“Green Jobs” on the way for AZ?

Everywhere you turn, politicians are touting “green jobs” as the savior of the economy and the planet. But are “green jobs” more than just a political catchphrase?

A new report by The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, seems to think so. The report estimates that an investment of $100 billion in renewable energy and other “green” economic sectors over two years would generate two million new jobs.

The report singles out six key sectors for investment:

* Retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency
* Expanding mass transit and freight rail
* Constructing smart electrical grid transmission systems
* Wind power
* Solar power
* Next-generation biofuels

If this sounds like a good plan and you live in the Phoenix metro area, you should stop by the Green Jobs Now rally this Sunday, the 28th. It’s being held at the Glendale Public Library main branch auditorium, at 5959 W. Brown St., from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more info, you can contact the Green Party of Maricopa County, which is sponsoring the event: (602) 417-0213, www.maricopagreens.org

Whether you worry about global warming or the fact that our country is bankrupting itself by buying increasingly expensive foreign oil, investment in mass transit and alternative energy cars are the only remedies that makes any sense.

For instance, am I the only one who thinks it’s insane that there’s still no train service from Tucson to Phoenix?

Arizona, with the most sunshine of any state in the union, also has huge untapped potential for solar (kind of a no-brainer, but still). Of course, it’s cheaper to burn coal, but do we need to wait for the polar ice caps to melt and turn Arizona into a coastal state before we cut down our carbon emissions?

JCR