The following blog is by Brian Lombardozzi, Senior Policy Analyst for the BlueGreen Alliance. 

On Tuesday March 26th the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) launched the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI). This initiative is part of the Obama administration’s commitment to revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector and will focus on growing American manufacturing of clean energy products and boosting U.S. competitiveness through major improvements in manufacturing energy productivity. CEMI includes private sector partnerships, new funding from the DOE, and enhanced analysis of the clean energy manufacturing supply chain that will guide DOE’s future funding decisions. 

While many components of clean energy industry have been around for years, the concept of a distinct clean energy sector is relatively new. The concept and terminology dates to the early 2000s when concerns about climate change, energy security, and other factors helped stimulate the growth of a diverse set of clean energy industries. Since then, the clean energy sector has become a major economic force in its own right, and this initiative comes at a critical moment as global investment in the clean energy sector has grown nearly five-fold to over $260 billion in the last seven years and these markets will grow into the trillions of dollars in the years to come. Now is the time for the U.S. to assure that the energy technologies of the future are developed and manufactured in America for export around the world. 

Shortly after the CEMI launch, DOE on Wednesday conducted a webinar, offering more detail on the areas of clean energy manufacturing that are especially ripe for growth. Libby Wayman, Director of CEMI provided information on the initiative. Alan Goodrich and Ted James of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave a presentation on some of the analysis related to the wind, solar and batter industries. This type of industry analysis showing how the US can move ahead in these industries is one segment of services that CEMI will offer. There were about 150 participants who posed questions to the presenters. The webinar is available online here. 

Approximately 26 percent of all jobs in the clean energy sector are involved in manufacturing, compared to just 9 percent of jobs in the economy as a whole. Manufacturing accounts for a majority of the jobs in over half of the clean energy sector. Several segments—including electric vehicle technologies, water efficient products, green chemical products, appliances, sustainable forestry products, lighting, recycled-content products, and energy-saving consumer products—are particularly manufacturing intensive, with roughly 90 percent or more of their jobs residing in manufacturing establishments. Manufacturing represents more than two-thirds of the jobs in the solar-related and wind energy segments as well. 

The share of all manufacturing jobs engaged in clean energy sector production is also on the rise. From 2003 to 2010, clean energy manufacturers added 35,832, while U.S. manufacturers overall laid off 3.3 million workers. Clean economy manufacturing employment expanded at a rate of 0.8 percent each year (or 5.5 percent over the entire period); meanwhile, U.S. manufacturers at large shed jobs at a rate of 1.5 percent per year (for a growth rate of -10.1 percent over the period). 

Like most manufacturing-intensive sectors, the clean energy sector is export intensive. In fact, on a per job basis, the clean economy is about twice as export-oriented as the national economy. According to one estimate, some $20,129 worth of exports is sold for every job in the clean economy, compared to just $10,390 in exports for the average U.S. job.

With the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, DOE is taking the appropriate steps to seize this opportunity to ensure U.S. leadership in the clean energy sector and advance the global competitiveness of American manufacturers. These steps will include:

• Increased funding for manufacturing research and development (R&D) across the board, specifically with the goal of growing the clean energy manufacturing industry in the United States.
• Increased focus on energy productivity resources for manufacturers, such as technology and practices for growing U.S. manufacturing energy productivity and competitiveness, including a suite of technical assistance and market leadership programs. This includes:
• Industrial Assessment Centers that offer no-cost energy efficiency centers for manufacturers, and the
• Better Plants Challenge, which engages U.S. manufacturers to reduce energy use by 25% over 10 years.
• Development of competitiveness analysis and strategies that inform R&D investments and other efforts needed to address key barriers to growing U.S. clean energy manufacturing competitiveness.
• A Clean Energy Manufacturing Portal that will aggregate new resources to help manufacturers succeed.
• Regional and National Summits to gain input on national and regional priorities, identify key gaps and opportunities for growing U.S. clean energy manufacturing competitiveness, showcase U.S. clean energy manufacturing activity, and explore national and regional models addressing these priorities.
• New Partnerships to improve U.S. clean energy manufacturing competitiveness.

Staff at the Clean Energy Manufacturing Center (CEMC) will continue to engage MEP Centers and manufacturing companies on potential diversification and growth opportunities for manufacturing companies related to the CEMI.

This blog is cross-posted from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference blog.

We are proud to have sponsors for the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference ranging from large, multi-national corporations to small start-ups. All of these organizations and business have recognized our conference as an important resource and networking tool, and we are exciting to hear when they have taking a new step to be more sustainable and profitable.

That is why we wanted to share the news that International Paper joined the Global Forest & Trade Network in North America, one of World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s initiatives focused on eliminating illegal logging and promoting environmentally and socially responsible forest management.

International Paper's Vice President of Sustainability Teri Shanahan stated, “By joining GFTN and increasing its sourcing of credibly certified fiber, International Paper — as the world's largest paper and packaging company  — can use its purchasing power to drive improvements in responsible forestry around the globe. This kind of leadership is critical to conserving the places and species we are working so hard to protect.”

This is the kind of commitment our sponsors are making to the development of a cleaner, more efficient economy where smart business practices go hand-in-hand with environmental responsibility.

We applaud International Paper and look forward to hearing more from them at the Conference during the “Boosting the Bottom Line with Environmental and Labor Innovation” plenary session on Thursday.

The following blog is written by Amber Scott, Legislative Intern for the BlueGreen Alliance. 

While Congress is struggling to find a path forward on pressing fiscal matters, a few of our House and Senate champions are hard at work, introducing several key bills in recent days to spur job creation, strengthen American manufacturing and expand the clean energy economy. 

When first introduced, the Advanced Vehicle Technology Act had wide bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, and was endorsed by numerous automobile manufacturers and environmental groups. It is now being reintroduced by Michigan Congressman Gary Peters and Senator Debbie Stabenow in a bicameral effort to direct nearly $3 billion to the Department of Energy for research and development of advanced vehicle technology, to include U.S. made-battery and electric drive components that will significantly improve efficiency in our nation’s vehicle fleet. The bill also seeks to advance state and local initiatives in developing and promoting advanced vehicle technologies, manufacturing, and infrastructure. The bill would enable progress across the U.S. auto industry, covering light-duty passenger vehicles to heavy-duty trucks and buses. 

By incentivizing the development of homegrown advanced vehicle technology, the bill would help meet strong fuel efficiency standards and diversify and expand the alternative fuel market. Continued technology development would also lead to more affordable fuel and reduced dependence on foreign oil. The bill also creates job opportunities in American manufacturing and infrastructure expansion, especially among highly skilled positions, and seeks to bridge high quality job applicants with manufacturing employment needs through groundbreaking workforce development initiatives. The bill’s release is complemented with another bill in the Senate that focuses on job creation and on growing the American industry sector. 

A bill that specifically targets American manufacturing was released late last week by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY). Senator Gillibrand’s Made in America Manufacturing Act establishes a program for a joint award of incentives that grants to a state or a regional partnership support for the U.S. manufacturing industry. Recently, a lack of capital funding has inhibited the growth and cultivation of the manufacturing industry; a key point that should to change. This competitive award will provide low-interest loans to build facilities, upgrade equipment, and increase access to capital and technical assistance. Funds will also be directed toward workforce development and vocational programs to prepare the workforce for quality jobs in manufacturing. The workforce training is critical, because according to a 2011 survey by the Manufacturing Institute, over 600,000 manufacturing jobs went unfilled due to the short supply of skilled workers. 

The Invest in American Jobs Act introduced by Ranking Member Nick Rahall (WV) of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday, closes loopholes on Buy American requirements within the scope of public transportation and infrastructure, specifically for highways, bridge, passenger rail services, aviation programs. It also expands Buy American requirements to other infrastructure investments such as water and aviation, including infrastructure grants, loans, loan guarantees, and state revolving funds. By ensuring all of the steel, iron, and manufactured goods used in these projects is produced in the U.S., Buy America requirements assure that U.S. taxpayer dollars contribute to quality, good paying jobs here in the U.S. instead of overseas. 

All three of these bills address critical issues in the current state of the manufacturing industry, and seek to strengthen and expand it for a more competitive and healthy U.S. economy. 

A wildly successful program has gotten a breath of new life. Newly available surplus funds, part of the Recovery Act’s Advance Energy Project Credit (48C) program, will re-launch an effort to encourage manufacturers to produce clean energy technology such as solar and wind energy equipment. During the first act of the 48C program, millions of dollars in federal investments helped American manufacturers edge out competition globally and begin to gain a foothold in emerging industries.

The 48C program invested $2.3 billion for qualified investments in advanced, clean energy projects, to support new, expanded, or re‐equipped domestic manufacturing facilities. It leveraged $5.4 billion in private investment, creating jobs and economic growth in communities across the country. In 2009, the funds went to 183 projects across the U.S.

Due to the fact that some facilities failed to use the full funding amount awarded to them, $150 million in additional tax credits has now become available to qualified manufacturing facilities that apply from February 7, 2013 to July 23, 2013.

This week in the State of the Union speech, the President reiterated a push for American manufacturing. “Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three,” said President Obama. Reopening the 48C program is a down payment to that commitment.

Initially, the program generated far more interest than could be met by demand. Qualified applicants exceeded available tax credits by a factor of three to one. Reopening this program again offers up an opportunity to show that once the playing field is level, American manufacturing has a leg up on the global competition.

Programs such as this one have helped to bring about a resurgence in manufacturing. Solar panels and wind turbines are often touted as the front men for clean energy but it goes beyond that. Among other worthy beneficiaries are electric grids and storage for renewables, energy storage systems for electric or hybrid vehicles, equipment for energy conservation, and including lighting and smart grid technologies to name a few.

While releasing an additional $150 million in tax credits will deliver benefits to manufacturing facilities, communities and workers across the country, we must do more. As President Obama, further refines the policies that will generate more and more strength in the American manufacturing sector, Congress should also get on board. Like the auto industry, we won’t stridently accept losses in manufacturing. Rather we will find new ways to evolve and put the hardest and best workers into the clean energy manufacturing jobs of the future. 

The following blog is crossposted courtesy of the Communications Workers of America (CWA):

CWAers at New Flyer will soon start manufacturing up to 900 environmentally-friendly compressed natural gas buses for Los Angeles, creating about 150 jobs at the Minnesota plant and 50 jobs at a new California service center.

"It's a big boost for us because we're in contract negotiations in three weeks," said John Desm, president of CWA Local 7304.

The $302.9 million contract from LA Metro -- finalized just last week -- was the result of a strong movement building campaign.

It all started last summer with Desm's work with CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson to pressure members of Congress to pass a new transportation bill. That bill freed up federal funding so cities could purchase new buses, and New Flyer put in a bid with LA Metro.

When Blue Green Alliance, a partnership between 14 of the country's largest unions and environmental organizations, heard through the grapevine that New Flyer was a finalist for the LA Metro contract, it immediately reached out to CWA Local 7304. Brian Lombardozzi, a senior policy analyst at the alliance, gathered material to paint a clear picture of what these manufacturing jobs in Minnesota meant for workers, but also the greater community. It was a great narrative: This contract could potentially create an extra third shift in production that would boost employment at the factory and give a big boost to the local economy. Los Angeles taxpayer dollars would go towards employing high-skilled, union workers working with cutting-edge technology.

CWA President Larry Cohen worked to get that information into the hands of Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. And Durazo sent a letter to LA Metro supporting New Flyer's bid.

"We have heard from a representative group of workers form the New Flyer facility in Minnesota," she wrote. "According to these workers -- who we have encouraged to separately write to you -- the facility in Minnesota is completely unionized, provides good wages, benefits and excellent working conditions and provides ongoing training and career path opportunities for all their employees."

Desm began taking transit officials on tours of the factory in St. Cloud, Minn. At the same time, CWA, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and AFL-CIO rallied workers for a flyer campaign and actions in California to raise awareness about New Flyer's bid.

"I thought, 'Wow, look at this network. We have people who we don't even know supporting us there,'" said Desm. "For me, it's an eye opener. Look at the power."

New Flyer is planning to start hiring workers for the St. Cloud manufacturing facility in April, and it's preparing to open a new service center in Los Angeles, which will employ another 50 workers. Under the contract, LA Metro has ordered 550 buses with an option for another 350 buses in the future.

"Everything is hand built. We practically build Lamborghinis -- in other words, no automation in our plant and everything is built here in America," said Desm. "You can't get more Build America than what we're doing right now." 

Now the goal is use LA Metro and New Flyer as a model for other large transportation projects.

"Victories take a long time to get," said Lombardozzi, who has been working on getting transit agencies to buy domestic products and support good union jobs since 2010. "But hopefully we can build on this one get some more."

Photo: CWA members at New Flyer Bus Company.

As we confront a continuing unemployment crisis, clean energy manufacturing offers an important opportunity to create good jobs for Californians. The California economy has shown promise in the realm of green manufacturing, and green jobs have grown faster than California’s economy as a whole.

The latest data for California shows that 27 percent of green jobs in the state are in manufacturing, and green manufacturing jobs increased by one percent in 2009 while California’s economy as a whole registered a seven percent decrease in employment. In California, people of color have increasingly benefitted from manufacturing jobs, which is important because people of color are overrepresented within the ranks of the unemployed.

Today, California remains the leading manufacturing state in the United States, and the nation remains in a neck-and-neck race with China for the claim of being the world’s leading manufacturer.

California and the United States need an improved public policy framework to do a better job of attracting these investments. For that reason the BlueGreen Apollo Alliance California developed the California Green Manufacturing Action Plan.

The plan’s recommendations — which were developed by a task force representing manufacturer, investor, labor and environmental perspectives — is meant to give state policymakers a roadmap for attracting clean energy manufacturing enterprises, and the good jobs they create, to California. The recommendations address a number of issues on the “supply-side of the green manufacturing equation” including:

• Improving access to capital for clean energy manufacturers;
• Streamlining existing state resources and permitting processes;
• Encouraging research and development efforts;
• Ensuring California has a well-trained workforce;
• Enabling small-and medium-sized clean energy manufacturers; and
• Improving federal clean energy manufacturing policy.

As demand for clean energy products continues to surge – in California and globally – now is the time to capitalize on California’s manufacturing leadership and maximize family-supporting job creation in our clean energy manufacturing sector. By taking the steps laid out in the California BlueGreen Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan, we can accelerate job growth and help the clean energy sector lead the way back to full employment, a cleaner environment, and more secure energy future.

The following post is from Michael Mignano, Research Assistant for the BlueGreen Alliance.

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently affirmed tariffs on solar panels manufactured in China, and the International Trade Commission doubled down on the decision this past week. These decisions have led to much handwringing and fear mongering by free market ideologues who warn of trade wars with China. But as the dust settles from the decision, the reality of the solar future is much sunnier, in many parts thanks to the tariffs.

Over the last few years, the American solar industry has been thriving.  The industry, with over an estimated 119,000 workers, grew 13.2% in 2012  – no doubt from support of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – with expected growth of 17% in 2013.  The U.S. solar manufacturing industry – which employed over 29,000 workers at over 1,200 establishments in 2012, (though down from 2011 due to China’s unfair trade practices) has expectations to grow 9 percent in 2013.  These developments are in no small terms encouraging, and tariffs on Chinese solar exporters will support this growth. Similar growth in the industry and installations was experienced in Europe.

In order to capitalize on consumer subsidies in the U.S. and Europe, China invested in creating the largest export solar market in the world. In fact, 95% of China’s solar production was exported in 2010, driven by “aggressive” Chinese government subsidies and handouts to solar manufacturers to cash in on consumer subsidies in other countries. China’s investment was so great, however, it ended up creating production capacity of over twice the global demand. As such, the chief executive of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer even told the New York Times that his company was “selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping” — an economic occurrence known as dumping — though he later retracted his comment.

As artificially cheap solar panels from China — cheapened by illegal export subsidies and lax labor and environmental standards — distorted the global price of panels and threatened American manufacturing jobs, the U.S. and a coalition of solar manufacturing companies fought back, citing WTO rules that forbid export subsidies. And the flood of subsidized solar panels slowed.

The move prompted China to do something it never had before: develop a domestic market for the mountains of solar panels piling up behind its factories. While the economics of China’s oversupply will need to work itself out, we’ve seen some really interesting developments. China recently announced it will make it easier for small-scale distributed solar projects to connect to the grid and increase domestic subsidies, while providing “technological assistance” and waiving connection charges. As China solidifies its support for a domestic solar market, installed solar capacity in China increased more than 400% this year compared to last year, and the China State Grid purchase of solar power increased more than 500% over the previous year. Make no mistake that the changing international market — tariffs included — played a big role in China’s decision to invest in domestic solar installations and solar electricity purchasing. Without incentive to build up its domestic market, China would continue its role as the world’s factory, polluting its environment and people.

This is all promising news. The energy hungry country largely relies on coal to power to its economic development. The resulting pollution, human health costs, and social destabilization are impediments to a just and sustainable future in China and abroad. Increased solar power generation in China is a good step, albeit a small one. And international attention to ensuring that trade is fair and sustainable is what we should advocate for — not against. Trade that ignores the conditions of production, quietly but irrefutably supports the environmental and human costs of unrealistically cheap products, while shipping good American jobs overseas.

Instead of warning of trade wars and turning a blind eye to our unsustainable consumption and the problematic conditions of production in China, the U.S. needs to take action. To support sustainable growth in the solar industry that ensures environmental protection through all stages of production and respects the health, safety, and well-being of workers and communities, the U.S. must:

• Support the U.S. solar industry, promoting American-Made solar products as the environmentally responsible consumer choice;
• Join its allies in the labor movement in supporting the U.S. trade cases against heavily and unfairly subsidized Chinese renewable energy products;
• Develop investments, policy, and incentives to grow and support the U.S. renewables industry as a whole;
• Challenge U.S. solar producers to employ even stricter environmental and labor protections; and
• Encourage the Chinese government to enforce its own environmental and labor laws and shift its solar export subsidies to incentives for domestic market consumption.

BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director appeared on the Leslie Marshall Show Tuesday evening, providing some perspective on the election as well as the recent jobs report. He urged that we have a lot of work to do and made it clear that Congress can and must still pass a comprehensive jobs plan this year. 

Check out a clip from the interview.

Tuesday, voters went to the polls and once again chose the Obama-Biden ticket to lead the country for the next four years. Election results for both the Senate at the House of Representatives maintained the same balance of power as before the election with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans controlling the House of Representatives.   As Americans and our leaders put the campaign season behind them, it’s important that the President and Congress come together to renew our commitment to putting the economy back on track. 

The re-election of President Obama and Vice President Biden is an affirmation of the role of government in charting America’s clean economy future. The voters have said, “Yes,” to the President’s clean energy strategy. And they have also said “Yes” to his support for a modern, fuel efficient auto industry and strong investments in America’s workers.  

After thirty-two consecutive months of private sector job growth, the President has a proven track record of putting Americans back to work, but we can’t let up on the economic policies that will continue to build our clean energy future and fuel the economic recovery for years to come. 

Congress should now work with this Administration to pass the balance of the President’s jobs plan.  Among the top priorities are renewing the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) and approving the Investment Tax Credit for offshore wind projects. These measures will immediately create more jobs and stop the layoffs in the wind energy industry. Beyond these must-do items, we must look to investments that we should have already made in transportation, cleaner water, recycling and infrastructure. 

Congress must also join with the President in averting the impending deep cuts in discretionary spending that will hinder our ability to innovate and sustain long-term growth. We cannot cut our way to prosperity. 

This election has concluded in the wake of Hurricane Sandy-- a tragic reminder that we must do more to address climate change.  We strongly encourage the President to seize this moment to lead the American people in a national effort to reduce our carbon emissions while creating millions of new clean economy jobs. 

The American people have shown that once again, they want to build on the progress we’ve already made together. Let’s get to work!

The following blog post is from Erin Bzymek, Press Secretary for the BlueGreen Alliance.

Here we are, at the culminating moment of months of debate on some of the most important issues of the day. Where we go from here on climate change, American manufacturing, energy, transportation policy and our infrastructure will undoubtedly shape the economy well beyond the next four years.

Economic indicators are finally beginning to show positive growth trends, rather than just occasional good news. Thirty-two consecutive months of private sector job growth along with third quarter real GDP growth up to 2% from 1.3% in the previous quarter are both nothing to scoff at. We’re at the tipping point however. Moving forward, we can either rev the engines of economic growth with policies like those in the Recovery Act or threaten to run out of gas.

To begin with, clean energy jobs have had a positive influence on the speed and expanse of the economic recovery. Solar and wind energy in particular have shown significant growth. The solar industry now employs 119,016 Americans up 13.2 percent in the total number of solar jobs from last year. The solar industry is growing 5.75 times faster than the economy as a whole.

Likewise, the wind industry has demonstrated significant growth over the past few years but Congress’s failure to renew the critical Production Tax Credit (PTC) threatens not only future growth in this economic sector but also thousands of existing jobs. In order to realize the full potential of the PTC’s benefits, both the Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) and the Investment Tax Credit for offshore wind must also be up and running. 

The success of the solar and wind industries has had a ripple effect across the economy. Made possible in part to meet the demand of the growing wind and solar industries and the auto recovery, growth in the manufacturing sector continues to gain momentum. Auto production is up and so are vehicle sales. Elsewhere in the world, manufacturing recently contracted slightly.

Capturing even more economic growth can’t depend only on increasing clean energy production; we must also look to investments that we should have already made. Cleaning up our aging water supply and related infrastructure and streamlining transportation systems both have tremendous potential to create thousands more jobs and provide necessary reinforcement to existing infrastructure. For example, investment in water infrastructure programs will create thousands of jobs through the replacement and upgrade of pipelines, treatment plants, storage tanks, and the installation of green infrastructure projects. In addition, the infrastructure that transports our energy needs to be updated to be more efficient, through smart grid and other technologies.

Overall we have made substantial gains in building a robust clean energy economy across the country, but in order to ensure America’s leadership and tradition of innovation there’s more work to be done. Looking ahead, increasing investments in transportation, manufacturing, or clean energy must be part of any economic growth equation.

Without a doubt, job growth in these important industries has strengthened the foundation of the economy over the past few years. Now we must continue to build on that foundation to put more people back to work and reinvest in America’s global competitiveness.