12 Feb 2008

Today:
Met about DC proposal. Bob will send responses to questions today.
Looking through CAP proposal and CAP env/energy website.
Watched video for Capturing the Energy Opportunity - more show than substance
Bush's energy budget analysis: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/02/energy_budget.html
More support for fossil fuels, less for renewable energy, cutting efficiency/weatherization funding.
Says Science articles on biofuel show need for sustainable fuels; cites jobs associated with ethanol production.
Bush pulled FutureGen (first big CCS demo project) off line due to cost overruns.
House hearing on cap-and-trade in Jan - should auction rather than give away. Discuss some problems with European system, including giveaway, lack of transparency, constant rule changes. Podesta advocated 10/45/45 plan outline in CAP's report.
[Check Washington Post article on green jobs; also Time magazine and CNN feature on Situation room]
Van Jones' Green Collar jobs article on Huffington Post, good links to green collar programs: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/memo-to-candidates-green_b_82967.html

Second WSJ post on Environmental Capital blog about Green Collar Jobs http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/01/take-two-green-collar-jobs/
reviews different definitions of the term. We've come across most of them: cites Pinderhughes (blue collar jobs in green businesses); ASES report (90% are "light green collar" like lawyers, accountants, etc.) and the Green Collar Careers blog (http://greencollar.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/green-collar-subjects-and-sectors-part-1/).

NPR Green Collar Jobs story (3 min)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17307587
Bay area shortage in GCJs. Gov't run training program in Richmond - interview trainee. Interviews Pinderhughes. Defines GCJs as manual labor jobs in green industries.

Notes on Bob's CAP Proposal:
Public investment on public-sector-led initiatives is most effective short-term policy intervention - should finance green growth initiatives, esp. new building construction and retrofitting.
Questions in need of further explication -
1. C/B analysis & credible estimates of gov't expenditures needed to make CAP program elements effective (e.g., low-carbon transport infrastructure)
2. Employment effects (compared to BAU)
3. Regional effects: Differences in effective policies in different regions. How are C/Bs distributed among regions and how to be fair?
4. Need to have solid grasp of 1-3 to ensure effectiveness as countercyclical policy.

Proposed study - study series of alternate growth paths:
0. BAU energy infrastructure; S-R and L-R scenarios
1. Cap and trade - problematic on its own, since imposes new costs on producers and consumers
2. Cap and redistribute on progressive basis (Jim Boyce's paper)
3. Divide revenues between redist and green investments. CAP study proposes 10% transitional assistance, 45% to low-income households, 45% to new green growth investments (of $746 billion over 2009-2018). But is $335 billion over 10 years enough to support green investments and provide effective countercyclical measure? Small % of military budget.
4. Appropriate level of fiscal support for green initatives decided through C/B analysis, employment effects, regional effects, countercyclical effects.

Employment effects of alternative spending targets, a la the demilitarization report, but more extensive and carefully specified. Also provide region-by-region estimates.

Employment effects of state-level public investment programs
PERI study showing that public investment (not just public spending) correlated with higher job growth.
For CAP study, will synthesize relative employment effects analysis with public investment as job creator analysis. Can also generate relative distributional effects.

Reviewed Bob & Heidi's demilitarization report: http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/other_publication_types/PERI_IPS_WAND_study.pdf
Were not able to look at renewable energy, since info wasn't yet available. Possible to do more thorough study for CAP lacking this, and probably other, data?
Used IMPLAN?
[Bob and James' study referenced in CAP proposal not yet available.]

Intro to IMPLAN - from Univ of FL
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FE168
Basic (serves non-local markets) and service (serves local markets) industries. Not differentiated based on what they produce, but who they produce for. Division helps direct and indirect effects.