Last week we found out one of the key roles the Vice President will be playing in the White House. And its very different from the one that his predecessor Dick Cheney performed during the Bush years.
It looks like Vice President Joe Biden will be the ringleader in Obama’s administration on the issue of integrating green jobs into the nation’s middle class and eventual economic recovery. The plan to create several thousand green jobs over the next few years is an important aspect of the recent stimulus package that was signed into law in Denver, home to several firms specializing in clean technology.
In fact, the law contains more than $20 billion for investment in cleaner technologies, including $500 million for green job training. Vice President Biden chairs the recently formed task force which also includes Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The task force’s first order of business is to evaluate how investing in green jobs will help build a strong middle class.
According to the Council of Economic Advisers, green jobs pay as much as 20% more than other typical blue collar jobs. There is also strong chance that the green jobs of tomorrow will likely to be union jobs protected under collective bargaining contracts. Several unions, including SEIU and the Steelworkers, have partnered up with environmental groups and clean technology advocates over the years. Examples of these high quality jobs of the future are builders of new power grids, solar panel manufacturing, home and office weatherizing and high-tech school renovation.
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