OLCV and AFL-CIO Agree: Keep Promoting Green Jobs

Last Sunday, the Eugene Register-Guard ran an opinion piece that I co-authored with Tom Chamberlain, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO, making the case that Oregon should continue to invest in policies that promote green jobs.

"2009 is a year of crisis. We are in an economic crisis that has been described as the worst since the Great Depression. Double digit unemployment, record home foreclosures, tens of millions without health insurance, and a financial system in chaos are just a few symptoms of this crisis.

We are also in a climate crisis. Years of misuse of our air, water and land threaten our children with unimaginable environmental and economic costs. New evidence shows that Antarctic ice sheets are collapsing decades ahead of climate model predictions, threatening an additional several feet of sea level rise this century. The scientific consensus is that we must begin cutting global warming pollution rapidly.

The good news: Policies to encourage green jobs are part of the solution to both of these crises. Of course, there’s been a lot of spin about green jobs. People are properly skeptical of what they believe could just be a marketing gimmick. But green jobs are not a gimmick."

You can read the whole article on the Register-Guard's website.