Minorities Deserve Their Share of the Stimulus Jobs

By Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star, July 25, 2010

Thousands of people who returned to their homes throughout the U.S. after the NAACP convention in Kansas City should have stayed longer.

They left a lot of unfinished business. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in a public forum on “green jobs” criticized the oldest and largest civil rights group in the nation for failing to live up to its legacy of street protests and activism.

“The NAACP may not like what I have to say,” said Cleaver, a Methodist minister who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. “But we have abandoned what got us over.”

Federal Dollars Keep Costs Down

By Nan Austin, The Modesto Bee, July 26, 2010

The summer food program is probably the closest thing there is to a free lunch.

School districts keep their kitchens running and staff employed even if summer school classes are cut. Farmers sell meat, milk, poultry and produce even if the economy is bad. And children eat wholesome meals even if there's nothing in the cupboard.

"The more people eat, the more revenue we bring in," and the greater the economies of scale, explained Billy Reid, child nutrition services director for the Salida Union School District.

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The Cost of Energy and the Green Jobs Machine

By David Borden, seacoastonline.com, July 25, 2010

New Hampshire is scratching its collective head trying to figure how to make ends meet.

More than 43,000 people are seeking employment and thousands more are underemployed or facing immanent layoffs.

State and town budgets are no better off. Demand for health care services, homeless shelters, the education of our children, road maintenance are all rising faster than our ability to pay for them.

House, Senate Intro Bills to Save Clean Energy-Green Jobs Programs

by Emily Gertz, www.onearth.org, July 23, 2010

On Thursday four senators introduced legislation that would re-vivify the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which helps homeowners finance the high up-front costs of clean energy improvements and retrofits.  This "cash for caulkers" program, financed with $150 million in federal stimulus funds, helps people cut their energy bills, curbs greenhouse gas pollution, and has created scores of family-wage-paying green jobs around the country.

PACE was on track to expand, but as OnEarth has reported, it was effectively killed earlier this month, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency, instructed lenders to back away from mortgages in municipalities that run PACE-funded programs. Many cities and towns have halted their PACE programs as a result.

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Newsom Touts the Green Agenda

By Gerry Shih and Jack Duane, The Bay Citizen, July 23, 2010

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, promised on Friday that his party’s green agenda will ultimately prove to be the key to job growth and economic recovery.

His remarks echoed recent arguments made by Sen. Barbara Boxer and other Democratic candidates who have come under attack by Republican challengers.

Van Jones Hugs Sacramento Mayor All Star Kevin Johnson, Trees, and Children

By Karen Hansen, www.examiner.com, July 21, 2010

Van Jones shared uplifting perspectives and strategies from the San Francisco Bay to over 400 Mayor Johnson’s Greenwise Sacramento task force participants in the standing room only solar-powered EPA auditorium and overflow room yesterday.

My child or your polar bear

Jones tackled a vital misconception about the study of the environment. He imitated the concerns of a parent awakening to the importance of what it means to be an environmentalist, “I didn’t know you cared about my child, or how to help her to get off her asthma reliever that she has to keep in her pocket.”

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U.S. Green Revolution Knocks, but Few Answer in South Bronx

By Nathanial Gronewold, The New York Times, Greenwire, July 19, 2010

NEW YORK -- Politicians and environmentalists paint pretty pictures of a U.S. green-energy future with shiny electric cars, gleaming solar panels and whirring wind turbines.

But the future starts on a gritty South Bronx street where Jose Pichardo is going house-to-house in suffocating heat and humidity to make a pitch for energy efficiency.

Pichardo, 34, and a dozen or so other trainees in the nonprofit Sustainable South Bronx weatherization program are making the rounds of the Hunts Point neighborhood, spreading the word about government grants to seal leaky windows and doors, provide power-saving light bulbs and insulate walls. They are foot soldiers in a $5 billion federal campaign derided by critics as "cash for caulkers."

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Orson Aguilar: Doors of Opportunity Slamming Shut in UC System

By Orson Aguilar, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, July, 18, 2010

The University of California's home page proudly declares, "The 10 campuses of the University of California open their doors to all who work hard and dream big." Not anymore.

The doors of opportunity being slammed shut at UC will hurt all of California, but low-income communities will be damaged the most. I grew up in one of those communities, the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, and owe much of what I've achieved in life to my UC education. Now, thousands of qualified kids won't get that chance.

The Sometimes Forgotten Green Jobs

By David Louie, KGO-TV San Francisco, July 15, 2010

SAN MATEO, CA (KGO) -- The Obama administration and state leaders have been fostering the growth of green technology to create jobs and to kick-start the recession-battered economy.

A great deal of attention has focused on solar panels and electric vehicles. President Obama, for example, is touring a battery cell plant in Michigan today, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is visiting a gasoline-to-propane engine conversion company in Virginia.

Often overlooked, however, is another green technology opportunity -- retrofitting commercial buildings, which by some estimates, consume between 37 and 42 percent of the state's power supply for lighting and ventilation.

California Sues Federal Mortgage Giants to Save Clean Energy Program

By Emily Gertz, www.onearth.com, July 15, 2010

One week ago, the nation's largest mortgage guarantors put an effective, popular, and Obama administration-backed home energy efficiency program into a coma. Yesterday, California's attorney general sued them to revive it. 

Jerry Brown, the Golden State's one-time governor and current A.G., filed suit on Wednesday against federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (or FHFA, which regulates both) over the Property Assessed Clean Energy program, known as PACE. As the Los Angeles Times reports,

Calling the move a “regulatory strangulation of the state’s grass-roots program,” Brown is suing the agency and the lenders to allow PACE programs to proceed. In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Brown says that the programs were mischaracterized as “loans” instead of “assessments” and improperly portrayed as violating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s standard lending procedures.

The stakes are high, said Brown ... California could stand to lose more than $100 million in federal stimulus money, he said. San Diego’s idle PACE program has left more than 100 newly trained workers without jobs while clean energy companies around the state are facing layoffs.

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BCC Prepares the Unemployed for Electrical, Green Jobs

By Robert S. Hong, desertDispatch.com, July 14, 2010

Barstow Community College is joining with several local organizations to help laid-off workers start new careers.

This summer, the college has accepted 15 people into the Electrical for Green Technology Fundamentals program, which was made possible through a $113,500 grant from the county. Each student will receive 352 hours of training in technology and job fundamentals.

Classes are being held at Central High School, where the students are learning about career-related science and mathematics, as well as about electrical wiring, how motors and generators operate, and the dynamics of wind and solar-generated energy. They are also learning interview skills and workplace etiquette along with job safety.

Top Ten U.S. Cities for Green Job Seekers

By Bonnie Hulkower, Treehugger.com, July 12, 2010

Recently, friends and new college graduates have been asking me how they can get into the field of sustainability. When the question has arisen, I have found myself wondering where the green jobs are sprouting. Then, yesterday, I came across a post in Mother Nature Network listing the top 10 cities for green jobs. California led the pack with three of its cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento in the top 10. Green jobs increased in California by 36% between 1995 and 2008, compared with an overall job growth of only 13%. The top five from their list follows:

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Cap and Trade Could Weatherize Maine

By Susan Kraemer, Scientific American, July 12, 2010

Maine has just pioneered a world first towards being able to trade weatherization on the cap and trade market. MaineHousing had a goal to get every home and half the businesses in Maine weatherized within the next twenty years, but like most states, is starved for funds to help homeowners finance it.

MaineHousing Director Dale McCormick may just have found the funds to to get it done. Putting weatherization credits on the cap and trade market.

Until now cap and trade has only been used to provide the funds for clean energy installations or large scale commercial energy efficiency retrofits which save fossil energy and reduce carbon emissions. But Maine relies on home heating oil to keep warm in winter. Each old leaky house leaks two tons of carbon every year from poor insulation, to say nothing of leaking dollars.

Can this Man Stop School Lunch? Bill Telepan's Healthy Mission

By Neil Katz, CBS News, July 12, 2010

Bill Telepan may have gotten three stars from the New York Times for his cooking, but now the 44-year-old is trying to impress an even tougher clientele - New York City school kids.

Telepan is the executive chef of Wellness in the Schools (WITS), a non-profit working to make school meals fresher and healthier.

"I think there are a lot of kids out there that don't have the opportunity to eat this way," Telepan says, speaking of the fresh food you might find at his self-named restaurant. "They get their free meals from school and I want to give them a chance to eat better and learn how to eat better. That's really important

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Resource Guide for Unemployed Californians Now Available

California Desk, The California Chronical, July 10, 2010

SACRAMENTO - Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim), chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, announced the development of a comprehensive resource guide to help jobless workers find the basic resources they need until they find a job.

"Unfortunately, the United States Senate has not reauthorized any further unemployment benefit extensions," Solorio said. "Consequently, as of this week, 330,000 unemployed Californians have lost unemployment insurance, and that number is expected to rise to 406,000 by July 10th. This resource guide is to help those impacted by the Congressional impasse."

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Dynamic Pricing and Low-Income Customers-Can They Co-exist?

By Ahmad Faruqui and Lisa Wood, Smartmeters.com, July 9, 2010

Few would dispute the positive impact of dynamic pricing on customers in the aggregate.  However, there continues to be much disagreement about the impact of dynamic pricing on certain segments such as low income customers and senior citizens.  A recent manifestation of this concern was the decision of the Maryland Commission to deny the application of Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) Company to deploy a smart grid that would have, among other things, provided dynamic pricing signals to customers.

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Municipal Utility Awarded Nearly $20 Million in Recovery Act Funds

News Release, The California Energy Commission, June 24, 2010

The California Energy Commission approved more than $19.9 million to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for energy upgrades to the region's residential customers. Funding for this program comes from the federal America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Home Performance Program, managed by SMUD, is intending to make available Home Energy Rating System audits and/ or energy upgrades to 15,150 homes in the Sacramento region including the cities of Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom and Galt. The aggressive residential retrofit program is expected to provide more than 1,100 jobs, save 22,000 megawatt hours (enough to power about 2,500 homes for a year) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16,756 tons each year. Home Performance Program is also leveraging the $19.9 million in federal stimulus funds with an expected $69 million in public and private funds including utility incentives.

Energy Bill is Back on Congress' Agenda

By Lisa Mascaro, The Sacramento Bee, June 17, 2010

President Barack Obama may not yet have persuaded Congress to approve a sweeping new energy bill, but as Senate Democrats meet behind closed doors Thursday to hammer out a list of proposals, he has clearly rekindled the debate.

In a sign of the president's engagement on a goal that was all but given up for dead before oil started gushing in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama summoned eight senators to the White House next week for broad, bipartisan talk about the legislative path forward.

Energy Efficiency Forum: How Companies Put Tech to Work

By Annie Snider, GreenBiz.com, June 17, 2010

Back in 1990, when the Energy Efficiency Forum held its first meeting, few Americans would have known how to perform an internet search. In 21 years, the technology has become a daily, if not hourly part of our lives.

That seamless transition from niche to quotidian is the goal that brought energy thought leaders to Washington on Wednesday. Just as the basics of internet technology existed in 1990, the technology to vastly reduce energy consumption exists today. But for it to move into the mainstream, it will need to become easier, cheaper and maybe just plain more fun.

Battling Climate Change By Changing Behavior

By Cara Pike, GreenBiz.com, June 16, 2010

From smoking cessation to wearing seat belts, behavior change theories and experiences point to three key conditions needed for people, organizations or society to change -- having a sense of tension, efficacy and benefits. Bob Doppelt, my colleague at the Climate Leadership Initiative, and I have been working to incorporate these three elements into global warming outreach and public engagement campaigns.

Tension -- Global warming needs to become more relevant and more immediate to people's lives. Tension can be experienced as negative or positive and is created when there is an obvious disconnect between people’s values and what is at risk from global warming. For example, disturbances, such as extreme weather incidents, do create some interest and awareness but the connection must be made to larger shifts in climate patterns, rather than limiting the association to individual storm incidents. A better idea is to focus on how global warming impacts what people care about most (i.e. health, security, wellbeing of children, etc.)

Ford Cuts Vehicle CO2 Emissions, Inches Up Fuel Economy

By GreenBiz Staff, GreenBiz.com, June 16, 2010

DEARBORN, MI — Last year, Ford cut its new vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions by 12 percent, slightly improved fleet fuel economy, exceeded its water and landfill waste goals, saved $15 million with energy efficiency efforts and increased its use of recycled, renewable and lightweight materials.

Ford details its environmental progress in its 11th annual sustainability report, "Blueprint for Sustainability: The Future at Work."

Ford is making headway on its goal of cutting the CO2 emissions of new U.S. and European vehicles by 30 percent by 2020, compared to 2006. Last year the company's lowered the CO2 emissions of its 2009 model year vehicles in North America by 12 percent, compared to 2006.

Bill Seeks to Curb Corporate Political Spending

By Matt Kawahara, The Sacramento Bee, June 15, 2010

Democratic lawmakers took aim Monday at corporate political spending after businesses poured millions of dollars into measures on the California primary ballot.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, and Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced bills that would limit where companies can obtain money to fund their political agendas.

Mercy gives $576,374 in Grants to Help Thousands In Need

Riveroak.org/Newsroom, Jan 8, 2010

31 local non-profits receive grants to help fund programs in Sacramento, Nevada, Placer and Yolo counties
01.08.2010 – SACRAMENTO – Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), which operates the local Mercy hospitals, has awarded $576,374 in grant funding to 31 nonprofit organizations in Nevada, Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties. The grants, from $5,000 to $25,000, will impact health issues ranging from mental illness
to chronic disease management, and community-based programs that provide services from birth to end-of-life. This year’s recipient organizations reach out to local ethnic communities and provide services to multiple generations from infants to the elderly.

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Community Groups Ramp Up Efforts to Build Day-Labor Center

by Kathy Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, Jan. 22, 2010

Plans for a day-labor and community center in south Sacramento, stalled for months due to the bad economy, are gaining traction.

Backers of the proposed 41st Avenue Community Center have acquired two adjacent properties and cleared the land at the corner of 41st Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Initial plans have been redrawn for a 14,000-square-foot building — twice the size of the first version —with more parking and an estimated price tag of $2.5 million, said Louise Perez, executive director of Community Resource Project Inc., the organization that’s taken the lead on the project.

REPORTERS NOTES: Let's Weatherize!

By Amy Standen, April 24, 2009, www.kqed.org

Since people seem to nod off a bit when I say I'm working on a story about energy efficiency, I've had to re-tool my pitch. "It's a story about how installing solar panels or a wind turbine is the last thing you should do to green your house," I say, perhaps a little over-dramatically.

I have nothing against solar panels, but they do seem to illustrate our collective love of gadgetry. Why else would we leap (or at least dream of leaping) to spend $5,000-$10,000 on solar panels when many of us could make a significant dent in our utility bills with a trip to Home Depot? Small things, like weather-stripping your doors, or making sure you have a well-insulated attic, can make a big difference in how much heat or AC your house consumes.

If you qualify as low-income (in this case, that's less than $44,000 for a family of four) you can get help with this project. If you live in California, you'll find your local participating agency here (or by calling 1-866-675-6623). Elsewhere, begin by contacting your state agency, found here. The Weatherization Assistance Program has received a 10-fold budget increase under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, so now's a great time to apply.

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Stimulus Grows Green Jobs in Sacramento

Community Resource Project, Inc.

By Wendy Hermes Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2009

The ever changing economic climate has created a unique position for Community Resource Project, Inc. (CRP).  In a time when job losses continue to rise, expansion is on the horizon for organizations that promote renewable energy and efficiency. In January of 2009 CRP hired 18 new employees in order to successfully serve the growing number of income-qualified residents in Sacramento, Sutter, and Yuba counties in need of nutrition, energy assistance and educational support.

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Stimulus Package Increases Weatherization in Sacramento

Community Resource Project, Inc.

By Wendy Hermes Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2009

CRP removed this old water heater from Santos Espinosa's home and installed a new one (below) as part of the weatherization program

Old water heater       New water heater

Santos Espinosa purchased his first home in November 2008. It was a bank-owned home in need of many repairs. While Mr. Espinosa invested much time replacing fixtures, painting and upgrading he continued to have a high energy bill and problems with his water heater. He was referred by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District to the weatherization program at Community Resource Project, Inc. An assessment of Mr. Espinosa’s home estimated that weatherization could save him a significant sum on his utility bill and reduce energy waste. Full Story

Mr. Espinosa’s experience with CRP’s weatherization program was recently featured in the Sacramento Bee. Click on the link below to read the full article.