The House Technology, Economic Development and Workforce Committee met today to discuss HB 516, a bill to establish and fund a green job skills training program under the Texas Workforce Commission. Representative Mark Strama (D-Austin) authored the bill, which specifies green jobs as being “jobs in the field of renewable energy or energy efficiency.” These include jobs in energy efficient building, construction, and retrofitting, renewable electric power, biofuels, deconstruction and reuse of materials, energy efficiency assessments, manufacturing of sustainable products, and manufacturing using sustainable processes and materials. Considering the fact that Texas unemployment rate has hit a 19-year high and is home to an increasingly environmentally-conscious public, creating green jobs simply makes sense. Austin City Council’s recent approval and the public’s support of the Webberville solar plant shows that there is local a push for a greener economy. The fact that $43 billion of the recently passed stimulus package is slated towards energy, especially green energy, speaks volumes about what direction the country would like to go towards its use of energy. If the bill does pass, federal funding will be the principal source of money. (more…)
