Jobs Do Grow on Trees?

by Josie Raymond · 2010-01-16 13:40:00 UTC
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The grass will soon get greener for some people in need of skills and steady jobs. The Department of Labor awarded $150 million in "Pathways Out of Poverty" grants this week focused on getting low-income people into green jobs.

The 38 local organizations that got the green jobs training grants have been asked to focus their efforts in areas where at least 15% of the population lives below the poverty line. Outreach will focus on the already unemployed, people with criminal records and those who didn't finish high school. These positions in the "green economy" include work like installing solar panels and winterizing homes. It's a great idea, though $150 million is such an infinitesimal drop in the bucket that it won't do much to improve dismal job numbers.

Green job creation has been a pet project of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for years; from 2001 to 2009, she advocated for eco-employment as the U.S. representative for California's 32nd district. While in the House, she introduced the Green Jobs Act, which passed under a hostile administration. It's interesting that Solis didn't sit on the Labor Committee in Congress. Instead, she served on the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Her parents, immigrants from Nicaragua and Mexico, were assembly line workers and union supporters.

Photo credit: Center for American Progress

Josie Raymond has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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