Walmart has started a Green Jobs Council. We’re officially saved. Seriously though, we are seeing some incredible growth on the green jobs front in America. Could you imagine, America, in it’s current slump, without the prospect of massive numbers of green-collar jobs to help give us at least a glimpse of a better economic future?

In other recent news, Obama has picked Rep. Hilda L. Solis from California as his Labor Secretary. Rep. Solis has been one of the strongest proponents of green jobs in Washington over the last decade. She authored the Green Jobs Act of 2007 and slipped it into the energy bill that year, which was signed by President Bush on December 19, 2007. She’s also a strong union proponent, and after the Big Three Unions have been acting recently (essentially destroying their companies through greed) I’m not sure how I feel about the union bit. Green Jobs, however, are going to make this country great again.

Something that will be interesting to see is the balance of an educated workforce and the need for said workforce. It seems that pretty much everyone is going back to school (read: can’t find job, go back to school) because the economy is so terrible. This isn’t such a bad thing, as there are many fields, from Lifecycle Analysis to emerging renewable energy technologies, that are so cutting edge the work force is falling behind the knowledge curve. The question I have is: Will the current class, the current generation, be able to sustain a green jobs economy, a sustainable workforce, and our future?

One interesting example: Nuclear power may have trouble coming back in force simply because no one knows how to run reactors anymore. The workforce and knowledge base just isn’t there (in America anyway) to build and run nuclear power plants anymore.
Ok, enough for now, Happy Holidays everyone!