Are “Green Jobs” The Growth Jobs Of The Future?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7168

Could “green jobs” be the future of job growth? Jesse Russell takes a look.

With the increased focus on saving the environment and the more Americans taking the initiative to live green, what does that mean for jobs? According to a 2006 National Renewable Energy Lab study the US will need, if it were to make a national commitment to living green, there would need an increasing need for jobs in wind-farm designers, solar power technicians, workers to run biomass plants, and more. Labor and Environmentalists alike are crossing fingers for Congress to pass the “Renewable Energy Standard” that will help kick training and implementation of such jobs into action. Terry Bonds, director of the United Steelworkers District 12 says that such a move would help reverse economic damage done by outsourcing of jobs:

: "When we shut down a manufacturing facility in this country and ship it to some Third World country where they don't have environmental protections, we harm the environment and we also lose jobs."

[bbinacan]

1. It very well could.

I do land acquisition for infrastructure such as oil and gas lines, highways, transmission lines, etc. A coworker just took a job doing acquisition for windmill farms.

[lvx35]

2. I hope so. But we need some better metrics of economy.

Right now our GDP looks better if we all use disposable silverware than if we get cheap silverware that lasts for years. We need to get economic metrics that reflect sustainable lasting products, and capacity for reuse. Once we are set up to handle the green economy, there will be wealth in it for all.

[The2ndWheel]

3. Wonderful....more growth

A) More growth isn't going to help

2) If we're able to harness more energy, you will see more outsourcing. If travel and communication on a global level continues, and improves, you will see more outsourcing. Why? Because it isn't really outsourcing when we live in an increasingly integrated world. Production will be done, as it has always been, where you get the most profit for the least investment. In a mass produced global economy, "America" doesn't matter. No country does, because there are none. It's one system. That will not change if we're able to green everything. We will just end up having the same problems we had when we oiled everything. It may look a little different, but it'll be the same crap.