The BP oil spill puts Republicans in a real bind. Speaking of Rep. Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP, Josh Marshall at TPM puts their dilemma into context beautifully:

… Dems take lots of oil money too. But while Dems have one night stands with the oil industry or relationships, with Republicans like Barton it’s a committed and loving relationship. Even when it’s not even helpful.

Locally, nobody exemplifies the GOP love affair with Big Oil better than Roy Blunt, who has been twisting and turning with the best of them as he tries to talk tough while getting his oil industry cronies off the hook. We noted earlier how quick he was to jump on the GOP “drill, baby,drill” effort to portray the moratorium on offshore drilling as as a greater catastrophe than the spill. However, he has branched out and is now, according to Fired Up Missouri, creating a genuinely twisted narrative in order to oppose the spill-inspired resurgence of clean-energy legislation. Yesterday morning – I swear to God – on Jamie Allman’s  KSDK radio show, he made the claim that clean-energy legislation is bad for the environment:

Cap and trade is a terrible thing for our state, it’s a terrible thing for the country, and it’s a terrible thing for the environment.  Because when we lose the jobs, those jobs go to somewhere that cares a whole lot less about what comes out of the smokestack than we do. And you know, America is a lot of great things, but it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not a planet. So we can’t solve this problem ourselves.

There is so much wrong with this assertion that one hardly knows where to start. However, what I’m really interested in here are Blunt’s errors of fact, which bring us to his assertions about jobs. Blunt knows as well as most of us that big swaths of our jobs went overseas long ago, even before the recession, and, if they continue to move off-shore, it will not be because of federal energy legislation. To find the culprit look no farther than misguided dedication to a one-sided, utopian concept of free-trade. Former Senator Fritz Hollings summed it up in a Huffington Post interview:

 

An important part of the job fraud is to make the people feel like the loss of jobs is due to the recession, not off-shoring. Long before the recession, South Carolina lost its textile industry; North Carolina lost its furniture industry; Detroit its automobile industry, and California its computer industry, etc. President Obama wants to increase exports, but we have nothing to export. … Most of the job loss is from off-shoring, not the recession.

Roy Blunt was playing a leadership role in Washington during the eight years of the Bush administration during which the off-shoring of our manufacturing jobs continued to  accelerate, and I can’t remember that he got too hot and bothered about job loss then. Senator Hollings outlined several possible correctives – simple measures like canceling tax exemptions on off-shore profits for instance. But I don’t remember Roy Blunt even discussing off-shoring as a problem. One can’t be blamed for asking what exactly has changed.

This question is particularly salient since there are many convincing arguments that clean energy legislation will create jobs. Even ConservaDem Claire McCaskill understands this fact, which is why she recently signed on to a letter affirming the importance of moving forward on the green jobs front.

I don’t know about you, but before my leaders decide we can’t afford to address a potentially catastrophic climate-change crisis because jobs might go overseas, I expect them to at least discuss alternatives like those suggested by Hollings. Before we decide that clean energy legislation will hurt our job situation, I want to hear Blunt make a serious intellectual effort to justify his evident belief that green energy jobs aren’t good enough.

On one point, I do agree with Blunt – the U.S. is not a planet.  It is precisely because the U.S. aspires to a leadership role in a shared world that it behooves us to be among the first to act. Blunt, was more than willing to go along unquestioningly with the assertion that the U.S. should, as a world leader, bring “freedom” to the Middle East. Why then is he opposed to exercising U.S. leadership to combat potentially catastrophic climate change? What reason could he possibly have – apart from the fact that he might suffer personally  if he supports anything that threatens the profits of his big oil paramour.

( – promoted by Clark)

Every now and again, an idea or concept or product comes along, spreads out all over the place and sets a new standard. Take, for example, ATM machines or UPC Barcode or even the internet; looking back, it’s hard to imagine those innovations not being ubiquitous and ever-present. We just accept them today as being an integral part of the modern landscape, like wallpaper or furniture, cars.

“Energy efficiency” is quickly becoming the latest standard centering around new retrofit construction techniques reducing the energy consumption of homes, offices and buildings.

Energy efficiency generates multiple benefits:

* Massive job creation and domestic economic stimulus

* Good for the environment

Last week, Efficiency First organized over a 100 small business contractors from across the nation to travel to Washington DC to champion the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act in the US Senate, which had previously passed the US House with bi-partisan support. Home Star is a jobs bill, but it doesn’t stop there. It also supports the development of smart energy strategies and jump starts the energy efficiency industry. Home Star has sometimes been called “Cash for Caulkers” loosely named after the well-known “Cash for Clunkers” program. But whereas Cash for Clunkers often went to purchase foreign cars, just about Home Star’s whole kit-and-caboodle stays in the US.

Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT.), who had authored the US House version of Home Star, addressed the contractors, saying,

“We want to build up manufacturing in this country and 90% of the materials that are used in this work are manufactured in this country — so even without the whole debate about ‘buy American’ — it will be bought in America. This work will be done in America.”

Representing Missouri as chair of the Missouri Association of Accredited Energy Professionals (MAAEP), I advocated with other efficiency business owners to the offices of eight US Senators, including personal exchanges with Missouri’s Sen. Claire McCaskill and Sen. Sam Brownback of neighboring state Kansas. I applauded Senator Brownback on recent Kansas City successes with the number of energy efficiency retrofits leading the Midwest, including Kansas City Missouri’s Green Impact Zone.

Sen. Brownback indicated his support for Home Star, and said,

“Let’s try to find a way to get this done.”

Many potential solutions to get Home Star passed were talked about in the offices of Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK.), Tom Harkin (D-IA.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX.), Kit Bond (R-MO.) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL.) , to name a few our group visited (there were 8 Efficiency First groups).

Matt Golden, President of Recurve, Inc. and policy chair of Efficiency First had a lot to say about the struggling construction trades; how Home Star acts as a ‘shot in the arm’ building up a new industry that puts underemployed workers back on the job.

“For hundreds of thousands of American construction and manufacturing workers who have been sidelined by the recession, the proposed Home Star program – which now awaits Senate approval – represents a lifeline to good jobs with living wages in a growing 21st-century industry. While much of our economy appears to be on the road to recovery, the outlook for American construction workers is truly grim. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 2 million construction jobs dried up between December 2007 and January 2010, leaving around one in five experienced construction workers unemployed. And with demand for new buildings stalled at historically low levels, there’s little hope that these workers will be rehired in traditional construction jobs any time soon.”

This is where Home Star comes in.

Slated to begin creating 168,000 jobs the moment President Obama signs into law, Home Star is not just throwing money at a wall to see what sticks, it builds a market-driven rebate model that rewards home owners who reach higher levels of efficiency performance, which is good for our nation as a whole. Home Star also leverages private investment giving more bang for the buck. Home Star is a $6 billion program, so a state like Missouri is pro-rated to receive a potential $120 million dollars.

For details on the Home Star rebate program click here.

As I’ve said in the past, I believe in less than ten years, an energy audit and retrofit for an existing home or office will become as commonplace as the safety and emissions test for your car. It will be a new standard and this is a new industry taking hold the nation. Efficiency is about jobs, and domestically manufactured products like weather-strip, insulation and caulking. Estimates fly around about the size of this national revolution of retrofits, from 1 trillion dollars of economic activity to a recent figure I heard from the Department of Energy roadshow in Kansas City, a gargantuan 6 trillion dollars coast-to-coast! (presumably including commercial Real Estate)

In an era of incessant dismantling of entire legacy industries stateside, all Americans should lower their shoulders to help launch the energy efficiency industry into the mainstream–and all Americans can participate in its rollout. These jobs are quality American jobs that are insulated from outsourcing and as job creation is the prevailing social issue of the day, our collective support of this emerging new standard becomes the moral, patriotic and smart thing to do.

Here’s a great new project with good ideas to help popularize energy efficiency in Missouri!

President Obama said today,”The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy efficient – installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment – is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.”

Economic stimulus promoted through energy efficiency organization

St. Louis, MO – December 15, 2009 – The Missouri Association of Accredited Energy Professionals (MAAEP), a newly formed trade group, held its inaugural organizational meeting for membership and affiliates last Thursday.

Local energy professionals representing private enterprise, non-profits and government participated including Mo. Dept. of Natural Resources, Botanical Garden’s Earthways Center, Mosby Building Arts and other industry leaders.

“The business of making Missouri more energy efficient and saving folks on energy costs is set to grow tremendously in the near future as game-changing Federal and State initiatives come online,” explained Marc Bluestone of Home Green Home, a local energy efficiency contractor and consultant. “Pilots such as the Property Assessed Clean Energy program (PACE) and economic stimulus efforts will soon make energy audits and retrofits on homes as commonplace as the safety and emissions test for your car.”

In October, the Department of Energy announced $2.7 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for energy efficiency efforts nationwide, with tens of millions earmarked locally in programs such as the Mo. Department of Natural Resources’ “Energize Missouri Communities” which include block grants to fund efficiency and weatherization projects in public buildings, private business and residential structures.

“The Missouri Association of Accredited Energy Professionals (MAAEP) is advancing a program to distinguish high-efficiency, high-performance homes for home buyers and their Realtors,” said attorney Tom Appelbaum. “Studies show these homes retain their value and sell faster than the non-efficient, non-retrofitted homes, and with programs like PACE the cost of these green upgrades can be amortized over the life of a home, making the cost-benefit savings positive from day one.”

MAAEP is working with green consultant James Trout and MyGreenToolkit.com to raise awareness of energy efficiency benefits to REALTORS and their customers, “With MAAEP and MyGreenToolkit.com we empower Realtors and home owners with information and statistics clearly showing the value in improving their homes and making them more energy efficient.”

At Thursday’s meeting, Damien Flaherty of EnergyAudits.com emphasized the role that MAAEP fills in helping industry professionals contend with the quickly changing landscape of energy efficiency. Flaherty maintains a national database of certified Energy Auditors, Energy Raters and Home Performance Contractors and has conducted several surveys to identify issues particular to the efficiency business, “Our professionals are setting standards for best practices and MAAEP will politically advocate on behalf of this emerging industry to promote home value, economic recovery and consumer interests.”

MAAEP board member Harvey Ferdman spoke about a convergence of issues making clean energy and energy conservation an idea whose time has come. “Buildings account for nearly 40% of our nation’s carbon emissions, but their energy efficiency can be improved by 30% or more. These savings will have a very real impact on reducing our carbon footprint and lessening pollution. Every single home improved puts our community on a more sustainable tract.”

“Every building constructed by the end of 2009, conservatively, will make up 85% of all buildings in 2030; consequently, remediating existing homes and offices is where most of the efficiency benefits will be gained,” explained board member Byron DeLear. “Because construction styles vary so greatly, the energy efficiency analysis, consultation and upgrade must be uniquely tailored for each property. This process is directed and carried out by accredited energy auditors and home performance contractors; a new “green job” workforce that can’t be outsourced.”

In addition to St. Louis, MAAEP will be conducting a series of organizational meetings throughout the State of Missouri in early 2010 in Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield. The Missouri Association of Accredited Energy Professionals is a public benefit non-profit corporation registered with the State of Missouri on July 6th, 2009.

Thursday’s MAAEP meeting was sponsored by Fiberlite Technologies, Inc., an insulation manufacturer, Matt Pidgeon of Soar Advertising & Design, Home Green Home and special thanks to Mattingly Brewery for use of their conference room.

###

For more information regarding MAAEP please contact Matt Pidgeon at (314) 322-1077 Matt@MAAEP.org or Harvey Ferdman at Harvey@MAAEP.org or visit their website at http://www.MAAEP.org

Some comments cross-posted:

Green change! says:

Let’s all board the train to Green change! Republicans need to get a clue and stop being science deniers — we need to get off of our addiction to fossil fuels before it kills us, its already killing off thousands of species around the world. Humanity has a moral responsibility to end this genocide taking place as we surf

bout time says:

how long will it take for US politcal leaders to finally embrace the fact that Green energy solutions are the way to define the US economy for the 21st century? Instead of nuclear, oil and coal? we are in Iraq and the Middel East because of oil, think how much that really makes a gallon of gas, $20?

There’s a movement going on. It’s a movement made of people who care and people who see and people who concern themselves with the affairs of more than just their own.

What they see – what we see – is that the issue of environmental stewardship is an issue that concerns us all. Everyone. It’s global, local and personal.

The simple fact is the exponential growth of the human enterprise now impacts and dictates to the future of every living being we share this planet with.

How will America, the leader of industrial might, metabolize this responsibility?

We need to make a choice – and do what’s right.

Our nation, has been at the crossroads of choice before, and it hasn’t always been easy: abolishing slavery, getting women the right to vote – but we have yet to establish a sane energy policy as this goal has been thwarted time and again.

All the way back to the 1930s – hybrid fuels and cars built to run on ethanol were blocked by Big Oil.

Those same forces bought up and systematically dismantled more than 100 electric mass transit systems in 45 cities across America – including our city of St. Louis.

After World War II, there was desire to reduce our dependency on foreign sources of energy, so alternative and synthetic fuels were developed right here in Louisiana Missouri. But in the 50s an Oil Glut stopped that and blocked the diversification of our energy portfolio.

In the 70s, following the Middle East oil embargo and energy crisis we knew the way. Jimmy Carter over 30 years ago signed into law comprehensive energy reform including renewable and alternative energy sources. He put solar panels on the White House.

Well, in the 80s, an Oil Glut stopped that – and the next President took those panels down. Reagan tore down that symbol of American energy independence.

Now that we’re facing the irrefutable science of global climate change and global warming, all of a sudden we are struck with an economic crisis not seen since the likes of the Great Depression – and accusations of any economic recovery that we’ve entertained so far as being “jobless”…

A “jobless-recovery” ? What’s that?

The way I see it, it’s an opportunity. And it all centers on how we power our society.

There is an emerging industry before us – an industry that hasn’t existed before.

Green energy – renewable energy – energy efficiency.

The benefits are legion. And many of these new jobs can’t be outsourced because they happen right here at home. Its win, win, win.

Take energy efficiency for example, 95% of all existing homes and construction can be audited and assessed and fixed to a higher standard of efficiency, saving folks on energy costs, creating new jobs, avoiding the construction of polluting power plants.

Residential buildings generate over 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from non-renewable fuel consumption in the United States.

One solution is the Missouri Association of Accredited Energy Professionals, or “MAAEP”, representing certified energy assessors – a new profession – greening the American economic landscape one home at a time – bringing our carbon levels back down to what leading scientists say is sustainable: 350! 350 parts per million.

In this climate of economic recession, any project that promises great job creating prospects should be our number one focus. We stand at the Gateway to a New Economy and thousands of Missourians and millions of Americans are leading the way. Organizations, non-profits, businesses are coming together to capitalize on this Copernican shift for not just America, but the world. Join us and cross over this threshold to a cleaner and safer future for all.

Thank you!

END

(Speech prepared for 350.org International Day of Climate Action Oct. 24th, Action at the Arch, St. Louis)