As Philadelphia's leaders begin a drive to bring green collar jobs to the region, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) said action on clean energy legislation by the Pennsylvania state legislature is crucial to make that drive a reality.
"Van Jones' appearance at the Academy of Natural Sciences discussing green collar jobs is sold out, with eight remote locations set up," said Christine Knapp, outreach coordinator for PennFuture.
"This is a testament to the urgency felt by Philadelphia's leaders to create 'green pathways out of poverty,' as Jones so eloquently has said. But all our work for green jobs will come to nothing if the Pennsylvania General Assembly doesn't pass the clean energy legislation necessary to help make it happen. Right now, Pennsylvania is losing the race for green collar jobs, because we don't have the right state policies and laws.
"These jobs are in the hands of our state legislators," said Knapp. The clean energy legislation before them includes desperately needed tools to build our 21st Century green energy economy – energy conservation, smart meters, and $850 million funding for green energy and green jobs, including $250 million for solar energy.
"This legislation will bring green collar jobs here, and will help build our renewable energy economy, protect the environment, and make Pennsylvania a terrific place to live, work and play. We can improve our air and water quality, safeguard public health, reduce our contributions to global warming, and protect tourism, our second largest industry. And we will finally replace some of the highly paid jobs we lost with the collapse of our industrial base.
"Van Jones is here to show us the roadmap for these green jobs, based on his California experience," continued Knapp. "But unlike California, our existing laws have created a detour on that road. We can only get to those green jobs by getting our legislators to act to remove the roadblocks."
Van Jones is an environmental leader and civil rights attorney whose presentation tonight is sponsored by the Urban Sustainability Forum. Jones is the founder and president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA, which promotes integrated solutions to urban America's toughest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. Jones is promoting a national green-collar jobs initiative to create "green pathways out of poverty," while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming.
