A Green Deal?

The Green Jobs Conference in Pittsburgh is swarming with an overflow crowd -- 200 unexpected walk-ins appear on the last day, jamming the session rooms. We run out of coffee -- bad idea. But the energy is high, and the resource people amazing. On the panel I'm moderating (about taking things to scale), Marianne McMullen of SEIU quotes Andy Stern, their president, as pointing out that we now are as far from the New Deal as the New Deal was from the Civil War. But she then goes on to offer that we are really about creating a "Green Deal," and that in 20 years "The environmental movement may be the only movement," as we all come together to build a new economy.

R.T. Ryback, the mayor of Minneapolis, graciously thanks the Sierra Club, "the only organization that endorsed me in both of my mayoral runs," and recounts the leadership that is emerging from the Twin Cities before he soberly asks "Will our children be telling the same American story we have always told ourselves? Why are Ford workers in St. Paul losing their jobs just at the moment when world demand for vehicles, and new kinds of vehicles, is about to explode? Is it because we lack the will and the focus?" He closes with optimism, calling for a "fusion between the Great American City and the Great American Job to heal our planet."

Lou Schorsch, the CEO of Arcelor-Mittal USA, the world's biggest steel company, lays out his willingness to meet the challenge of climate change, as long as he faces a level playing field. He points out that if U.S. auto companies used high-strength steel, their fuel savings would be higher than the consumption of the entire U.S. steel industry, and uses this example to argue that in the future, "All jobs have to be green jobs."

Something important is happening here because, as Charlotte Brody, the executive director of Commonweal reminds us, "We have folks in this room with whom we are not comfortable. And if you collaborate in meetings only with those who make you comfortable, you are in the wrong meetings."

The press still doesn't get it. They continue to cover the Blue-Green Alliance as if it were a brand new idea, when our partnership with the Steelworkers actually goes back 35 years. But that's fine -- as long as they think our story is a new one, they'll keep telling it for us. And we do still have a long road to travel together.

Comments

[irishgawdess]

It's hard to empathize with American automakers for not having had the foresight to retool their assembly lines before needing to reorganize and downsize (although I do feel badly for the unemployed autoworkers.) Automakers are still selling their fossil-fueled vehicles, and Americans are still buying them. Only when the market demands more green-fueled automobiles will we see the necessary retooling done. So in the meantime, STOP BUYING THEIR CARS!

[montemalone]

Can someone please explain to me why Ford and GM can build and sell sporty, fuel efficient vehicles in the rest of the world but not here?
Can someone explain to me why the Europeans can come to New York and go shopping like the whole city is an outlet mall?
Can someone explain to me why Germany has solar panels all over the place to generate electricity and we don't? I mean, com'on Germany? It snows there half the year?
Maybe I can answer. Republican Greed.

[irishgawdess]

"Can someone please explain to me why Ford and GM can build and sell sporty, fuel efficient vehicles in the rest of the world but not here?"

Could it be due to collusion between Big Oil and some high level gov't officials with a conflict of interest?

Nah...

[sheila]

not so fast there, on that last one. you will find that ole Carl's buddy Carl Zichella, is a large part of the reason all our "renewable power" resources are flowing towards Desert Death Squads (aka utilities which will be killing off over a million acres of fragile wilderness to build far-away "solar and wind farms" to feed houses which are perfectly suited for their own PV systems) rather than towards clean power systems which save the wilderness and increase financial and energy independence of ratepayers. hmmmmm.

Sierra Club is in an unholy alliance with Big Corpa (GE, etc), Big Utilities (LADWP, etc.) called CEERT and has decided to greenwash the total loss of desert ecosystems as some sort of a "national sacrifice area" or similar for reasons I will not speculate on here, since every time I do, I get banned. The areas on the boundaries of Joshua Tree National Park are under seige as we type, to put in gigantic power lines (leading to nuclear in AZ, but we're not allowed to mention that) and gigantic wind farms which will yank hundreds of rural people from their homes and lives and permanently destroy one of the most iconic, scenic, vital and gorgeous areas on our planet.

Heck of a job, gentlemen. With friends like these, the desert doesn't need Global Warming - it'll be dead long before global warming happens...