Can green jobs spur an economic recovery? There’s no doubt about it. Just ask the veterans in Denver who once crawled around attics and tight spaces in Iraq and Afghanistan seeking terrorists but now crawl through homes in the United States to track down air leaks and find places that need insulation. After having graduated from a green jobs training program, they are among a new wave of workers who have found employment improving the energy efficiency of America’s residential and commercial buildings.

Or ask the manufacturing workers in the Midwest who, because their companies successfully transitioned into clean energy manufacturing, escaped the job loss that befell millions of their brethren over the past decade. In Ohio, a business that once manufactured packaging materials now produces harvesters that transform algae into fuels and plastics. Another that produced large-diameter bolts for construction projects is now making bolts for wind turbines. Not only do these jobs provide the income and stability that Americans want, but they also contribute to U.S. energy independ­ence and fight global climate change.

The statistics don’t lie: Even without a comprehensive national policy, clean energy jobs in the United States have grown at more than twice the rate of overall jobs over the past decade, according to a 2009 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Passage of a federal clean energy and climate bill will increase these job numbers exponentially by unleashing a torrent of economic innovation that has the potential not only to save our environment and climate but also to revive the U.S. economy.

By Jerome Ringo in US News and World Report

Jerome Ringo is the former president of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition that promotes clean energy and green jobs. He is currently senior executive for global strategies with Green Port, a private company that focuses on establishing sustainable “green” ports around the world.  Full Article available at:  http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2010/02/22/green-jobs-are-putting-america-to-work.html