Over on the blog of the African American Environmentalist Association, Norris McDonald raises some interesting questions about what role black Americans will play in energy production in the future. The passage of a new energy bill last month makes this a good time to start asking these questions about how to use a new energy economy to create opportunities for groups who have historically been excluded from decision-making and managerial positions in the energy industry. Some of his suggestions: investment in plug-in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles to create opportunities for entrepreneurship for a wider body of individuals and creating more job opportunities in the burgeoning biofuels industry as well as the nuclear industry.
McDonald calls upon the the Congressional Black Caucus to exercise more oversight in the area and work to instate measures to monitor and improve minority participation, since all of the CBC voted in favor of the energy bill last month. The bill included the Green Jobs Act, which authorized $125 million for green job training opportunities to prepare 30,000 workers a year for jobs in the green economy. It also included a "Pathways Out Of Poverty" program, putting money toward grants targeted specifically at training low-income individuals for jobs clean energy economy. These are elements that the Democratic presidential candidates have all included in their climate and energy plans, but McDonald is right to call on the CBC to start putting on the pressure for more funding and oversight in expanding who has access to the green economy now. The energy industry is changing, and it will be pushed even harder to become cleaner and greener this year, but whether that new energy economy includes everyone or simply continues to leave huge segments of the population behind depends on how we structure policy now.
--Kate Sheppard
