On the heels of a Houston rally sponsored by producer and consumer groups opposed to the House climate change bill, labor and environmental groups — in partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection — Thursday delivered a counter punch by launching a nationwide jobs tour in support of a clean economy and climate change legislation.

The “Made in America” tour begins in Cleveland and and includes 50 events in 22 states. It will target key Rust Belt cities — Pittsburgh; Gary, IN; Detroit; and St. Louis, MO.

The Alliance for Climate Change (ACC) and the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of labor unions and environmental groups that support a green economy, “are crossing the country to show Americans — through tours of clean energy businesses, conversations with workers making the parts that harness clean energy and rallies with local residents — that the benefits of transitioning to a clean energy economy are available today through good-paying jobs which are giving new meaning to the term ‘Made in America,'” said ACC CEO Maggie L. Fox.

A recent Blue Green Alliance report found that if the United States instituted a renewable energy standard, more than 850,000 manufacturing jobs at firms already in existence nationwide could be created to produce parts for wind, solar, geothermal and biomass facilities, according to ACC-affiliated Repower America.

The broad energy bill, which was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, included a watered-down renewable electricity standard that would require sellers of electricity to obtain 15% of their supplies each year from renewable energy resources or from energy efficiency improvements by 2021 (see Daily GPI, June 18). It could be challenged when the full Senate takes up the measure, possibly this fall.

A report by the Center for American Progress, a think tank founded by John Podesta, White House chief of staff for former President Clinton, found that investing $150 billion a year in the U.S. clean economy could create 1.7 million jobs, such as retrofitting and building new energy-efficient buildings and manufacturing plug-in hybrid and electric cars.

“Building a clean energy economy can revitalize American manufacturing, but only if we commit to using domestically produced components,” said United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard.

The nationwide bus tour “[will] show the groundswell of support for action on clean energy and climate solutions that will help move our country in a new direction,” said Frances Beinecke, president of the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.

The opponents of climate change legislation passed by the House in late June had their say earlier this week at a rally in Houston (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19). The flurry of activity — both for and against climate change — comes as Congress is expected to return from its August recess soon and take up the bill in the Senate.

The House climate change bill (HR 2454) seeks to cap heat-trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that contribute to global warming (see Daily GPI, June 29). The legislation would substantially change the direction of the energy industry from conventional oil, natural gas and coal to renewable fuels. The House measure calls for GHG emissions to be cut by 83% by 2050 and is backed by Obama. It was authored by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA).

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