Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy: Making and Keeping New Industries in the United States (Urban and Industrial Environments)

Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy: Making and Keeping New Industries in the United States (Urban and Industrial Environments)

David J. Hess

Language: English

Pages: 312

ISBN: 0262525925

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy is the first book to explore the broad implications of the convergence of industrial and environnmental policy in the United States. Under the banner of "green jobs," clean energy industries and labor, environmental, and antipoverty organizations have forged "blue-green" alliances and achieved some policy victories, most notably at the state and local levels. In this book, David Hess explores the politics of green energy and green jobs, linking the prospect of a green transition to tectonic shifts in the global economy. He argues that the relative decline in U.S. economic power sets the stage for an ideological shift, away from neoliberalism and toward "developmentalism," an ideology characterized by a more defensive posture with respect to trade and a more active industrial policy. After describing federal green energy initiatives in the first two years of the Obama administration, Hess turns his attention to the state and local levels, examining demand-side and supply-side support for green industry and local small business. He analyzes the successes and failures of green coalitions and the partisan patterns of support for green energy reform. This new piecemeal green industrial policy, Hess argues, signals a fundamental challenge to anti-interventionist beliefs about the relationship between the government and the economy.

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Energy Association support a national standard for renewable electricity, climate-change legislation such as a cap-and-trade policy for carbon emissions, reforms to improve electricity transmission, a clean energy development agency, increased research funding for renewable energy, and various production and investment tax credits that support renewable energy. There are differences among the associations, but the differences rest on the specificities of the industry. For example, the wind

set for SRI screens. Whereas the SRI firms tend to focus on the investment categories of “environmental” and “sustainable,” a second approach can be found in investment funds that have a sectoral strategy of investing, such as investments in energy-efficiency firms or in renewable-energy firms. Here, rather than “environmental” or “sustainability,” the terms “green,” “clean,” and “alternative energy” tend to be more common, depending on the relationship to nuclear energy and fossil fuels.12 It

renewable-electricity standard requires electricity service providers to purchase renewable-energy certificates from qualified producers. Utilities recover the increased costs either through a surcharge or an increase in the base charge for ratepayers. Under the mandatory programs, there are penalties for noncompliance. There is usually price competition among producers of renewable energy, but in a few cases there is a feed-in tariff, which establishes a fixed price for the generation of

Renewable Energy Act of 2007 (the year Governor Bill Ritter, a Democrat, took office), Colorado’s clean energy economy took off, and labor saw explosive growth in contracting jobs. Subsequently the state government approved a wide range of energy-related laws.6 In 2009 the environmental community worked with Governor Ritter to develop a new initiative in preparation for the 2010 election. Ritter had supported many pro-labor laws, but on some crucial issues he had withdrawn support, and the

to 100. The result corresponded generally to our qualitative research conclusions about which states were the leaders. The highest scoring states (based on policies through the end of 2010) were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon.23 With respect to independent variables, some patterns emerged based on the qualitative comparisons. States in the Southeast and some states in the Rocky Mountain region have a relatively undeveloped suite of green energy

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