• Green training for current, future and unemployed workers in building, construction, retrofitting, and installation occupations;
• The development of a new community and technical college GREEN-UP certificate program, the new wind energy technology program at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College, and new water and wastewater treatment programs at Marshall Community and Technical College;
• The development and implementation of community and technical college courses that teach basic and green technical skills in combination, as well as green entrepreneurship for those interested in starting green businesses; and
• Professional development for career center, registered apprenticeship program and community and technical college faculty to assist them in incorporating green concepts and skills into classes and programs.

The West Virginia GREEN-UP Council, along with five regional teams, will coordinate grant activities.

DCT Advisors LLC is pleased to have been able to assist WorkForceWV in obtaining this grant and looks forward to working with WorkForceWV on initial project start-up and facilitation of GREEN-UP Council activities over the next several years.

Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain.  And no sooner did Don Quixote see them than he said to his squire: “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished.  Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants?  I intend to do battle with them and slay them.  With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.

- Miquel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

In our search to create a carbon neutral world, we have begun to harness small, but not insignificant, amounts of wind energy.  Until recently my knowledge of wind energy was limited to a vague notion that there were a lot of windmills (not true) and wooden shoes in Holland.

Today I know a lot more about wind energy.  That knowledge makes me appreciate that making environmentally-correct decisions can be very complicated.  Some of the issues:

• Not all places are equal in terms of their ability to produce wind energy.  Only one region of West Virginia – the Potomac Highlands – is well suited for large-scale wind energy production.
• The best places for wind in West Virginia – the tops of large mountains – can be very hard to reach with 50+ ton wind turbines.
• Wind turbines can kill endangered species like Indiana bats.
• The noise created by wind turbines has been linked to negative health effects for nearby residents.
• Many people have concerns about the impact of wind turbines on viewscapes.  Would you want to stay at a bed and breakfast in Greenbrier County with a large wind turbine in plain view?  How about wind turbines in our “quasi-sacred” national forests and other public lands where, by the way, most of West Virginia’s harnessable wind energy can be found?

Unlike Don Quixote’s imaginary enemies, our environmental enemies – global warming, destroyed ecosystems, polluted streams – are quite real.  But slaying these real enemies might prove just as difficult for us as slaying imaginary enemies was for Don Quixote.

During the process of facilitating the development of West Virginia’s green jobs education and training plan, I had an opportunity to read some very rosy assessments of future green jobs needs.  Those reports (e.g., O*NET) repeatedly emphasized that green jobs were primarily, but not exclusively, going to be found in existing occupations.

As a result of these assessments, the leading national report on green jobs education and training, titled Greener Pathways, had this to say: “More time should be spent embedding green skills training within current curricula, and less energy inventing new programs.”  This admonition caused the West Virginia GREEN-UP Council to propose expending most new green education and training dollars on greening up existing programs and existing workers, not on starting a lot of new sustainability programs.

Is Greener Pathways right?  I think so:

• To design a green building, you must have basic architectural skills.
• To build or renovate a building using green products, you must have building and construction trades skills.
• To install or retrofit an energy efficient HVAC system or maintain a wind turbine, you must have basic electro-mechanical skills.
• To ensure that a community’s water supply is environmentally safe, you must have basic chemistry and biological testing skills.

While I’m convinced that a green revolution is upon us, I worry that students pursuing these new sustainability degrees will not be able to find jobs upon graduation unless they also have other, more practical skills.

In my opinion, this push to create stand-alone environmental sustainability programs is another example of higher education being out of touch with real world needs, even as it tries to address those needs.

1) This decision is not likely to play well in Peoria or Parkersburg:

• Why should a West Virginia resident care about Indiana bats?  Of course, they’re endangered in West Virginia; they’re “Indiana” bats.
• The environmentalists are no longer satisfied with shutting down fossil fuel production; now they’re shutting down renewable energy production, too.

2) Although this decision will not play well, it appears that Invenergy could have done something very simple – apply for an Incidental Take Permit – to satisfy the Endangered Species Act.  Indeed the judge referred to Invenergy’s plight as “self-imposed.”

• Why do companies like Invenergy not jump through reasonable hoops like the Incidental Take Permit process?
• Invenergy is lucky that the bats hibernate from mid-November to the end of March, which means it can operate its wind turbines while it submits its permit request.

3) Even “clean” energy solutions sometimes raise environmental concerns, as this specific case illustrates.  The road to a carbon neutral world is likely to be a long and bumpy one.

The commitment, which seeks to reduce our nation’s college campuses’ carbon footprints, initially was signed by schools representing 1/3 of America’s college students.  I was not surprised to discover that only one West Virginia public institution, Bridgemont Community and Technical College, which is doing quite a bit of education and training in the clean energy and environmental fields, was a signatory, even though it did not meet the deadline.  Bethany College and American Public University System, which is headquartered in Charles Town and provides education primarily to the military and online, were West Virginia’s other signatories.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) contains billions and billions of dollars aimed at bringing about a “green revolution.”  If some of these initiatives are successful, they truly could revolutionize American and world energy production and consumption.  To help you understand the dramatic scope of the federal green investment, I have provided a partial list of initiatives below:

Department of Energy:

• Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E).  To foster research and development of transformational energy-related technologies.
• Smart Grid Investments.  To improve electricity delivery and energy reliability.
• Nuclear Science and Technology.  To pursue forefront nuclear science research.
• Early Career Research.  To support energy researchers who are early in their careers.
• Alternative Isotope Production Techniques.  To seek breakthroughs that will facilitate an increased supply of isotopes that are in short supply.
• Integrated Biorefinery Operations.  To create biofuels and bioproducts refineries that can use a variety of feedstocks effectively.
• Energy Efficient Information and Communication Technology.  To reduce the energy use of technology equipment.
• Enhanced Geothermal Systems.  To improve energy extraction from geothermal sites and use of ground source heat pumps.
• Hydroelectric Facility Modernization.  To improve hydroelectric power production.
• Wind Turbine Drivetrains.  To design and construct a facility to test wind turbine drive trains.
• Wind Energy Consortia.  To develop consortia between higher education institutions and the wind industry.
• Advanced Energy Efficient Building Technology.  To support a wide range of research and development concerning energy efficient buildings.
• Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing.  To increase production of batteries and electric drive components.
• Truck Engines/Powertrains.  To improve truck engine energy efficiency.

Department of Labor:

• Energy Training Partnerships.  To provide training and placement services in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.
• Green Capacity Building.  To build capacity of training programs to meet the needs of expanding green industries.
• State Energy Sector Partnerships.  To develop and implement a green energy sector workforce plan.
• State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants.  To improve data collection concerning energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.

Other:

• Department of Transportation – TIGGER.  To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption of public transportation systems.
• Environmental Protection Agency.  To promote diesel emission reductions.

So where will the green revolution, if there truly is to be one, leave West Virginia?  The answer may depend on how quickly we can turn our hills and valleys green.  We’ll explore possible answers – and tie them into our Socratic analysis of mountaintop removal coal mining – over the coming weeks and months.

This week the Economist includes an opinion piece about President Barack Obama.  My favorite quotation:  ”He has been curiously ill-served by a press short of useful criticism, with liberal America prepared only to debate what sort of water he walks on best, while conservative radio hosts argue over when exactly he became a communist.”  I can come up with no sentence that better captures the left-right media divide – and the utter uselessness of their chatter – better.

Meanwhile, notes the Economist, President Obama is losing the support of independent voters, who are concerned about federal spending, and needs to show leadership on important issues like health care and environmental reform.  ”Back in the honeymoon days,” says the Economist, “Mr. Obama was constantly compared to Roosevelt.  No longer.”

I recently had an opportunity to read FDR’s fireside chats.  FDR would talk directly to the American people about important issues in plain, easy to understand, but not condescending, language.  I think President Obama needs to do more of this.  It’s harder now, with so many media competing for our limited attentions, but he needs to make a conscientious effort to reach us.

In closing, some interesting words from FDR to ponder:

• On stimulus spending: “It is going to cost something to get out of this recession this way but the profit of getting out of it will pay for the cost several times over. Lost working time is lost money. Every day that a workman is unemployed, or a machine is unused, or a business organization is marking time, it is a loss to the Nation.”  14 April 1938.
• On health care: “Whether we come to this form of insurance soon or later on, I am confident that we can devise a system which will enhance and not hinder the remarkable progress which has been made and is being made in practice of the professions of medicine and surgery in the United States.”  14 November 1936.
• On the environment: “If, for example, in some local area the water table continues to drop and the topsoil to blow away, the land values will disappear with the water and the soil. People on the farms will drift into the nearby cities; the cities will have no farm trade and the workers in the city factories and stores will have no jobs. Property values in the cities will decline. If, on the other hand, the farms within that area remain as farms with better water supply and no erosion, the farm population will stay on the land and prosper and the nearby cities will prosper too. Property values will increase instead of disappearing.”  6 September 1936.