The strategy has several parts:

1. US Forest Service will preferentially select wood for new building projects while also maintaining its commitment to certified green building standards.
2. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has asked US Forest Service to report to him news ways to enhance green building material research and development.
3. US Forest Service will demonstrate innovative uses of wood as a green building material for new structures of 10,000 square feet or more through using recognized green building standards such as LEED, Green Globes or the National Green Building Standard.

To carry out this initiative, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told his workers to use more locally milled timber in all new agency buildings. Vilsack told heads of other USDA agencies to do likewise.

“Our country has the resources, the work force and the innovative spirit to reintroduce wood products into all aspects of the next generation of buildings,” Tidwell said.

Photo courtesy of American Tree Farm System 2010 photo contest winners Henry and Mary Kay Hudson.

President Barack Obama touted gains made by a Wisconsin renewable energy firm as the kind of innovation that will bolster the United States.

“I’m here because this business and others like it are showing us the way forward,” Obama said in the weekly address.

Obama said in the coming days he will highlight “innovators across America” who are relying on new technology to create jobs, and allow U.S. firms to beat competitors.

Read the full text from Reuters Green Business section here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-obama-address-idUSTRE70S3H120110129

Now an independent foundation released a report stating that Texas’s renewable energy future could include almost 23,000 jobs a year and $2.7 billion in local and state tax revenues.  Could clean tech follow high tech and biotech as Texas giants?

The report, announced earlier this week at the State Capitol in Austin, is the work of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.  In sum, the study proposes the state could become a catalyst for the renewable energy industry, and envisions three scenarios:

• For an approximate $13 increase in residential energy bills, the state could gain a 20% growth in its renewable energy capacity, which in turn would create the best possible scenario, the presumed 22,900 additional clean energy jobs added annually.  State revenues would also reach the aforementioned $2.7 billion mark.  Many residents would probably balk at this—or would the “price of a postage stamp” daily argument work?
• In a baseline scenario, a statewide $4 utility bill increase would create about 6000 new jobs annually, and net a 15% percent increase in Texas’s renewable energy capacity.  Texas would also gain close to $1 billion in revenues, with the state and municipalities splitting that gain about 80-20%.
• If Texas stays the course, there would be some modest growth in job creation, economic growth and tax revenues, but nothing approaching the baseline or best-possible scenarios

Read the rest here:  http://tinyurl.com/2ubknlr 

The factors that differentiate “green” construction derive from a new set of expectations relating to structures and their function. Green buildings aim to maximize efficiency in their use of water, energy and other resources, to minimize waste, pollution, or other contributions to environmental degradation, and to create environments that contribute to health and productivity.

The Green Jobs Guidebook (Environmental Defense Fund 2008), thought by many to be the definitive green jobs report to date, lists 41 job classifications directly related to green building. Among them: Green Building Project Design and Development; Green Building Design and Engineering; Green Building Operations; Energy Efficiency Services and Installation. Other green jobs that relate to construction include: Solar Power Installation; Maintenance, Development and Manufacturing; Wind Power Installation; Geothermal Operation and Development; Plant Environmental; Health and Safety Facility Positions; Environmental Consulting; Municipal Waste Treatment and Recycling.

In addition to new methods and materials, the culture of the green construction site can be different. According to Bill Stough, “maximizing energy efficiency and material efficiency so there is less waste being generated on a construction site – the waste that is generated on the construction site is reused to the maximum extent possible.” For example, deconstructing a building in preparation for new construction is another aspect of high performance building standards that requires special training. Recycling of building materials and debris left over from clearing the site earns points for green building certification through programs such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. In addition, secondary jobs are created in the marketing of the refuse – jobs for processing the material and making it ready for use in other, less valuable products, called “downcycling”

Lew Hay, chairman and CEO of FPL Group, a top-five electric power company and No. 1 producer of renewable energy from wind and solar power, issued the following statement today on the energy and climate bill introduced by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.):

“Senators Kerry and Lieberman deserve tremendous credit for crafting a proposal that would move the country in the right direction on energy and climate issues. After years of debate and half measures, the United States still lacks a long-term national energy strategy, leaving us behind other countries in building and exporting the clean energy economy of the future. If we are to continue to lead the world in technological advances, job creation and economic security, we need a new approach. The most essential step — which is at the heart of the American Power Act — is to set a price on carbon dioxide emissions. With a gradually escalating price on carbon that begins to reflect the full social costs of emitting greenhouse gases, the country will make a smooth transition from the high-carbon fuel sources of the past to the next generation of low- and zero-emitting domestic energy sources. No legislation is ever perfect, this bill included, but Sens. Kerry and Lieberman have shown true leadership in their efforts to reach a balanced solution that all parties to this debate should be able to support. We applaud their efforts and look forward to working with them to get a bill signed into law.”

Read the full article: http://tinyurl.com/2avojo2

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

Solar and Wind will continue to grow, but energy efficiency will be a strong focus in 2010.

Solar and wind power will get headlines and attention, but green-tech experts say 2010 will be dominated by energy efficiency, the mundane but critical process of cutting the amount of gas and electricity that homes and offices use.

“Green’s the word in Austin, and today greenbacks are on their way to further strengthen our commitment to clean energy,” said Doggett, D-Austin. “Green jobs have the ability to not only transform the way we do business, but re-power America; this training will provide workers with the nuts and bolts to construct a thriving clean energy economy right here in Central Texas.”

The grant is a significant gain for the region’s green work force, as community and business leaders continue to eye plans to grow the sector in Central Texas, which has lost jobs in manufacturing and other key industries in the downturn.

The Central Texas plan, funded by the federal economic stimulus program, will train 1,000 workers for jobs at solar power plants in Austin and San Antonio and projects in nearby cities and states. The training will prepare workers for a variety of jobs, including in solar installation.

The grant will go to Austin’s Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee , which is sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 .

Gilbert Ferrales , training director for the JATC, said the training will provide workers with immediate employment opportunities in Central Texas.

The Austin IBEW will partner with ImagineSolar LLC, an Austin-based company that does job training for the solar energy industry, and the Austin Workforce Investment Board.

The training will begin as early as March and take place at JATC’s training facility in Southeast Austin over the following months.

“This grant represents a major step forward in developing the solar energy industry for Central Texas,” said Michael Kuhn, president and chief executive of ImagineSolar.

The region got one of 25 grants totaling nearly $100 million from federal stimulus funds announced Wednesday by the Labor Department.

It’s part of a larger $500 million federal initiative to train workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.

“Our outstanding award recipients were selected because their proposed projects will connect workers to career pathways in green industries and occupations through diverse partnerships,” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said in a statement Wednesday.

Article courtesy of Austin American Statesman

This sets Obama on track to create 5 million green (not just renewable energy) jobs over the next decade. Granted, he made this promise early in his campaign, all the way back in the spring of 2008. At that point he planned to spend $150 billion total to stimulate the green economy.

The estimates in the report depend on several conditions that could be a bit of a stretch — namely that all U.S. utilities will be able to generate 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020 and that a carbon emissions cap and trade system becomes a reality. It also anticipates that billions of dollars will be invested in cleantech research and development.

Considering that most utilities aren’t approaching 20 percent renewables in their energy mix, and the climate bill that would establish cap and trade has stalled in the Senate, this may be a little far-fetched.

But if these criteria are fulfilled, all 50 states will have an opportunity benefit economically from the green stimulus packages being given out one industry at a time — so far solar, Smart Grid, biomass, wind and advanced batteries have each received up to billions of dollars, mostly through the U.S. Department of Energy.

The study was produced by the University of California, in tandem with Yale University and the University of Illinois.

Another study, presented earlier this week by Booz Allen Hamilton at Greenbuild 2009, predicted that the green building industry alone will generate or support 7.9 million jobs and infuse the U.S. GDP by $554 billion in just the next four years.

The delegation from the U.S. Department of Energy lab was led by Robert McGrath, the lab’s deputy director for science and technology. Also attending were Robert Hawsey, an associate lab director for renewable electricity and end-use systems; Pete Sheldon, a scientist in the lab’s National Center for Photovoltaics, and David Ginley, a research fellow working with HelioVolt Corp., a pioneering solar power technology company in Austin.

“Texas is moving forward smartly and aggressively with deployment of renewable and energy efficiency technologies,” McGrath said. “We see multiple opportunities for partnerships for technology development and for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment with many of the industry and university groups with which we met today.”

McGrath said his organization, which is based in Golden, Colo., wants to “capitalize upon the very productive, long-standing and continuing collaboration that NREL has with HelioVolt.”

Friday’s introductory meeting with state officials, led by Comptroller Susan Combs, included representatives from Gov. Rick Perry’s policy office and the Texas Enterprise Fund, state and federal lawmakers or their aides and Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce representatives.

Another meeting took place with managers of area utilities, including Austin Energy and CPS Energy of San Antonio, and officials with the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems and Texas State University.

McGrath said the officials all “enthusiastically encouraged” the lab’s expanded participation in planning and implementing renewable energy projects in Texas.

Laboratory officials also toured HelioVolt’s Southeast Austin plant with company executives and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

“Obviously we want to transform Texas into a clean-technology leader, and we want to make the greater Austin region a center of innovation for clean technologies,” said Jose Beceiro, director of clean-energy initiatives for the Austin chamber.

Beceiro said local officials have been talking to the lab for a while. He was not at Friday’s meetings but has been involved in previous discussions about collaborating with the lab.

A larger presence of the lab in the Austin area could help recruit clean-technology companies and green jobs, developing new clean-energy technologies and attracting more federal grant money, Beceiro said.

B.J. Stanbery, chairman of both HelioVolt and the nonprofit Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities, said that “Central Texas’ unique combination of diverse utility markets, world-class research institutions and farsighted public leadership provide an opportunity for NREL to further their mission of accelerating commercialization and deployment of renewable energy.”

Bob King, president of Good Company Associates Inc., a business development consulting practice focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, said his company helped the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities organize Friday’s meetings.

King emphasized that discussions are in the early stages about how “the Central Texas communities can benefit from a relationship with our national lab,” which he called “the only national lab whose entire responsibility is energy efficiency and renewable energy.”

King said the meetings were productive.

“Everyone left with the next actions to take, and we’ll be having follow-up meetings,” he said. “This could be a long process, but I think we made some progress today.”

Article courtesy AAS, snovak@statesman.com; 445-3856