Six Thousand New Green Jobs

There appears to be something in the air as there are two news stories that link across the Atlantic. As I have mentioned in previous postings, here in the North East of England there is a wind energy research facility at a town called Blyth. Significant to me as Father was born near there in a mining village, only a couple of miles away. Further, when the UK government announced that there would be a major expansion in off shore wind farms, I predicted that this would create jobs.

Well the plans are now in place, and if the private investment and orders are found then there will be six thousand jobs created in, what were the former shipyards, building these turbines. When there is so much economic gloom something like this is good news. It is all part of the greening of the Economy that I have spoken about before, Creating real jobs, real wages, and real opportunities.

This is not going to happen overnight, nor has this just happened by chance as the all started ten years ago, with a vision of what wind energy could provide and the engineering skills to develop turbines that will be five times larger than those on the land. The skills were and already here from the Tyne Shipyards building ships then oil platforms and now these turbines.

However the good news doesn’t end there as in the News I also heard that the US President (Plays Hail to the Chief in my head) had sought a review of the blocking of the Californian legislation by the federal authorities. That particular bit of legislation will force the car manufacturers to build cars that emit thirty percent fewer emissions.

Now the contrast here is quite stark. Here in Britain we have developed a technology that we are just on the verge of manufacturing and selling to the rest of the world that will create green jobs. And Industry is backing this, as an old fashioned making thing is commerce that we can all understand. But in America, the car industry has fought tooth and claw to continue doing what it always has. Fighting legislation and refusing to research and develop products that could have stopped them from having to borrow federal funds just to keep afloat. Now I know that there may be a reader or three that cries Credit Crunch, but the reality is the big three did not innovate as they stuck to the same old technologies that drank petrol. Had the automotive industry in the US made that investment instead of paying high dividends to share holders, then the effects of the credit crunch would been greatly lessoned as the US automotive industry gas would have developed Hybrids, or Hydrogen powered or supplemented cars.

In Stanley a town twenty miles from my village, is a manufacturer of Electric vans that is working at full capacity, even with the economic downturn. That could have been parts of the US automotive industry had they looked to the future and not had their collective heads berried in the trough of corporate greed, while ignoring global warming.

The US President always spoke of creating green jobs, as well as doing articulately, he meant it. By forcing manufactures to innovate, new jobs and new industries will be created. If the US and us here in Britain want to break the monopoly hold the oil producers have on our metaphorical balls, it is by developing things that we cannot even guess at.

So the news locally and internationally had a green tinge to its aura. As a footnote though, when I had my Boiler serviced I was talking to my Plumber and he told me of one of his colleagues that had paid to go on a course to learn to fit solar panels. These are Solar Thermal ones that help heat the hot water. Well Last week I spotted him and he was helping this friend as he had such a demand for this skill that he was struggling to meet the demand and orders he is getting. So while green jobs may look like normal jobs they help the environment and the economy.