Obama Job Openings

Energy Independence And Green Collar Jobs

February 10, 2009 | Posted by admin

One of the core initiatives of the new Obama administration is to implement changes that will both provide for energy independence for our country while trying to do it in a manner which is the least harmful to the environment.

Barack Obama, Jan 2009…

“We’ll create nearly half a million jobs by investing in clean energy – by committing to double the production of alternative energy in the next three years, and by modernizing more than 75% of federal buildings and improving the energy efficiency of two million American homes. These made-in-America jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, developing fuel-efficient cars and new energy technologies pay well, and they can’t be outsourced.” The $43 B that is to be allocated to “green collar” jobs is projected to be spent over a 10 year period.

Improving our energy independence is crucial to the type of change we need. Think of it, when we as a country do well, the rest of the world does well economically, which in turn drives up energy costs because we are all competing for those resources, which then means that our economy starts to suffer because we have to import much of that expensive energy. Energy prices come down when our economy is suffering along with the rest of the world. It’s a catch 22 situation. The only way to break this cycle is to make more of our own energy, and be more energy efficient. Accomplishing this going forward will create huge numbers of jobs in many diciplines.

Barack Obama Green Jobs installing Solar Panels

In fact, the energy stimulus initiative would provide $11 Billion to modernize the U.S. electrical grid system, $8 Billion for renewable energy project loans, and $2 Billion more for research into research for vehicle batteries. More electric and hybrid electric vehicles are coming. Many of them will need to be charged at night, thus requiring a more robust electrical grid. In addition the push towards utilizing wind power to generate more of our electrical needs will require the installation of more transmission lines from those areas where wind power generators are most efficient.

Some of these types of “green collar jobs” will be power grid managers, mechanical engineers, electricians and electrical engineers, biofuels chemists, carpenters, operations managers, production supervisors, sales and marketing, green analysts, green retrofitters, and many, many more jobs.

It was noted in the most recent report on the Obama stimulus plan that the occupation-weighted average wage in green energy jobs is currently about 20% above the national average.

Anyone wanting to really ride a career wave that we absolutely have to have as a nation should seriously consider this segment of the job market. While some of the careers will require more lengthy training, some of the others requiring less career training such as for green analysts and retrofitters should be able to be obtained from local colleges. So, get on the right track with the right education to get a piece of this growing career market. Also, to get help with the cost of education in your new career look at what Federal and State monies and government grants may be available.