Energy efficiency retrofits can provide a real help for construction unemployment explains CAP’s Bracken Hendricks, who was the founding Executive Director of the Apollo Alliance, in this repost.
Author Archive for Bracken Hendricks
Rebuilding the tool belt economy
Sunday, March 7th, 2010Takin’ Care of Business, Copenhagen Style
Thursday, December 10th, 2009If you listened to my friends over at Fox news and the Heritage Foundation, you might be forgiven for thinking that the polyglot conference going on this week in Denmark was a conspiracy of commie sympathizers and faceless bureaucrats hell bent on taking down the global economy – or at least that part of it located in the continental USA. Well, I’m sorry to report that the view from street level is a little bit different.
Here in no particular order are just a few of the conversations that I had the privilege of witnessing today in some of the quieter corners of the cavernous Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark where COP 15 is unfolding in real time. These economic prognostications are not my own, but they came from some of the most reliable people on the planet for navigating a path to a low carbon economy.
Creating 1.7 million clean energy jobs to drive economic recovery: The national strategy and the Pennsylvania opportunity.
Saturday, October 17th, 2009CAP Action’s Bracken Hendricks testified Friday before a Senate field hearing on job growth, tax incentives, and small business. I’m reprinting the full testimony below since he lays out the policy agenda as well as the benefits — nationally and for Pennsylvania. For details on the jobs analysis, see “New analysis shows how clean energy legislation will create 1.7 million jobs and opportunities for low-income families, including lower energy bills.”
Thank you Senator Specter for inviting me to speak to you here in the capital of the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. My name is Bracken Hendricks and I am a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. I address you today, in your capacity as a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee of the U.S. Senate, but also as the senior senator from a commonwealth with a rich history of leadership in meeting our nation’s energy supply needs, driving succeeding waves of growth and innovation by generating affordable and reliable American energy to serve as the life blood of our economy.
It was here in the Quaker state that America first discovered oil; it was Pennsylvania that supplied the abundant coal that drove the explosive growth of the American steel and automotive industries. And, if recent events are any indication, it will be Pennsylvania again that leads the world in providing clean, renewable, and efficient energy and advanced technology to power a dynamic new low-carbon economy. This is one of the great economic opportunities of our generation.
My testimony today focuses on the topic of job creation during this challenging time of economic recovery. I will examine what has worked thus far, and what additional steps we can take to encourage further job growth, focusing particular attention on opportunities and concerns related to the topic of clean energy jobs, or “green collar jobs” as they are sometimes called.
Today we have an unparalleled opportunity to rebuild America’s economy and strengthen the middle class on the foundation of low-carbon energy, to create good jobs even as we respond to pressing energy and environmental challenges. But it will take policy and political leadership if we are going to unleash the creativity and investment of American entrepreneurs in solving these great challenges. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this opportunity in greater detail. I will focus my comments on the potential for climate legislation to drive new investment in productive jobs, and explore how we can build a national strategy to use clean energy as a driver of job creation and economic recovery.
The clean-energy investment agenda
Standing up to Samuelson’s “Can’t Do” Spirit
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008In Monday’s Washington Post, and a parallel piece in Newsweek, Robert Samuelson gets it wildly wrong on cap and trade, parroting a litany of falsehoods and misrepresentations concerning the most probable federal policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Like most detractors of action on global warming, Samuelson continues to push the unsubstantiated notion that reducing emissions will tank the economy, and thus is not worth the effort. The problem with this argument is that it ignores the last three decades of science, misunderstands basic economic theory, and overlooks the enormous opportunity presented by the clean energy economy.
Inaction is by far the most expensive policy option, as many recent studies make clear.
“Forecast: Storm Warning” — Preparing for Global Warming
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Climate Progress is happy to introduce Bracken Hendricks. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP). He has a forthcoming book on climate solutions with Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) — Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. You can read his full bio here. I first met Bracken when I was at DOE, and he was a Special Assistant to Al Gore. Then we were both on the Energy Efficiency panel of the Energy Future Coalition. Now we are both Senior Fellows at CAP. He brings a unique perspective to the energy/climate debate. Welcome, Bracken!
As we approach the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it is time to begin the work of ensuring that there will be no more climate refugees. “Forecast: Storm Warning,” a report released today by the Center for American Progress, does just that.
Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the first line of defense against fiercer hurricanes from global warming, but as the real-world impacts of climate change begin to materialize, it’s time to prepare our communities to be more disaster resilient — to reduce future damages and costs of severe storms from global warming. This will take strong federal leadership and public support.
Readers of this blog know that there is an emerging consensus among climate scientists that global warming is increasing the ferocity of hurricanes, as shown in the work of Michael Mann and Kerry Emanuel, linking increased sea surface temperatures to more severe storms. A 2006 study in Science goes even further, strongly indicating that warming may even be increasing the frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms. Many more studies are here.
RSS
Subscribe by Email
Follow Climate Progress on Twitter
