“Congress and the Obama administration must take action on climate solutions, renewable energy and energy efficiency policies, which are essential engines of job creation and economic growth,” said Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council On Renewable Energy. “Clean Energy Week activities will underscore this consensus.”
The week is focused on the national imperative to enact comprehensive clean energy policy as a means of creating vast numbers of new jobs, ensuring U.S. global leadership in the emerging clean energy era, enhancing our security and preserving our planet for the generations to follow.
The organizers of Clean Energy Week assert that comprehensive clean energy policy will create good American jobs while making America a world leader in clean, healthy and safe energy production. They point to an analysis from the University of California at Berkeley, which found that the clean energy legislation adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), could create up to 1.9 million jobs between its enactment and 2020.
In addition, EPA has found that ACES would reduce CO2 emissions by 1 billion metric tons in 2020 alone, the equivalent to taking 200 million cars off the road for one year.
“Rebuilding our economy and protecting our environment on a bedrock of energy efficiency and clean energy technologies is the best, and perhaps only, way for the United States to regain and sustain global economic leadership,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. “Clean Energy Week will showcase the economic imperative of swift enactment of comprehensive climate and energy policy.”
Reed E. Hundt, co-chairman of the Coalition for the Green Bank added, "As the president made clear in his State of the Union address, a focus on green jobs is the immediate focus for the clean energy sector, and in fact by promoting the double whammy of clean energy generation and transmission along with energy efficiency, literally millions of fine new jobs can be created over the next several years."
“Now more than ever, America's working families want Congress to vote for new laws and programs that will create good jobs that will help all of us save on our energy bills and preserve our energy independence,” said Chris Chafe, executive director of Change to Win. “America's unions are committed to partnering with political, environmental and business leaders to create jobs and solutions that drive climate and economic recovery.”
Further details on participating in Clean Energy Week are available at http://www.cleanenergyweek.org.