American Presidential hopeful John Edwards is more than any other candidate looking to create jobs and help the struggling middle class, it comes as no surprise that he therefore supports the new green collar jobs.
“Our generation must be the one that builds the New Energy Economy.” this according to John Edwards is one of the key challenges that lays in front of United States during the next presidential term.
He like his fellow two democratic challengers portrayed here is also looking to create a “clean tech” fund , which he hopes to put $13 billion USD a year towards. The fund which he would create called New Energy Economy Fund would be financed by greenhouse gas emissions polluters. The revenues from selling CO2 emission permits and taking subsidy from dirty industries would pay for this. Considering that the future ought to be green , Mr Edwards seems to be on to something here.
The third candidate we are portraying he is also setting a target of 25% of renewable clean energy power by 2025. He cities Texas as a prime example that it is possible to ramp up power generation from clean sources very fast. This seems ironic as he is lauding the work of the man who beat him in the 2004 election, George Bush. His view is also that solar power could become competitive within the next 3 to 5 years. He wants to extend the tax credits which run out at the end of 2008 to encourage more private investment in the renewables sector, also the Department of Energy will receive a budget allowing it to invest more into brining solar, wind and biomass technologies to market, and at a cost which will make them an attractive alternative.
Another move which Edwards is encouraging and is sure to help the renewables sector is opening the electricity grids to distributed and renewable power generation. He wants to cut down on centralized power in some places and start to have buildings produce their own power and at the same time feed it back to the grid. The model for this he says is currently New England. For this he wants to ofter a tax credit of up to $5000 USD for residents and small business to invest in onsite renewable energy like solar, wind or geothermal. Like Clinton he wants to have net metering come into play and have families selling power back into the grid. The focus of his energy fund would be to also focus on the next generation of renewable power such as biomass which has remained a very small niche.
These initiatives along with developing clean burning coal, raising mileage standards and increasing biofuel productions he hopes may create up to one million green collar jobs.
For additional information:
