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Middle Class Task Force: 

Green Jobs Update 

Introduction 

It was no accident that the first Middle Class Task Force was on green jobs. Our focus on clean 

energy and energy efficiency jobs for the middle class occurs at the intersection of two of the 

Obama Administration’s most important policy initiatives: creating good jobs and protecting 

the environment. 

As we discussed at our first meeting – and concluded in our first staff report (Green Jobs: A 

Pathway to A Strong Middle Class) -- green jobs are good jobs. They pay more, by 10 to 20 

percent, depending on the definition, than other jobs. Council of Economic Advisor’s analysis 

shows that compared to the average American job, occupations likely to be green tend to be 

better paid, and are more likely to be union jobs. For example, industrial machinery mechanics 

who work in power generation, an emerging green sector, earn about $28 per hour. 

Interestingly, mechanics with similar jobs, but who do not work in that power generating 

sector, earn about $6 less per hour, suggesting a sizeable wage premium associated with some 

green jobs. 

We defined green jobs broadly as jobs that help to improve the environment in some way. 

That includes blue collar workers building out the smart grid to efficiently move the wind power 

(green, renewable energy) from the mid-west to major urban centers on both coasts. It 

includes “weatherizers” who can diagnose and repair the energy inefficiencies in your house or 

business. And it includes the green manufacturers who made those wind turbines or the 
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scientists and lab technicians who developed those renewable energy sources and 

weatherization materials.

At our first meeting, we talked about ways to expand the demand for green jobs. We 

identified key factors on the state and local level —policies, programs, and the interaction of 

key intermediaries, including unions, educators, and public officials—that are strongly 

associated with building a green jobs movement in communities, states, and the nation. These 

include: a public mandate to achieve an energy conservation goal; leadership invested in 

meeting the goal; private sector investments in new technology and energy efficiency; and 

partnerships between labor, community colleges and other training programs to ensure 

employers have access to skilled workers. These are also the key factors to creating clean 

energy opportunity economy-wide. 

That’s why the President’s FY10 Budget contains a significant commitment to transforming our 

energy supply and slowing global warming by capping greenhouse gas emissions, investing in 

doubling renewable energy generating capacity, developing low carbon emissions technology, 

modernizing federal buildings, and updating the electrical grid. 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a significant down payment that will – and in 

some cases already is – create new green jobs. The Recovery Act included: (1) more than $11 

billion for investments in a new smart grid, investments that will create thousands of miles of 

new or modernized high-tech transmission lines, while training and employing highly-skilled 

and well-paid lineworkers; (2) $6 billion in loan guarantees to enable green industries to 

continue their rapid growth; (3) $4.5 billion to the General Services Administration to convert 

federal buildings into high-performance green buildings, which generally combine energy 

efficiency and renewable energy production to minimize the energy use of the buildings; and 

(4) $5 billion to the Weatherization Assistance Program, $250 million to HUD assisted housing 

retrofits, and $600 million to public housing weatherization that will create tens of thousands of 

new jobs weatherizing and retrofitting homes; (5) $6 billion to state and local governments for 
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clean energy programs; (6) over $2 billion in tax credits to cover 30 percent of the cost of home 

energy efficiency improvements like installation of energy efficiency windows; and (7) $19 

billion on public transportation and high speed rail. 

Just last week, the President hosted an historic event where auto manufacturers, labor and 

environmentalists came together to support his decision to require an average fuel economy 

standard of 35.5 mpg in 2016 (much higher than the current national standard of about 25 

miles per gallon). The result is a projected reduction in oil consumption of approximately 1.8 

billion barrels and a projected total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 

900 million metric tons (savings equivalent to taking 177 million of today's cars off the road). 

This will save consumers up to $35 per month on fuel costs.

It’s important to see the connection between these various initiatives: addressing climate 

change, mileage standards, and green jobs. By setting higher mileage standards and by moving 

to cleaner sources of energy, we create new demand for the science, techniques, products, and 

tools to meet the standards. We help to grow the market for more efficient engines and new 

production techniques that reduce carbon emissions. And a growing market means more jobs 

for middle-class families. 

With these new markets come demands for new skills. That is the focus of our Denver meeting. 

We will be announcing a new green jobs training program funded by $500 million from the 

Recovery Act and new partnerships between some Task Force members (the Departments of 

Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Labor) that will make it easier for 

people to find green jobs and connect to the training they need to fill them.

Training For Green Jobs

The CEO of a leading construction company noted "Our ability to succeed in the green economy 

is directly related to the number of skilled, competent individuals who are available to perform 
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this groundbreaking work.” The Recovery Act designates $500 million for in green jobs 

training for projects that prepare workers for careers in the energy efficiency and renewable 

energy sectors. The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has 

released a Training and Employment Notice (see Appendix A) that outlines the ways in which 

the Department envisions these funds can be used to achieve the Recovery Acts goals: to 

preserve and create jobs, promote economic’ recovery and assist those most impacted by the 

recession.

Through the grants, the Labor Department is seeking to assist individuals by providing training 

and teaching workers the skills being created in emerging energy efficiency and renewable 

energy sectors. The $500 million dollars in the Department of Labor’s “green jobs training”

funds will be distributed through five funding streams. These include: State Labor Market 

Information Improvement Grants; Energy Training Partnership Grants; Pathways out of Poverty 

Grants; State Sector Training Grants; and, Green Capacity Building Grants (see Appendix A for a 

description of the grants). Portions of the funds available under the Energy Training 

Partnership Grants and State Sector Training Grants will be reserved for communities or regions 

undergoing auto industry related restructuring. These funds will facilitate the transition of 

middle-class auto and auto-related workers to the green/energy efficient workforce.

Case Studies: Successful Green Jobs Training Programs 

Over the past few months, the members of the Middle Class Task Force and the staff have 

looked at a number of dynamic training programs across a wide spectrum of green jobs fields 

that we feel provide a bright vision of the types of training programs that we hope to see 

develop across the country. Representatives from many of these programs will join the 

discussion at the Middle Class Task Force meeting on May 26th in Denver, Colorado.

Red Rocks Community College has two campuses in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado. With 

funding from the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office through a Solar Innovation Grant, Red 

Rocks Community College was able to launch Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technology, 
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Power Technology, Electrical and HVAC programs. These programs have both two year degrees 

and shorter certificates. They focus on training skilled workers in solar installation (both solar 

electric and solar thermal), energy auditing and weatherization. 

The growth of the program shows the burgeoning interest in these areas. In only two years, the 

program has grown from 10 students in fall 2007 to 231 students. The partnership the 

community college has formed with industry is really a best practices model that could be 

highlighted. Many of its instructors are from local industry, and its curriculum was developed 

through collaboration with local industry to ensure that the program was relevant and 

accurate. Students can begin with no background and complete a degree program or they can 

come in as master electricians and get certificates in areas such as solar electric installations. In 

the energy auditing program, the College prepares students for Residential Energy Services 

Network (RESNET) certification. The program at Red Rocks Community College highlights how 

Community Colleges are a key partner in training the workforce needed for our new energy 

economy. 

SEIU 32BJ’s Thomas Shortman Training Program. Many labor unions also run successful 

training programs. In New York City, where buildings consume 66% of New York’s total energy 

and generate 77% of city greenhouse gas emissions, the most cost-effective way to “green” a 

building is to train building superintendents and staff to operate buildings more efficiently. 

Better building operations and maintenance can reduce a building’s energy use by as much as 

10-20 percent per year. The SEIU 32BJ’s Thomas Shortman Training Program has been greening 

New York City’s buildings for the last four years by providing intensive training for building 

service workers. Building service workers are crucial to maintaining green buildings and 

producing energy savings in existing structures that are energy inefficient. The movement 

toward incentivizing the development and maintenance of green buildings is based on data that 

show that small changes, such as insulation and the replacement of inefficient appliances reap 

considerable savings over time. 
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The curriculum draws from recognized standards established by the Building Performance 

Institute (BPI) and the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). It includes units on 

benchmarking a building’s energy usage, managing water usage, optimizing heating, cooling 

and lighting, sealing the building envelop, and using green cleaning products to ensure good 

indoor air quality in well-sealed buildings. The Shortman Training Program has trained a total 

of 300 workers with job titles ranging from super and resident manager to handyperson and 

cleaner in Green Buildings curriculum, and has plans to train thousands of supers over the next 

several years.

IBEW 68 in Denver, in partnership with National Electrical Contractors Association, has built a 

$1.8 million Technologies Training Facility to train workers in photo-voltaic, solar and wind 

installation. Training focuses on theory, the highest quality installation, certification and 

safety. In Denver there are currently 225 apprentices – to date Local 68 has trained 480 IBEW 

electricians for either solar or wind installation. Nationwide, the National Joint Apprenticeship 

and Training Committee, a partnership of IBEW and the National Electrical Contractors 

Association have invested more than $140 million in renewable energy training. This month 

they will introduce their green jobs curriculum which collects more than 70 green training 

lessons in to one single curriculum – the first one for electricians in the U.S. Denver is one of 

70 training facilities being featured this week in a national IBEW/NECA Green Jobs Open House. 

Partnerships To Connect People To Clean Energy Jobs: A Important Role for the 

Middle Class Task Force

It was clear at our first meeting in Philadelphia that partnerships – on the local and state level –

are critical to creating green opportunity. This insight was an instructive one for our taskforce, 

pointing the way toward federal-level partnerships between the agencies that are making 

investments that will create green jobs. Over the past three months, members of the Task 

Force and their staffs have come together to work on ways in which we can leverage a variety 
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of programs at different agencies to ensure that green jobs are accessible to middle-class 

workers displaced from other jobs or wanting to enter clean energy fields, as well as lowerincome workers trying to gain a foothold into the middle class.

As a result of this collaborative effort, the Secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), 

Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Energy, and Education have developed some key 

partnerships and are working hard to ensure that the Recovery Act’s fiscal boost provides the 

foundation for future growth for all communities. 

Labor and HUD – Bringing Training and Employment to Public Housing Residents

Through the Recovery Act, the Administration is making a substantial investment -- $13.6 billion 

in HUD’s housing and community development programs and $3.9 billion in employment and 

training programs administered by DOL. 

The Secretaries of HUD and DOL have created a partnership to bolster pathways to training and 

employment for residents of HUD housing. Local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and their 

One Stop Delivery Systems, and Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) are being encouraged to: 

o Collaboratively identify opportunities to train and place public housing residents into 

jobs created by PHAs’ Recovery-funded capital improvement projects;

o Engage in outreach activities to inform public housing residents of job opportunities and 

corresponding training offerings; and,

o Work collaboratively to identify partners to ensure that quality work supports are in 

place to help address significant barriers to employment residents may face.
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After HUD energy efficiency awards for public housing are announced, HUD and DOL intend to 

select several cities to assist in connecting local PHAs and WIBs with the goal of creating a direct 

path for PHAs residents to green jobs.

Through this new partnership, PHAs’ residents will be able to more easily find training programs 

and sustainable employment in the green jobs sectors created by the Administration’s 

investments in energy efficiency, Labor’s workforce training investments and HUD’s investment 

in public housing through the Public Housing Capital Fund. These are not just jobs – but green 

career pathways for vulnerable populations and sustainable employment for the middle class.

Energy, Education and Labor – Leveraging Resources to Create Jobs, Educate, Train and 

Employ Workers

The Secretaries of Energy, Education and Labor reached agreement to link the United States 

workforce to jobs, training and education opportunities, creating a partnership for both the 

Recovery Act funds and beyond. Together these Departments are leveraging resources to 

promote job growth and train workers. The terms of the agreement are included in a 

Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies.

Through activities connected to the agreement, monies expended to create jobs will be linked 

strategically to Labor’s employment and training programs that serve disadvantaged workers 

and efforts by Education to promote and develop career pathways and programs of study 

which provide seamless transitions for students from high school to postsecondary education 

and careers. 

By partnering, these Departments will advance existing and future training and education 

programs to provide career pathways for American workers and a significantly expanded and 

qualified workforce to install and operate new and advanced clean energy and energy efficiency 
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technologies and processes in order to reach U.S. climate change, national security and other 

goals.

Building On the Recovery Act: Ensuring the Middle Class Is Stronger In The 

Clean Energy Economy

Enacting the Recovery Act, requiring more fuel efficient vehicles and progress in addressing 

climate change are significant steps forward in creating green jobs. The Middle Class Task 

Force believes that it is imperative that the middle class not only participate in the clean energy 

economy, but also become stronger because of it – whether by finding a good, clean energy job 

or saving money on home electrical bills. More must be done. The drive toward making 

America’s homes more energy efficient, retrofitting buildings and expanding renewable energy 

must not end when the Recovery Act does. The Vice President has asked the White House 

Council on Environmental Quality to report back to the Middle Class Task Force in 90 days 

proposals that will expand green opportunity and energy savings for the middle class. This 

could include, for example, expanding retrofitting of commercial buildings,1 making homes 

more energy efficient,2and developing better tools to help people find green jobs as they are 

being created. 

 

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 In the United States, buildings consume 72 percent of electricity (39 percent of energy) and produce 

38 percent greenhouse gases. There is tremendous potential for saving energy and improving the 

environmental by retrofitting these buildings. (Green Building Research, US Green Building Council 

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1718)

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The Department of Energy has found that for the average homeowner, a $2,500 investment in home 

retrofitting can reduce average annual energy consumption by 30 percent. That translates into real 

savings – up to about $900 a year for an average household (See Pollin, Robert, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, 

James Heintz, Helen Scharber, Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low 

Carbon Economy, Center for American Progress and Political Economy Research Institute, Sept. 2008 at 

15). 
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The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) will play the convening and 

coordinating role to get agencies the help they need to identify and advance policies that will 

facilitate the continued growth of our energy efficiency sector, powered by private dollars. The 

time has come to move toward a stronger national market in energy efficiency services, one 

that can evolve national training standards and be propelled by revolving loan funds and other 

forms of private financing. 

The main participating departments and agencies are: CEQ, DOE, DOL, HUD, GSA, Education 

and Treasury. Within the White House, the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Energy & 

Climate Change and the Domestic Policy Council will also participate.