Kirby Keeton

November 20, 2009

"Green jobs" have become a major new area of policy concern in the United States. President Obama made the shift in policy clear by appointing a "Green Jobs Czar" early into his presidency. Since then, allocations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act rapidly grew green job training programs. However, much of the momentum for a green jobs movement is coming from local sources. A senior fellow at the Center for American Progress says that "Washington is not leading the way." States like California, New York, and Michigan are leading the charge by trying to build a green jobs workforce.

How does New England compare to the rest of the country in progress toward a green economy? The Boston metro area is the only part of New England that ranks in the top 15 areas for clean-tech job growth. That might be unsurprising since the rest of New England is mostly rural. The same report lists the best community colleges for clean-tech job training. There are no New England schools listed. The Interwest Energy Alliance offer a list of schools with wind energy related programs. Again, there are none in New England. One positive is that the New England States will share 4 million dollars in federal grant funding with New York and New Jersey to create a national green jobs bank.

A new economic forecast predicts that the New England states will be slow to recover from the recession. The Associated Press quotes Ross Gittell of the University of New Hampshire as saying, "While it does not appear that the region can depend on the green economy as the next big single growth engine, the green economy is an area of significant opportunity."           

Sources:

Dina Fine Maron, Clean-Energy Programs Booming at Community Colleges, Greenwire, Nov. 20, 2009, http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/11/20/4/.

Andrea Chalupa, How to Get a Job in Clean Tech, Huffington Post, Nov. 16, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-chalupa/how-to-get-a-job-in-clean_b_359547.html.

Interwest Energy Alliance, Education and training for Clean-Energy Careers, http://www.interwest.org/wiki/index.php?title=Education_and_Training_for_Clean-Energy_Careers(last visited Nov. 20, 2009).

Bob Salsberg, Forecast: New England Economy Slow to Rebound, S.F. Chron., Nov. 10, 2009, available at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/10/financial/f112001S82.DTL&type=business.

Vermont and 7 Other States Share $4 million in Green Jobs Stimulus Funding, Star Tribune, Nov. 19, 2009, available at http://www.startribune.com/business/70489062.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU.