This week, on the day before the one-year anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Missouri Apollo Alliance partnered with the St. Louis Urban League to highlight the creation of 39 new jobs associated with a weatherization assistance program made possible by ARRA funding.
“This is a shining example of how investing in green jobs can help revitalize the economy, while also saving low-income citizens money on their energy bills,” said Emily Andrews, executive director of the Greater St. Louis Green Building Council and a member of the Missouri Apollo Alliance steering committee. “If we follow this model with further investments in energy efficiency and weatherization, we’ll see a windfall of good, green jobs throughout the country.”
Weatherization assistance for eligible applicants may include installing wall and ceiling insulation; plugging air leaks with caulking; installing weather stripping; dryer venting; glazing and repairing windows and doors; minor duct repair; furnace repair or replacement; and hot water tank repair. Studies have shown that weatherization reduces household energy costs from $260 to as much as $700 over the course of a year.
“In addition to cutting the energy costs, these services also increase safety and enhance the quality of life for the residents of St. Louis city,” said Urban League President Jim Buford.
Todd Weaver, CEO of Legacy Building Construction, spoke about the people his company has employed to work on weatherization projects. “These jobs change lives,” he said. “They may start at entry level, but they lay the foundation for advancement into careers as crew chiefs, pre-weatherization and post-weatherization auditors.”
The event was covered by local media outlets, including St. Louis’s NBC affiliate and the St. Louis Business Journal. For more on the St. Louis Weatherization Assistance Program, visit www.ulstl.org. To learn more about the federal government’s weatherization efforts, visit the U.S. Department of Energy website.
Hot on the heels of our successful event in Missouri, the Indiana Apollo Alliance will be holding its own event next week—a business roundtable. The roundtable, which is being co-sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation and the Richard G. Luger Center for Renewable Energy, will convene a panel of clean energy business leaders to discuss how Indiana can lead the way in the new clean energy economy, and how investing in clean energy technologies and manufacturing is the key to creating millions of good-paying jobs across the country. Speakers will include Jerome Ringo, former president and current board member of the Apollo Alliance; Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation; Jeffery Metcalf, regional director for Amaresco; John Stowell, VP of Environmental Health Policy for Duke Energy; Noel Davis, president & founder of Vela Gear Systems; and Ethan Rogers, manager of energy efficiency services at Purdue University.
With 9.9 percent of Indiana residents unemployed, the solution for long-term job growth may lie in the state’s booming clean energy industry. A Pew Charitable Trusts national economic study showed that green jobs grew nearly two and a half times faster than overall job creation between 1998 and 2007. During that time, clean energy jobs in Indiana grew by 17.9 percent. Today, Indiana is home to more than 1,200 clean energy companies, which employ more than 17,000 people across the state.
Three Cheers for State and Local Apollo Alliance Victories
Speaking of state Apollo Alliances, we’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our state and local Apollo affiliates for all of their achievements in 2009. Read on for a sampling of their accomplishments, from the creation of new green jobs training programs to the passage of various types of clean energy legislation.
* In April 2009, the Los Angeles City Council approved a first-in-the nation plan to create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and revitalize the inner city. The council voted to support a plan to green retrofit city buildings that will create hundreds of new jobs at a time when Angelenos are confronting high rates of unemployment, and federal officials are looking to cities and states for “shovel ready” projects to boost the economy. The ordinance, which will also connect the retrofitting to green jobs training programs that link underserved communities to careers in the clean energy economy, was brought to the city council by the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance, which is convened by SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Analysis).
*In 2009, the New York City Apollo Alliance played a key role advising and participating in the development of the New York City Green-Collar Jobs Roadmap, a comprehensive, step-by-step plan for how to grow New York City’s green economy in a sustainable, prosperous and just manner. The Roadmap was published in October 2009 by the Center for American Progress and Urban Agenda, which convenes NYC Apollo. It was the culmination of an 18-month process in which more than 170 stakeholders from businesses, labor unions and community-based organizations collaborated and developed a plan to grow an equitable green economy in New York City.
* Oregon Apollo and its partners, including the Oregon AFL-CIO, Citizens Utility Board, and Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, strongly supported the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Technology (EEAST) Act of 2009, which was signed into law in July 2009. EEAST makes available a low-cost loan that can be applied to weatherizing homes and small businesses and producing renewable energy. The loan can be paid back on the property owner’s energy bill over a long period of time—20+ years. Apollo and its partners played a key role in ensuring that energy efficiency and renewable energy jobs created by the program will be high-quality jobs.
* In October 2009, the Green Justice Coalition, an Apollo Alliance affiliate based in Boston, won a major victory for equity and economic development by convincing the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) of Massachusetts to not only develop long-term goals for increasing energy efficiency throughout the state, but also to commit to make the energy efficiency program and jobs associated with it accessible to low-income communities. For example, the Green Justice Coalition worked with the EEAC and utilities to design an innovative financing mechanism that includes a commitment by the utilities to procure $300 million in external funding over the next two years to set up a revolving loan fund. Low- and moderate-income homeowners can access these funds to pay for energy efficiency retrofits, which can be paid back incrementally through utility bills.
* In June 2009, the Oakland Green Jobs Corps graduated its first class. The program, which is among the first training programs of its kind, was developed and proposed by the Oakland Apollo Alliance, which is convened by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and IBEW Local 595. The group won support from the Oakland City Council, which allocated $250,000 in seed money to create the program. Funds were awarded to a partnership between Laney Community College, Cypress Mandela Training Center, and Growth Sector – a workforce intermediary.
*In October 2009, New York Gov. David Paterson signed legislation creating the Green Jobs/Green New York (GJ/GNY) program. The bill commits the state to investing $112 million on a program to retrofit and weatherize private homes and small commercial buildings. Over the next five years, the program’s implementation will create thousands of jobs in the home and commercial building retrofit industry. The New York State Apollo Alliance was part of a broad coalition of labor, workforce training, clean energy, and environmental groups that joined together to support the green jobs initiative, which is poised to become the centerpiece of New York’s efforts to become a more energy-efficient state.
To read more about these and other state and local Apollo Alliance victories, visit ApolloAlliance.org. To find out about an Apollo Alliance affiliate near you, click here.