Los Angeles Adopts Landmark Green Jobs Ordinance

We just got word that the Los Angeles City Council made green history and approved a first-in-the-nation plan to create jobs, cut carbon emission and revitalize the inner city.  The Council unanimously voted to support a green retrofit of city buildings that will work with green jobs training programs and connect underserved communities to careers in the new green economy.  Below is the full press release from LA Apollo Alliance, a coalition of over 25 local community, labor, and environmental organizations that brought the ordinance to the table.

 

-------PRESS RELEASE-------

Los Angeles Adopts Landmark Green Jobs Ordinance
First-in-the-nation plan to address staggering local unemployment, cut C02 emissions, and revitalize inner city

Los Angeles -- Los Angeles made green history today when its City Council approved a first-in-the-nation plan to create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and revitalize its inner city. The Council unanimously voted to support a green retrofit of city buildings that will create hundreds of new jobs at a time when Angelenos are confronting 11 percent unemployment, and federal officials are looking to cities and states for “shovel ready” projects to boost the economy. 

The ordinance, brought to the Council by the LA Apollo Alliance, will also connect the green retrofit to a green jobs training program that will connect underserved communities to careers in the new green economy. The Council’s vote was applauded by dozens of inner-city residents, labor leaders, and environmental advocates with the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance, an unprecedented local coalition of community, labor and environmental organizations, who testified on behalf of the green jobs initiative.

With rising unemployment, Angelenos are looking for ambitious alternatives to jumpstart the economy, “I have lived in South Los Angeles for 20 years. I have seen all the good paying jobs leave my community. It’s time to invest in South Los Angeles and create good-paying jobs in our green industry for our youth and people like myself,” said Oria Green, a 53-year-old former home healthcare worker who knocked on doors in South Los Angeles for the green jobs campaign.
 

Inner-city communities have long been facing chronic unemployment, underemployment and high concentration of low-wage jobs. In 2006, South LA’s poverty rate was double that of the county as a whole. The historic ordinance is the first of its kind in the country and will serve as a model for how the new green economy can revitalize inner-city communities and create a path out of poverty for disadvantaged workers. The ordinance will be the kind of local economic stimulus designated by President Obama as a key component of our economic recovery and thus eligible for federal stimulus funding. At a time when local governments pinched by dwindling tax revenues are looking for ways to cut costs, the ordinance could save the city up to $6 million annually in utility costs according to the Department of Water and Power.

“This ordinance is an innovative local solution to a national and global problem. This shows Los Angeles is a leader in the effort to create a green economy that works for everyone,” said Councilman Herb Wesson. Wesson, along with Council President Eric Garcetti and Mayor Villaraigosa, signed the Apollo Challenge in August 2006 to create green jobs, train green-collar workers, and build a local green economy that prioritizes low-income communities and workers. "This ordinance is a significant step for the economic recovery and environmental revitalization of our city," said Council President Garcetti. "The work that we are doing here will promote President Obama's goal of jump starting our economy by investing in the green sector and put low-income communities to work."

The Los Angeles Apollo Alliance developed the Green Jobs Ordinance as part of the national organization’s New Apollo Program, an ambitious agenda to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. The national plan would invest $500 billion in clean energy solutions over the next ten years and create more than five million high quality green-collar jobs. “L.A.’s green retrofit program is truly a national model.  In passing this program, the L.A. City Council recognized that it is possible to achieve both environmental and economic development goals through one comprehensive effort that  puts Angelenos to work greening their own city buildings.  The Apollo Alliance is thrilled to be part of this historic event,” said Kate Gordon National Co-Director of the Apollo Alliance.

Contact: Graciela Geyer at ggeyer@scopela.org or call 323.681.5609

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[Blast my Resume Free]

Thanks, I really appreciate your willingness to help out. I will definitely keep you posted!