Earth Equity News

Officials Celebrate Going Green in Oakland. By Kelly Rayburn, OaklandTrib, October 20, 2008. "Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, were on hand in West Oakland on Monday to unveil the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a new job-creation program officials are hoping to grow in Oakland and, potentially, across the United States. The Green Jobs Corps aims to lift people out of poverty by giving them the training they need to jump into green-industry jobs. Dellums and others called the program a win-win in its ability to fight economic deprivation and global warming at the same time. 'This is a very elegant idea -- elegant in its simplicity,' Dellums said. 'The simple idea is: fight pollution and fight poverty simultaneously'... If you tie the unfinished business of poverty to the new challenges of global warming, you are not training and employing people for obsolescence. You are training them for the future." The program -- for now -- is modest in its reach. It relies on $250,000 from the city to train 40 young adults for jobs with solar firms and green-construction contractors. But officials said they hope to build on what has already been accomplished. Dellums said he hopes Congress will include a green-industry component in an economic stimulus package federal lawmakers could put together after the Nov. 4 elections.