Labor & Employment Law

Green Labor Journal Highlights Clean Coal Opportunities

By James Parks

Generating clean energy by developing ways to make electricity using clean coal technologies could create more than 7 million new green jobs over the next 15 years, according to several studies.

The latest online edition of Green Labor Journal reviews several studies that show the potential for clean coal to create jobs and lower carbon emissions. The article discusses policy options for stimulating job-friendly investments in advanced coal generation through regulation and legislative initiatives. The Green Labor Journal is a collaboration between the National Labor College and the AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs. Check out the latest online edition here.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former coal miner, said last year that clean coal is an important part of America?s energy policies.

We need to develop low-carbon emission technologies?or, to put it plainly, clean coal. President Obama’s economic recovery program pays for five commercial-scale coal-fired plants. Through public-private partnerships, these plants will be equipped with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage technology. These will go a long way towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the coal-fired power plants that will meet much of our energy needs for years to come.     

Read Trumka?s speech here.

The Green Labor Journal also highlights a Green Jobs Ready report that more than 800,000 renewable energy jobs were created through fourth quarter 2012 due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Another article examines the business climate for creating new, good green jobs in every state.  

The journal also includes an article by Bob Baugh, director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, on the latest global climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 26, 2011 (boomark / email).