The California Apollo Alliance has created a comprehensive strategy that details how to continue creating good clean energy jobs in California and move the state toward broadly shared economic prosperity, energy security and climate stability. The California Apollo Program calls for reinforcing and expanding the state’s commitment to clean energy at a time when California’s landmark climate law, AB 32, is under attack, even as California leads the nation in the number of clean energy jobs, businesses and patents generated, and clean energy jobs grew by five percent in California during the recession while overall employment decreased.

“We can’t afford to quit on California’s best opportunity to create jobs and ensure a more prosperous decade-expansion of California’s clean energy economy,” said Lisa Hoyos, coordinator of the California Apollo Alliance.

The California Apollo Program was developed by leaders of California’s businesses, labor unions, environmental groups and social justice organizations. This group developed a set of policy recommendations to secure California’s economic future, retain our global leadership in clean energy and technological innovation, and engage the workers and businesses who can keep the world’s 8th largest economy growing.

The California Apollo Program outlines how the state can create and keep clean energy jobs by:

Transforming the Way California Generates and Uses Energy

• Realize the economic opportunity of California’s groundbreaking comprehensive climate law.
• Generate 33 percent of the California’s power from renewable sources by 2020 and prioritize in-state production.
• Upgrade California’s existing buildings to world class energy efficiency standards and ensure that new construction is “green.”
• Modernize the power grid to support clean energy generation and smart grid technology.
• Require smart, sustainable and equitable approaches to land use as California’s communities grow.
• Revitalize rural California by expanding environmentally sustainable renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects.

Maintaining California’s Global Leadership in the Clean Energy Economy

• Invest in clean energy research and development.
• Target public and private support toward commercialization of new technologies.
• Support public-private research and development partnerships.
• Provide sufficient and stable support for California’s institutions of higher education.

Making It in California, by Californians

• Help manufacturers retool their factories and retrain their employees to produce clean energy products.
• Revamp California’s transportation manufacturing industry to meet growing demand for high-efficiency vehicles.
• Invest in next-generation alternative fuels and California’s low-carbon fuel infrastructure.
• Modernize California’s transportation infrastructure to connect our neighborhoods, cities and rural areas with world-class transit systems.
• Promote “Buy California” and “Buy America” policies.
• Recycle and reuse it in California. 

Creating Economic Prosperity for All and Tapping the Skills and Productivity of California’s Workforce

• Train California’s workers to meet the demands of the clean energy economy.
• Ensure that the transition to a clean energy economy creates pathways out of poverty.
• Prioritize the creation of good, family-supporting jobs.

Click here to read the California Apollo Program in its entirety or here to read the executive summary.

The California Apollo Program has already been endorsed by Applied Materials, California Labor Federation, California League of Conservation Voters, California State Building and Construction Trades, Environmental Defense Fund, Green For All, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Business Council, SunPower Corporation, Union of Concerned Scientists and many others. Click here to see a full list of organizational endorsements.

We are actively seeking additional organizational endorsements and individual supporters as we roll out the California Apollo Program and work to implement policies that advance job creation and the clean energy economy. Click here to endorse the California Apollo Program on behalf of your organization and promote the importance of keeping and creating clean energy jobs in California.

For more information, contact Lisa Hoyos at lisah@bluegreenalliance.org, (415) 371-1700 x207.

Working together, let’s build and strengthen California’s clean energy economy-our ticket to a more prosperous tomorrow.