Lawmakers push for 'green-collar' jobs as climate change looms

CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) - In a town still reeling from the closure of a massive coal mine, dozens of students train each year to work in the energy industry, immersing themselves in the intricacies of power generation and plant design.

Many move on to apprenticeships at places like the Bonneville Power Administration or the Grand Coulee Dam, or jobs at power companies like Seattle Steam.

The executive director of the Center for Excellence for Energy Technology at Centralia College hopes her graduates will be part of an emerging "green collar" work force envisioned by state lawmakers, who want to spark the creation of 25,000 such jobs in Washington state by 2020.

"We're in the right place at the right time," said Barbara Hins-Turner, who said the center is just starting to emphasize renewable energy in its classes, including a recent field trip to a wind turbine training center in Portland.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said that no other state has passed a measure like Washington's, which ties a carbon reduction policy to a green jobs initiative, although a number have introduced bills to promote green jobs.

"The places that have done programs that they're specially calling green jobs, that's mostly happening at the local level, it's not happening at the state level yet," said Kate Gordon, program director for San Francisco-based Apollo Alliance, a coalition of groups that promote a clean-energy based economy.

"Washington state is the only state that has put climate change and green jobs together," she said, noting that Oakland, Calif. and Los Angeles both have strong green collar job programs in place. "You really can point to it as a model, the first of its kind."

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill setting goals for reducing emissions over the next four decades, and increasing clean-energy jobs to 25,000 by 2020. This year's bill builds off that underlying law and sets the guidelines for how to reach those goals.

The measure, requested by Gov. Chris Gregoire, requires major sources of greenhouse gases to measure and report their emissions, and also requires the state to design a regional cap and trade market for carbon emissions by December.

The bill also creates the Green Collar Jobs Training Account to administer grants to training providers, like colleges and apprenticeship programs.

Hins-Turner, who testified in support of the bill before lawmakers last month, said those grants are crucial, because it's expensive to develop new curriculum - up to $40,000 for one class for one occupation alone.

Hins-Turner said she'd like to see her center be able to offer a separate class focusing solely on renewable energy. The center also coordinates onsite training to several companies across the state, and she expects green training to grow as well.

"There isn't a pure renewable energy course curriculum delivery in the state yet," she said. "There's some solar work being done, some green construction work being done. But if we're talking wind, biomass, that kind of thing, there's just not a lot out there because it's so new."

The measure, which has passed out of policy committees in both the House and Senate, needs to go to budget committees in both chambers before it goes to the floor for a vote.

Supporters note that while that while "green jobs" in biofuels and wind power have already grown in the state, there's never been a coordinated strategy.

"We're going to get our arms around how we develop and train the work force for what will be a new economic sector in this state," said Clifford Traisman, a lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters and the Washington Environmental Council.

The state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development estimates there are about 9,000 green collar jobs in the state already, not counting jobs at hydroelectric dams, which produce as much as three-quarters of the region's relatively cheap and clean electricity.

Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver and sponsor of the Senate measure, said that's because hydro is already so established in the state, the emphasis needs to be on something different.

"The whole discussion about renewable energy and green technology has been to provoke new development in the state," he said.

Pridemore said that by having a work force trained in biofuels, solar power or geothermal power, it will be "significantly easier to attract additional green energy and green technology companies to our region."

The push for green jobs comes as utility companies are working toward a requirement that they increase their renewable energy sources.

In 2006, voters approved an initiative that requires large utility companies to increase their renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their supply by 2020.

"The industry is really faced with 'how do we meet that demand?" Hins-Turner said. "What are the work force needs?"

She said that that the region around Centralia is ripe to develop these workers, especially as many have started second careers following the loss of two large employers in the area.

Ten students started at the center after losing their boiler jobs when Weyerhaeuser closed its Cosmopolis pulp mill two years ago; a couple of students at the center started after the closure the TransAlta coal field in Centralia that same year, Hins-Turner said.

Dot Mullins, a 44-year-old student at the center, said that after graduation later this year, she'd like to get a green energy job.

"I'd like to be part of the team that phases out fossil fuels," said Mullins, once a self-employed mechanic.

Opponents think that too much priority is being put on one sector of the economy.

"There's a big need for skilled nurses, so why aren't we putting more into that?" asked Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland.

But Hins-Turner said the fact that green collar jobs have become part of the dialogue of presidential candidates shows that "the whole world is moving in that direction and we have to go there."

"It's the whole focus right now," she said. "You can't pick up a paper, or turn on a TV without hearing about it."

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The climate change/green collar jobs measure is Senate Bill 6516 and House Bill 2815.