At a time when the environment seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, alongside the economy and employment rates, a new investment by the US government could lend a helping hand. Being assessed by the Center for American Progress, the $100 billion investment could see the creation of some 2 million “green” jobs.

This stimulus package, for lack of a better term, would greatly affect industries such as steel and construction. “From the point of view of the steelworkers union, the view is quite simple, that an energy-efficient green economy creates jobs, and it can create jobs in America,” says Leo Gerard, international president of United Steelworkers.

One need only look at the recent reopening of two struggling steel mills that are now making steel plate for use in wind turbines. Further jobs are opening up in the need to retrofit old and energy-inefficient buildings. Add this to jobs opening up for people to operate and maintain wind turbines, and an environmental push is also an employment boon.

Environmental and labor groups are citing a report commissioned by a think tank called the Center for American Progress, led by former Clinton administration official John Podesta.

Podesta laid out the plans for the $100 billion. $50 billion would go towards tax credits to help private businesses and homeowners pay to make their buildings more energy efficient. $46 billion would go towards retrofitting buildings, expanding mass transit and freight rail, making “smart” electrical grids and investing in renewable energies. The remaining $4 billion would exist as federal loan guarantees.

In that distribution, thousands of jobs are evident, especially in retrofitting buildings and the expansion of transit and the electrical grids. On top of that, the allocations make for huge energy savings. Shoring up ones house to be energy efficient, from the type of glass used and heating and cooling systems in use, is going to save you money, and decrease power consumption. Making a smarter electrical grid will help bring us closer to the day when we can rely on wind and solar power generation. And anything to help the mass transit systems is a good idea by me.

But the real story is in the jobs that this investment could make. But right now I have a whole “don’t put the horse before the cart” thought process running through my head so, like hoping the LHC doesn’t doom us all, *fingers crossed*

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