The United Nations Environment Program defines a green job as (emphasis mine):

…work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative, and service activities that contribute(s) substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality. Specifically, but not exclusively, this includes jobs that help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high efficiency strategies; de-carbonize the economy; and minimize or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution.

The Center for American Progress offers a similar definition (emphasis mine):

Green jobs are today’s jobs but repurposed and expanded to build a sustainable low-carbon economy. Most green jobs will be in occupations that people already work in today. Constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers and industrial truck drivers. Energy efficiency retrofits for buildings employ roofers and insulators. And expanding mass transit systems employs electricians and dispatchers. Green jobs are not an entirely new job sector. Akin to more familiar blue collar jobs, this new class of employment refers to certain types of productive activities rather than a specific job classification.

What’s more, green jobs are inherently local and difficult to outsource. Green jobs involve transforming today’s homes, offices and factories and investing in new, low-carbon infrastructure. This work is impossible to push offshore because it must be preformed on site. Making buildings more energy efficient, constructing mass transit lines, installing solar panels and wind turbines, expanding public green space, and growing and refining advanced biofuels all must take place right here in America.

Note that both definitions include mention of ‘decarbonizing’ or creating a ‘low-carbon’ economy.

Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, offered some advice for President Obama in advance of tomorrow’s State of the Union address:

We also hope the President takes the opportunity to recognize the potential of energy development to create more jobs. Not only jobs from producing more so-called green energy. But also jobs from producing more American oil and natural gas. The American oil and natural gas industry clearly has a role to play in putting Americans back to work. The U.S. oil and natural gas industry already supports more than 9 million American jobs and can create many more. The industry created more than two million additional American jobs in the years 2004 to 2007 alone. We are also a leading creator of green jobs.

The idea that the oil and gas industry is a leading creator of green jobs is absurd. Between this and Peabody energy now pushing green coal, polluting industries have outdone themselves in their efforts to rebrand the filthiest energy sources on the planet as clean and green.

Green for All:

Markese Bryant (aka Doo Dat) knows firsthand the effects of pollution and poverty in his community. Now he’s building the movement for an inclusive green economy through campus organizing and community education.

In a major speech today, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue blasted the Obama administration’s approach to climate change legislation. Excerpted below are Donohue’s remarks on climate change and energy policy:

One of the great rallying cries of our day is, “Let’s create green jobs.” While we share in the excitement—and have supported alternative energy projects at every opportunity—we must balance our enthusiasm with some realities. We urge policymakers to do the same.The United States has the talent and the capacity to invent the green technologies here. But if we don’t address the excessive costs in our business environment, embrace an aggressive trade policy, or protect our intellectual property, the business, the jobs, and the technologies will go somewhere else.

We also should produce more American energy on our land and off our shores—including oil, gas, and clean coal—which would improve energy security, create jobs, and keep our economy competitive.

One of the most powerful ideas, which we should jump on immediately, is a rapid expansion of clean, safe nuclear energy.

Nuclear power is a solution that doesn’t have to be invented. We can use it now and make it a vital part of our climate change solution because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases.

License applications have been submitted for 26 new reactors. If all were built, they could support an estimated 240,000 direct and indirect jobs. And as time goes on, we’ll need to build many more.

But whereas other countries take 2-3 years to license a new reactor and less than 4 years to build it, a new reactor here takes 5 years to license and another 5 years to build. We must address these delays as well as the legal uncertainties and financial risks that stand in the way.

Nuclear energy is not the only promising energy source facing such hurdles. The Chamber has identified more than 380 specific projects across the country—more than one-third of them wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects—that have been delayed or even killed by Not-in-My-Backyard roadblocks.

It’s time to end the unnecessary barriers that cost jobs and threaten our energy diversity, security, and leadership.

…

The Chamber also supports a strong climate change policy—both domestic legislation and a global agreement.

But the bill passed by the House last year would tie economic activity in knots and eliminate jobs from one end of the country to another. That’s why a growing number of Democrats in the Senate are running from this approach just as fast as they can. And they share the concerns voiced by the Chamber and many others regarding the potential economic impact of EPA’s endangerment finding.

Press Release via the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced nearly $55 million in green jobs grants, as authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The grants will support job training and labor market information programs to help workers, many in underserved communities, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations.

“Today’s announcement is part of the administration’s long-term commitment to fostering both immediate economic growth and a clean energy future. It’s an investment that will help American workers do well while doing good,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “These grants provide an immediate return, and they are part of a larger green initiative that will help lead to increased job placements and promote economic growth.”

The two categories of grant awards announced today are: State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants and Green Capacity Building Grants. Both will be administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

Green Capacity Building Grants, totaling $5.8 million, will increase the training capacity of 62 current Labor Department grant recipients through a variety of strategies, and will offer training opportunities to help individuals acquire jobs in expanding green industries. These grants will help serve underserved communities. Targeted communities include American Indians, women, at-risk youth and farm workers.

State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, totaling $48.8 million, will support the collection and dissemination of labor market information, and will enhance the labor exchange infrastructure to provide career opportunities within clean energy industries. Grantees will be able to employ strategies that enable job seekers to connect with green job banks and help ensure that workers find employment after completing training. Thirty awards ranging from about $763,000 to $4 million were made to state workforce agencies to utilize data for workforce development strategies. Multiple state workforce agencies partnering as a consortium will use this program to gather information that is likely to have a regional, multi-state or national impact.

The grants are part of a larger Recovery Act initiative — totaling $500 million — for green jobs training grants designed to promote economic growth. The Department of Labor expects to release funding for an additional three green grant award categories over the next several months.

New Haven Register:

Launched Wednesday, the new Women’s Economic Security Campaign will be advocating nationwide to help women and female heads of household rise out of poverty and tap into job opportunities created by the emerging “green economy.”

“Good jobs for women are not only critical for family economic stability, they are a key component of lasting economic recovery for our nation,” WESC said in the first of a series of policy briefs called “Creating Opportunity for Low-Income Women in the Green Economy.”

The definition of green jobs and businesses is evolving, but generally, the U.S. Department of Labor says “the green economy encompasses any economic activity related to reducing the use of fossil fuels, decreasing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the efficiency of energy usage, recycling materials, and developing and adopting renewable sources of energy.”

Here is the report:

Here is the fact sheet:

Final EAGLE Fact Sheet –

Learn more at Consequence 09.

Via email.

Dear Friends:

My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. I resigned from the White House on September 6, and I have remained silent since then – in keeping with my promise not to be a distraction during a key moment in the Obama Presidency.

Over the past several days, however, many people have been asking how they can help and what they can do.

The main thing is this: please do everything you can to support both President Obama and the green jobs movement. Winning real change is ultimately the best response to these kinds of smear campaigns.

I ask everyone to:

1. Support President Obama’s efforts to fix our nation’s health care, energy and education systems. His victory last fall did not represent the “finish line” in the fight to renew America; his election was just the “starting line.” This autumn, it is time to make history again – with victories on health care and clean energy.

2. Sign up to support groups that are working for green jobs. As others seek to vilify or marginalize the movement for a clean energy economy, the leading groups deserve increased support. This is the year to ensure that the clean energy transformation creates good job opportunities for everyone in America.

3. Spread the green jobs gospel. The ideas and ideals of the green jobs movement are grounded in fundamental American values – innovation, entrepreneurship and equal opportunity. My true thoughts can be found in my book: The Green Collar
Economy. Check it out from the library – or order a copy and share it with a friend. See for yourself why clean energy and green jobs are good for our country.

4. Stay connected and speak up for me via your favorite blogs (e.g., Huffington Post, Grist, Jack & Jill, etc.), on message boards and all of your favorite social networking platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Supporters have set up a couple of them, to help you stay engaged, including: I Stand With Van Jones and I Love Van Jones.

In due course, I will be offering my perspective on what has happened – including correcting the record about false charges. In the meantime, I must get my family affairs in order and sort through numerous offers and options.

I want to be clear that I have nothing but love and admiration for President Obama and the entire Administration. White House staffers are there to serve and support the President, not the other way around. At this critical moment in history, I could not in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. The White House needs all its hands on deck, fighting for the future.

Of course, some supporters actually think I will be more effective on the “outside.” Maybe so. But those ideas always remind me of that old canard about Winston Churchill. After he lost a hard-fought election, a friend told him: “Winston, this really is just a blessing in disguise.” Churchill quipped: “Damned good disguise.” I can certainly relate to that sentiment right now. :)

Nonetheless, we must keep moving forward. Let’s continue our work to make an America as good as its promise. These are historic times. And we have a lot more history to make.

Sincerely,

Van Jones

Reuters (h/t Wonk Room):

A strong shift toward renewable energies could create 2.7 million more jobs in power generation worldwide by 2030 than staying with dependence on fossil fuels would, a report suggested Monday.

The study, by environmental group Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), urged governments to agree a strong new United Nations pact to combat climate change in December in Copenhagen, partly to safeguard employment.

“A switch from coal to renewable electricity generation will not just avoid 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, but will create 2.7 million more jobs by 2030 than if we continue business as usual,” the report said.

Here is the press release:

EREC _ GREENPEACE Press Release – Saving the climate equals 8 million jobs in the power industry –

Here is the full report:

job_revolution_-_final_pdf –

Kevin Grandia, writing at Huffington Post, catches Americans For Prosperity gloating about their role in the smearing of Van Jones:

Turns out that the attack was orchestrated by a fringe group of free-marketeers called the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) who describe themselves as “grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels.” You can read a complete backgrounder on AFP here. It suffices to say they get a lot of money from some of the biggest players in the right-wing attack machine.

On Fox News forum AFP’s director of policy, Phil Kerpen brags about how his oragnization brought down Van Jones:

“I spent the next two weeks researching everything I could find about Jones and the Apollo Alliance (much of which is still to be published, including a forthcoming paper from the Capital Research Center next month), the national umbrella organization for coordinating between the environmentalists, the labor unions, and the social justice street organizers that Jones has served as a board member and a primary national spokesman for.”

EnviroKnow has obtained two flowcharts created by American For Prosperity outlining the “Green Jobs Radical Network.” Both documents place Van Jones near the center of this so-called radical network. Other prominent individuals in the environmental and progressive movements mentioned in the documents include Stephen Chu, John Podesta, John Holdren, Jason Grumet, Bracken Hendricks, Robert Borosage, Carl Pope and Andy Stern, among others.

On July 28th, this rudimentary chart was created:

green_jobs –

Then on August 28th, an updated version was created:

Green Jobs Network August –

The July 28th version was authored by an individual named “Rich.” The only Rich on AFP’s staff list is Richard Burke, who joined AFP in January after serving as the Executive Director of the Oregon Libertarian Party.