Recently in Clean Energy Corps Category

The Clean Energy Corps being promoted as a way to implement the American Recovery Act (2009) will be a combined service, training, job creation and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction effort, concentrated in cities and struggling suburban and rural communities, to combat global warming, grow local and regional economies and demonstrate the equity and employment promise of the clean energy economy.

As a bottom-up rather than top-down effort, it will rely on partnerships at state and local levels--between the public and private sectors and between the key stakeholders of our economy and society--and as such will require more of government, business and civil society at every level. It will create new programmatic capacity and funding mechanisms, but will also rely on an unprecedented alignment of existing programs and funding sources.

Goals of the Clean Energy Corps

Launch a national effort for the comprehensive energy retrofit of our country's building stock, responsible for 40 percent of our energy consumption and GHG emissions; this part of the CEC program is largely self-financing and would create an estimated 600,000 local jobs and reduce energy costs and GHG emissions on a vast scale

Preserve and enlarge green public spaces, strengthen community defenses against climate disruption, and enlist America's public lands in the fight against climate change by planting trees and restoring wetlands and rivers.

Work with a wide array of employers, community organizations, educational institutions and unions to connect workers to high- quality, career track green-collar jobs, and specifically seek to develop "green pathways out of poverty" for low-income and unemployed people--providing them the training, work experience, job placement, and other services needed to gain family-supporting jobs in the green economy.

Directly engage millions of Americans of all ages in diverse service, service-learning, and volunteer work related to climate protection.

The Clean Energy Corps proposes combining job creation, service, and training to combat global warming, grow local economies, and create green pathways out of poverty. The CEC aims to launch a national effort to comprehensively apply cost-effective, energy-efficiency measures - from adding insulation to replacing inefficient boilers - to over 15 million existing buildings.

The Center For American Progress, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Energy Action Coalition, Green For All, and Laborers' International Union of North America - with the support of over eighty leading national and local labor, environmental, civic, and policy organizations - unveiled the Clean Energy Corps (CEC), a 2009 national effort to secure America's economic recovery and environmental health.

"At a time of severe hardship in the construction sector, retrofitting residential buildings to cut energy use can save consumers money, expand economic growth, reduce pollution, and create jobs," said Bracken Hendricks, senior fellow at Center for American Progress.

By retrofitting millions of structures, the Clean Energy Corps will create at least 600,000 living-wage, career- track jobs in green industries, train people for them, and directly engage millions of Americans in diverse service-learning and volunteer work related to climate protection.

"The beauty of the Clean Energy Corps is that it doesn't just create jobs," said Green For All Founder Van Jones, "it also creates pathways out of poverty." Jones continued, "By providing robust job training and ample service-learning opportunities, the CEC helps people with barriers to employment gain access to these new career opportunities in the green economy."

The CEC will work with employers, unions, educators and community organizations to offer job training and job placement programs.

It will also work to engage disconnected youth and jobseekers from disadvantaged communities and connect them to further education and training that result in industry- recognized credentials and places them on sustainable career paths.

"The Clean Energy Corps will be the vehicle through which the growing consensus to combat global warming through the creation of long-term, family-supporting jobs becomes a reality. We look forward to working through CEC with the full range of stakeholders - governmental bodies at the national, state and local levels, community organizations, environmental groups and our signatory employers - to improve and protect the lives of working men and women," said Theodore T. Green, advisor to the General President at Laborers' International Union of North America.

In addition to generating hundreds of thousands of jobs, the CEC would dramatically reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions.

Buildings Use 40% of Our Energy

Currently, buildings account for 40% of our nation's energy use and carbon emissions - more than transportation. By making our buildings more energy efficient, the CEC will not only curb global warming but will also lower utility bills for Americans.

CEC - Collaborative National Initiative

The CEC is intended as a collaborative and cost-effective national initiative entailing minimal new bureaucracy.

Retrofits would be financed out of a federal revolving loan fund, where the loan is paid back out of a portion of the savings on energy bills.

The CEC envisions funding running through both established programs -Department of Energy, Department of Labor, and Corporation for National and Community Service - and new programs.

CEC at State and Local Levels

The real work of the CEC will occur at the state and local levels. The CEC will encourage the alignment and coordination of complementary programs and strategies to realize its ambitious goals and award its grant funds directly to state task forces and local CEC partnerships.

Kentucky Clean Energy Corps

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is leading the way and proving that this model works with its recent unveiling of a Kentucky Clean Energy Corps pilot program. Under the stewardship of Governor Steve Beshear, the program is working with 100 low-income Kentucky households to make the homes more energy efficient and, in turn, reduce utility bills and engage Kentuckians in service.

RESOURCE:

The CEC will maintain a website, www.greenforall.org/clean-energy-corps, featuring the full Clean Energy Corps report, a petition in support of the proposal, Congressional updates, and a complete list of endorsers. 

The Clean Energy Corps is a proposal of the Clean Energy Corps Working Group. The Working Group includes representatives of the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Corps Network, Energy Action Coalition, Green For All, Innovations in Civic Participation, and 1Sky. For more details on the Clean Energy Corps and to view a complete list of endorsers, visit www.greenforall.org/clean-energy-corps.