Attacking Global Warming Could Rebuild Manufacturing

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/15/attacking-global-warming-could-rebuild-manufacturing/

by James Parks, Feb 15, 2008

Over the past decade, more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the United States. But effective public policies could revive the manufacturing industry, political leaders and economists told a forum, sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) as part of its Agenda for Shared Prosperity, earlier this week.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who keynoted the forum, said creating jobs to tackle global warming and create renewable energy is key to manufacturing. Brown says we can build a high-productivity, high-wage manufacturing sector that also meets other national goals, such as securing energy independence.


Building or retrofitting buildings that use solar energy is one way to create jobs and fight global warming.


We are at a fork in the road and each single day we spend without working to renew American manufacturing means two days by our children and grandchildren paying the debt. There are choices we have to make—on climate change, on trade, on tax policy. Congress will address climate change—and with that the creation of a market for clean energy and green jobs.

By creating markets for clean energy, not only can we stabilize our nation’s energy supply and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, we can also bolster manufacturing. From wind, to solar, to biofuels, to clean coal technology, we have the capacity to become a leader in clean, alternative energy manufacturing.

About 10 percent of U.S. workers are employed in manufacturing, which accounts for some 12 percent of total gross domestic product and more than half of the nation’s spending on research and development. Manufacturing continues to be a source of better-paying jobs compared with other types of employment, especially for non-college-educated workers.

Several economists presented studies showing that focusing on climate change could be the catalyst to rebuild manufacturing. As EPI President Lawrence Mishel said:

Too often we are told that attacking the challenge of climate change will harm our economic wellbeing. But these studies show this is a false choice. A responsible energy policy can also create hundreds of thousands of good-paying “green jobs” and help restore our vital manufacturing sector.

FULL story at link.

[ixion]

1. and what's holding it back? Big Energy

that's what. :grr:

[Deja Q]

2. If any of the candidates would address this, while acknowledge oil is going nowhere*,

we'd all be better.


* Oil is impossible to be free from, but it can be used wisely, nobody will lose profits over it, and more oil would remain over the decades if not centuries...