Original source: Apollo Alliance

In honor of Labor Day, and to address the ongoing national unemployment crisis, President Obama released a proposal on Monday to spur job creation through investment in America's transportation infrastructure. The proposal, which includes investments in transit and high-speed rail, would move the United States forward on a path toward a cleaner transportation system geared to the 21st century.

If implemented, the six year plan-which would replace the currently expired federal transportation legislation-would rebuild 150,000 miles of roads; construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail; and rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runways. It would also establish an infrastructure bank and make a sustained and effective commitment to high-speed rail. The plan would be funded, in part, by the elimination of oil and gas company subsidies. Click here for a White House fact sheet on the proposal.

In his speech introducing the infrastructure proposal, President Obama said, "We want to change the way Washington spends your tax dollars. We want to reform a haphazard, patchwork way of doing business. We want to focus on less wasteful approaches than we've got right now. We want competition and innovation that gives us the best bang for the buck."

James Corless, the director of Transportation for America, a transportation reform group with which the Apollo Alliance works closely, said of the new initiative, "What is most is encouraging is that the Administration has recognized that the earmark-driven, unaccountable spending of the past must end. The President today has promised to press for carefully targeted investments in those projects that compete best in satisfying clearly articulated national goals for energy security, safety, affordability, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. We look forward in coming weeks to more details on how the Administration fulfills these goals for reform. The proposal to pay for the initial installment by removing some of the unnecessary subsidies to oil and other highly profitable corporations also strikes us as a sound approach."

The Apollo Alliance joins Transportation for America in applauding the president's transportation infrastructure proposal. But, as Apollo Alliance supporters well know, the way to get the "best bang for the buck" is to make sure the transit vehicles, equipment and infrastructure generated by the proposal are manufactured by American workers. Stay tuned for a major Apollo report on this very topic, the Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan.

What's Next for the Senate on Clean Energy?

This week, at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he would not push for a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill in the next Congress, but rather would pursue a "piecemeal" approach focused on the electricity sector. He also said he hopes the Senate will pass a limited energy bill this year that includes the home energy efficiency retrofit program Home Star.

None of this comes as a surprise to those of us who watched with disappointment as the Senate failed to pass clean energy and climate legislation this summer.

In this month's Green Labor Journal, the Apollo Alliance evaluates what led to the failure of U.S. policymakers to adopt clean energy and climate measures this year.

There were many factors that led to the disappointing outcome in the Senate-some out of anyone's control but some that could have been influenced. Among those factors that were beyond control, the most important one was undoubtedly the economic crisis. High unemployment rates throughout the country made policymakers and the public extremely hesitant about any legislation that might impact jobs.

Although multiple analyses demonstrated that climate and energy policies in fact create jobs-green-collar jobs-opponents of clean energy also made repeated arguments that strong climate and energy policies were really a 'job-killing energy tax.' And amid unprecedented levels of economic uncertainty, these arguments resonated with a country and public facing enormous economic challenges.

Certainly the influence of moneyed interests on the political process also played a huge role in the Senate's failure on clean energy and climate issues. Congressman Joe Barton's apology to BP provided a textbook example of how heavy support from dirty energy companies can influence the positions of policymakers-not only on whether to hold oil companies like BP accountable for wrongdoing, but also on whether to support America's transition from the fossil-fuel status quo to clean energy.

To read more about our take on the multiple factors that contributed to the collapse of the Senate clean energy and climate bill-as well as our ideas about where do we go from here, check out the article in the Green Labor Journal.

Clean Energy Manufacturing Meltdown

Two disturbing articles published this week brought into stark relief the crisis that is facing the American clean energy manufacturing sector. A cover story in Thursday's New York Times (On Clean Energy, China Skirts the Rules) vividly described how Chinese clean energy manufacturing is booming while clean energy companies in the U.S. and Europe are just keeping their heads above water. In fact, many clean energy manufacturers are closing up U.S. plants and moving them overseas.

Another story in the Washington Post (Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas), described the closure of the last major GE factory making incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. The compact fluorescents (CFLs) that are replacing these traditional light bulbs are all being manufactured abroad-mostly in China.

Although the New York Times story focuses primarily on the Chinese policies that are attracting clean energy manufacturers (some of which are alleged to violate international trade laws), there is another side to the story: the lack of a coherent U.S. policy to grow the American clean energy manufacturing sector. The Apollo Alliance has long advocated such a policy, including measures like the Investments in Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act. Click here to read a longer piece about what the U.S. could be doing to boost domestic clean energy manufacturing. As long as we lack strong policies to support manufacturing, American workers will continue to suffer the consequences.