'(This job) makes me feel like I'm part of something and I'm improving myself every day.'

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_8910762

'(This job) makes me feel like I'm part of something and I'm improving myself every day.'

By Barbara Grady I STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 04/13/2008 03:02:31 AM PDT

EDGAR PEREZ FITS A HOSE from a truck containing used vegetable grease into a ceiling-high tank holding methanol and sodium hydroxide. His timing in releasing the hose's content is key to whether the mixture will produce biodiesel fuel to power fleets of "green" trucks and buses.

It also is key to Perez's self-esteem. The 22-year-old Oakland resident with a high school education had been working in construction, living contract-to-contract, until he heard about this job at Blue Sky Bio-fuels Inc., one of Oakland's green businesses.

The job, Perez said, "makes me feel like I'm part of something and I'm improving myself every day."

Perez could be the poster child of a movement started in Oakland and then advocated in presidential campaign speeches and tucked into federal energy legislation: Train at-risk youth and people stuck in low-end jobs or joblessness to work in the millions of manual labor "green economy" jobs that are emerging as this country tries to reduce global warming.

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