The "I'm Ready" Petition Decoder

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I'm ready for Green Jobs Now.
I urge our elected officials to invest in creating millions of green jobs[1] and a Clean Energy Corps[2-4]. We can't drill and burn our way out of the current crisis[5]. We can invest and invent our way out. We can create new pathways out of poverty and curb global warming at the same time. We will do this by retooling our factories, rebuilding our communities, and repowering America with 100% clean and renewable electricity[6]. It's time to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty[7].

A "green job" or "green-collar job" is a blue-collar job that has been upgraded to respect the environment. The phrase is a term of art, not a hard and fast government category. But it is intended to capture all of the skilled labor that we will need to turn this country around, in a very practical way. Some green jobs are in upper management and even finance. But when we say green-COLLAR, we are trying to signal that we are mainly talking about the Ph-doos (as in "do it"), not the PhDs.

The Clean Energy Corps is a service, training, and job creation effort that will be concentrated in cities and struggling communities across America. Our ailing economy needs a stimulus that is long-term, sustainable and focused on communities. The public urgently wants action to promote clean energy, increase energy security and curb global warming.

The Clean Energy Corps (CEC) would help do the on-the-ground work necessary to make these changes in energy consumption actually happen.
The "greenest generation" is already volunteering in record numbers and would welcome the opportunity to serve the nation in combating climate change; so will a generation of skilled baby boomers looking for useful activities in their retirement.
Blue-collar workers — particularly those left on the bench by a stalled construction industry — are looking for a chance to apply their skills to green-collar work that rebuilds our nation. Low-income communities are keenly aware of the economic promise of a clean energy economy, and are eager to realize the opportunities and second chances it will provide to people and communities that have historically been left behind.

Invest in energy efficiency in buildings — the source of 2/5 of national energy consumption — by creating financing mechanisms that would put public and private capital to work, covering up-front costs and capturing the energy savings. This part of the CEC program is largely self-financing and would create local jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a vast scale;
Work with a wide array of employers, national and community organizations, educational institutions and unions to connect workers to high-quality, career track green-collar jobs;
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;
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 as never before; and
Directly engage millions of Americans in diverse service, service learning, and volunteer work related to climate protection.

The recent media frenzy supporting drilling has ignored findings from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency (EIA) which states that the benefits from such drilling would be too small to have a significant effect on the price of oil. There is no legitimate reason for this omission in the media, nor is there a legitimate reason to support drilling when there are other healthier and more effective solutions in the renewable energy sector.
80 percent of America's coastlines are already available for drilling. More coastline drilling will just give us slick and slimy beaches - but no relief at the gas pump. The reason is that there really is no such thing as "American oil" anymore.
MULTINATIONAL corporations will do the drilling and own the oil. Those corporations will have the right to sell to India and China every drop of oil from America's coastlines, if those countries are willing to pay one penny more per barrel.
Therefore, opening up our protected coastlines to oil drilling will push oil companies' profits up, but it won't bring our gas prices down. The only thing Americans will get out of the deal will be slick and slimy beaches.
We shouldn't throw away America's beauty just to give multinational corporations more American oil to sell to Asia. Instead, we can bring prices down - and create millions of new, green-collar jobs - by investing in a clean, green and renewable economy.

We can all agree that lower fuel costs, freedom from dependency on foreign oil, and a healthy environment are positive things we would like to see in America. In order to achieve these goals we need to Repower America, which means making our buildings more energy efficient and generating 100% of our electricity from clean and renewable sources like solar and wind within 10 years.
Repowering America is the best way to cut energy prices. To lower prices, we shouldn't listen to Newt Gingrich. We should listen to Adam Smith. The best way to lower prices is to cut demand and expand supply. Building weatherization, rail, mass transit and fuel efficient cars all cut demand for energy - while creating jobs. And increasing renewable energy - including solar, wind, smart bio-fuels and geothermal - expands the supply.
A green economy is good for price, good for people's jobs and good for the planet.

When we call for "GREEN JOBS NOW," we are saying that we want to connect the people who most need work … to the work that most needs to be done. With Green Jobs, we can fight pollution and poverty at the same time.
A green economy is right for three P's: people, planet and price. As we have said, there is more work, wealth and health for people in the green economy.
Climate change is not just an elite issue. It is an issue for everyday people. Low-income people and people of color have no interest in hanging on to a pollution-based economy that has given us asthma, cancer, more floods, more droughts, more wildfires, and more Katrina-style hurricanes. Our present system is literally cooking the Earth.
There is more work, wealth and health available for low-income people and people of color in a clean and green economy than there is in the present economy. There are not a whole lot of jobs in the coal mines. There are not a whole lot of jobs on the oil rigs. But there are millions of jobs available in rebooting, retrofitting and repowering a nation.