it the employer is it the government is it the workers or the unemployed themselves so i think that that is really one of the biggest chairman there are obviously a large pool of skilled manufacturing workers there have you seen any gravitational pull towards michigan trying to take advantage of these manufacturing job skills that already exist in terms of new companies starting up there and trying to move into these new energy technologies mister thelen yes we have just two days ago there was a large  article in our state journal lansing state journal our paper talking about a manufacturing company that had been aggressive and they make housings for cars parts for cars and they were just awarded a contract that would allow them to hire two hundred people because they are now making they are making the same types of parts for large wind farms and so we have seen that we have also seen a large company that is now or a startup company that is making special shingles jones thank you first i want to enter into the record these two reports one is called community jobs in the green economy that was done by the apollo alliance and urban habitat for which i wrote the forward and the other is new energy for cities good thank you so much so and i am happy to do that for him the other things i think are important i think that we need a paradigm shift in our discussion about environmental  solutions the first shift is away from talking about environmental problems talking about environmental solutions more which i think we are well on the way to but the other is to think every environmental solution that comes across your radar screen if you would subject it to the lens where are the jobs how can we use this to increase jobs for poor people wealth building opportunities entrepreneurial opportunities for poor people improve health for poor people if we just begin to apply that lens to the entire discussion think it will radically transform the way that the public as a whole relates to this eco elitism for lack of a better term will not save this country eco populism as a strategy that says we are going to pull the country barboza i also want to enter into the record three different studies on training in the sectorial industries and looking at so three things one is we have a study coming out called green cities green jobs that is going to look at los angeles as a case study also as a case study to look at policy financing we also have another study called under the line that looks at l a employment and the training needs for los angeles communities as well as lessons from a career first program which brought together public sector jobs with people on assistance and those are models that we can learn from and do large have a larger impact on the work that we are doing now with green jobs and the green industry i just want you to know that the decisions the federal policy the discussions that are happening right now impact real lives and impact real families  and on a very large scale so we have the opportunity to do something here that is going to change generations and just as the manufacturing industry did for our  should be doing is bringing together this information and ensuring those of us who work in the field have a clear understanding of number one what do we mean by green jobs and number two what is the next step what is the call t action that we in the field should be doing to help our young people understand these new opportunities because they are the ones who are going to benefit the most from this and so that is what i would hope i don't  my information to come from a biased source i trust the information that comes out by labor market individuals and that is what i would like to see the chairman i thank you mister thelen i think you are right on the money i think our panel is right on the money  we are at the dawn of a revolution actually it has already begun and it is driven by the green generation this younger generation does understand it they do understand that it is a huge issue that we have to deal with and that the solutions are available our job is to make this transition in an effective way when the old economy was dying in ireland my young grandparents got on a boat and headed for the united states of america right into the  this industrial revolution that was unfolding but it kept moving along different resolutions just kept succeeding it and so now it is our job not only to create this revolution put in place the policies that make it possible for it to unfold in a telescope timeframe but also prepare the workers of the country so that we can move them in and so that we can capture the lion's share of the opportunity which the global economy is going to  present because i think that this is going to become a global revolution and we should be the leader and our workers should be the principal beneficiaries across the planet we thank each of you for your testimony and any other comments you wish