U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis toured two facilities in Los Angeles Tuesday to push for green jobs, as part of the "National Conversation on the Future of America's Cities and
Metropolitan Areas".
Solis made separate visits to the Electrical Training Institute and Los Angeles Technical Trade College, which will receive green jobs grants under the 500-million-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Solis announced last week nearly 55 million dollars in green jobs grants, in efforts to support job training and labor market information
programs to help workers, many of them in underserved communities, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations.
The Labor Secretary said the announcement was part of the administration's long-term commitment to fostering both immediate economic
growth and a clean energy future. It's an investment that will help American workers do well while doing the climate good.
At the Electrical Training Institute, Solis visited the institute's solar roof. Six solar energy panels built five years ago have generated 85 percent of the power the institute needs.
Kim Craft, assistant business manager at the institute, told Solis that the investment in the solar panels had already been paid back, and the
institute was saving 400,000 dollars a year. In the future, about one million dollars could be saved every year as energy prices rose.
Solis, who became the U.S. Labor Secretary eight months ago, said the recession had seriously affected employment, but green jobs would be the future and California should continue to play a leading role in creating
more green jobs.
There are two categories of grant: State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants and Green Capacity Building Grants. Both will be
administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.
"These grants provide an immediate return, and they are part of a larger green initiative that will help lead to increased job placements and promote economic growth," she said.
The Labor Department says Green Capacity Building Grants, totaling 5.8 million dollars, will increase the training capacity of 62 current Labor Department grant recipients through a variety of strategies, and will offer training opportunities to help individuals acquire jobs in expanding green industries. It targets groups of people such as Native Americans, women, youth at risk and farm workers.
State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, totaling 48.8 million dollars, support the collection and dissemination of labor market
information, and enhance the labor exchange infrastructure to provide career opportunities within clean energy industries.
Of the total, 30 awards ranging from 763,000 to 4 million dollars were assigned to state workforce agencies to utilize data for workforce
development strategies. Multiple state workforce agencies, partnering as a consortium, will use this program to gather information that is likely to have a regional, multi-state or national impact, according to the Labor Department.
At a state level, Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced in August the creation of the Clean Energy Workforce Training Program (CEWTP), a 75 million-dollar investment to establish the nation's largest state-sponsored green jobs training program.
The program leverages the federal Recovery Act funds, public-private partnerships and state and local funding, to train more than 20,000 new or re-skilled clean energy workers to build a workforce capable of performing the jobs necessary to meet the state's goals of renewable energy development, climate change alleviation, clean transportation and green building construction for a new green economy.
Last month, the Californian Governor announced CEWTP grants totaling 27 million dollars to 34 recipients to jump start the program.
In March this year, he launched the California Green Corps after discussing the federal stimulus funding and job creation with Solis.
The California Green Corps will place youth and adults aged from 16 to 24 into jobs in California's emerging green economy.