Green Jobs and a Clean Energy Economy

We are truly blessed here in Southwest Washington to live in a place with remarkable natural resources.  We must work to protect our environment and ensure that our natural resources remain healthy. This is not only the right thing to do for our children and grandchildren; it’s the smart thing to do for our economy. There are incredible opportunities in Southwest Washington to grow our economy through clean energy projects and the creation of green jobs.

We can move toward clean energy alternatives that will reinvent our economy with good jobs and a clean environment.

We have immense opportunity in this country; including right here in the 3^rd Congressional District, to encourage job growth and a new, clean energy economy. 

·         We can make targeted, clean-energy investments that save energy and create jobs

Private and public investments in commercial building retrofitting, household retrofitting, solar panel installation, and other clean energy and energy conservation projects will expand the demand for skilled labor in each local community.

·         Renewable Energy Development

Through renewable energy development we can train a workforce to manage and develop wind farms up and down the Columbia River Gorge.

Investments in renewable energy would also help support local technology companies like Vancouver’s NCS Power, which is developing LED lighting that is twice as energy efficient as normal lighting, and is on the verge of expanding its workforce at least tenfold here in Clark County thanks to a federal stimulus loan program.

·         Develop a clean energy Smart Grid to better manage our power

The US Department of Energy should continue to push for a comprehensive Smart Grid in our country so we can more effectively and efficiently use the energy we do create. A Smart Grid would conserve and use energy more efficiently, saving families and small businesses money.

Here in Southwest Washington we could develop a local job force for retrofitting office buildings and homes to interact with a smarter power grid.

·         Sustainably Manage the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Harvest levels in the Gifford Pinchot have fallen off the table in the past two decades, dramatically changing the local economy of southwest Washington. Significant ‘slash’ sits on the floor of the forest, actually increasing the risk of forest fires and the subsequent devastating release of CO2 into the atmosphere. 

Increasing harvest or thinning levels to match the Forest Management Plan can expand good, family wage jobs in the forest products, can develop options for biomass energy production, a renewable resource, and simultaneously care for the health of this forest and its inhabitants.