Though the pace of federal action on climate and clean energy issues continues to lag, states across the nation are keeping up the momentum with strong legislation on a diversity of clean energy fronts.
Colorado topped the list this week by adopting a renewable energy standard (RES) that requires 30 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2020. Colorado’s RES, which also promotes rooftop solar by requiring three percent of the renewable energy to be acquired through distributed generation, is among the strongest in the nation.
“I salute the dedication and commitment of all lawmakers who support the expanded use of renewable resources and cleaner-burning natural gas,” said Colorado Governor Bill Ritter in an op-ed that ran on Sunday in The Pueblo Chieftain. “The energy of our future generations will be cleaner and more sustainable because of their vision and their leadership. Colorado’s workforce will usher in a new era of economic opportunity to compete in and be a leader in a fast-changing world.”
Not only will the Colorado RES create strong demand for renewable energy, it also includes several provisions that will ensure that clean energy jobs are good jobs. One provision requires that a certain ratio of workers on solar installation projects be certified solar installers. According to Charlie Montgomery of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, who is also active with the Colorado Apollo Alliance, community colleges and apprenticeship programs in the state will prepare workers to take the certification test available through the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). Certified workers bring a high level of competency to their work and can usually demand higher pay than uncertified workers.
“This new law will provide safe, quality photovoltaic installations and create green careers for Colorado’s working families,” said Mary Broderick, renewable energy and marketing agent with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 68, which will help train a new generation of solar installers.
The bill also requires Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to consider job quality and community economic impacts when it considers proposals to build new electricity resources. Whereas in the past, the PUC was required to analyze a proposed project’s cost effectiveness, now the PUC must also consider such factors as the project’s ratio of in-state workers to out-of-state workers; the availability of long-term career opportunities; and the wages, health care and pension benefits being provided by the utility or company proposing the project.
Click here to read the bill.
“By working together, labor and the environmental community have proven that we can build a new cleaner energy economy and ensure that working families thrive at the same time,” said Carmen Rhodes, executive director of FRESC, the organization that convenes the Colorado Apollo Alliance
IMPACT-Like Legislation Proposed in Wisconsin
In his January State of the State address, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle announced the creation of the Wisconsin Green to Gold Fund, a $100 million revolving loan fund to help manufacturers move into clean energy production or improve their energy efficiency. “This is not some pie in the sky,” Doyle said in the address. “Anyone who says there aren’t jobs in the clean energy economy had better open their eyes.”
This Thursday, State Rep. Cory Mason, whose district has been hit particularly hard by manufacturing job losses, introduced the legislation that authorizes the Green to Gold Fund. According to the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which will administer the fund, the initial capital will come from a combination of existing State Energy Program dollars Wisconsin received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), future Wisconsin Energy Independence Funding (funding currently administered by the Department of Commerce that goes toward clean energy manufacturing and research and development), and by streamlining existing resources.
Wisconsin will also be well positioned to receive additional federal funding if U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technologies (IMPACT) Act is adopted. The IMPACT Act would authorize $30 billion to establish state-level revolving loan funds – similar to the Green to Gold Fund – to help small and medium-sized manufacturers retrain workers and retool facilities for clean energy production. It requires states to contribute 20 percent of the federal grant amount, a provision Wisconsin should be poised to comply with.
Provisions identical to those in the IMPACT Act were included in the American Clean Energy and Security Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2009, and the Apollo Alliance has been working to ensure IMPACT’s inclusion in the soon-to-be-introduced Senate climate and clean energy bill.
Representative Mason’s Green to Gold bill would authorize the Wisconsin Department of Commerce to issue loans to manufacturing businesses for any of the following activities: implementing energy efficiency measures in their facilities; retooling to manufacture products that support the green economy; expanding or establishing domestic clean energy manufacturing; or creating or retaining jobs engaged in the preceding activities.
“I hear from manufacturers in my district and around the state who say they would love to have a more efficient boiler or they’d love to make wind turbine parts, but they don’t have the start-up capital,” said Rep. Mason. “They can’t just take the money they’re using to run their plant and use it for something else. Right now financing is tight. The Green to Gold Fund is going to fill that need.”
“Wisconsin has a long history of manufacturing strength, and we are increasingly attracting manufacturing companies in the new, clean energy economy,” said Rosemary Wehnes of the Sierra Club, who sits on the steering committee of the Wisconsin Apollo Alliance, which brings together labor, business, environmental and community groups to advocate for clean energy and good jobs. “This initiative will help us realize the potential of clean energy for Wisconsin. Investing in companies that want to improve their energy efficiency or retool to make clean energy products just makes sense, both for the economy and for the Wisconsin workers they will hire. We’re happy the Governor is proposing this, and encouraged that Rep. Mason is taking it one step further to make sure the jobs this initiative will create are good, family-supporting jobs.”
To read an article about the Wisconsin Green to Gold Fund as well as a related pilot program that’s being coordinated by the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Program, see Green to Gold Fund Would Green Wisconsin Manufacturing.
In Other News …
*Read Apolllo’s latest clean energy success story about the Blythe Solar Plant in California, the largest thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the United States (Blythe Solar Plant Signifies Bright Energy Future for CA). While California continues to struggle with high levels of unemployment, the Blythe facility has been a boon for local workers. Construction of the Blythe facility employed roughly 240 union workers over the course of three months, and the plant now employs 296 electricians to carry out its daily operations, all of whom are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 440.
*The Missouri Apollo Alliance is sponsoring a business roundtable event this coming Tuesday in Kansas City about the economic benefits of bringing clean energy businesses to Missouri. Participants in the roundtable will include Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver II; Michael Peck, an Apollo Alliance board member and founder of the MAPA Group, whose clients include wind energy company Gamesa USA; and Chris Chung, CEO of the economic development group Missouri Partnership. Stay tuned for more information next week about this event and a new poll being released by Apollo about Missourians’ attitudes toward clean energy.
*It’s still not too late to email your Senators about the IMPACT Act. Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have yet to introduce their bipartisan climate and clean energy bill, which means there’s still time to urge them to include support for clean energy manufacturing in the bill. Nearly 2,500 Apollo Alliance supporters have already emailed their Senators asking them to urge Kerry, Graham and Lieberman to include the IMPACT Act in their legislation. Join them by clicking here to email your Senators TODAY.