A new report titled “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy” prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and released by a coalition of environmental and labor groups is arguing that a $100 billion “green economic recovery package” would stimulate and grow the United States’–and Michigan’s–economy. The $100 billion–a mix of investment and tax credits–would provide an immediate boost to the economy and help fight global warming according to the report’s authors. The plan specifically focuses on retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems, wind power, solar power, and next-generation biofuels.
The report’s authors say the plan would:
* Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption.
* Create roughly triple the number of good jobs — paying at least $16 dollars an hour — as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.
* Reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from 5.7 percent (calculated within the framework of U.S. labor market conditions in July 2008).
* Bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing. Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years due to the housing bubble collapse. The Green Recovery program can, at the least, bring back these lost 800,000 construction jobs.
According to the report, Michigan would benefit from such a plan in the following ways:
* Michigan’s share of national green economic recovery program: $3.1 billion, based on combining state’s population and gross domestic product.
* Michigan’s net job creation through green economic recovery program: 61,394 jobs, based on Michigan unemployment figures in June 2008.
* Impact on Michigan’s labor market: a net increase of 61,394 jobs would reduce Michigan’s unemployment rate to 7.5 percent in two years from 8.7 percent in June 2008.
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