Green Jobs Act a smart solution

Every so often a ray of hope illuminates the gloomy landscape created by our inability to address climate change with the urgency it requires. A ray materialized with the introduction of Rep. Antonio Delgado’s Green Jobs and Opportunity Act. Our congressman recognizes the magnitude of the climate problem and sees that the necessary solution — rapidly reducing greenhouse-gas emissions — would produce thousands of good-paying jobs.

The bill targets the opportunities clean-energy innovation could offer to workers left behind — people in rural areas, coal miners whose jobs were automated, residents of disadvantaged communities, veterans. All that’s needed is accurate information about where job growth will occur and what training is required for the positions — just what his bill would provide.

Even with an administration dead-set against supporting clean-energy innovation, green-energy jobs outnumber fossil-fuel jobs nationally by three to one. Our state has nearly 150,000 green jobs.

Powered by the ambitious clean-energy goals in New York’s recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the growth of these good-paying jobs here is assured. Imagine what the Green Jobs Act could do if a federal bill also ignited a clean-energy fire.

That second ray of hope already exists. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act would hasten our transition to clean energy, stimulate economic growth, and have fossil-fuel companies take some responsibility for the climate damage they’ve caused. We hope Delgado looks closely at this bill as a spark to light that fire, checking polluting emissions while accelerating green-job growth.

eleanor saunders Hillsdale Citizens’ Climate Lobby Volunteer