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July 25, 2008 10:33:29 PM CDT

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Blue Collars, Green Ties

Posted May 3, 08 9:30 AM CDT in Politics,  Science & Health,  Business 

(Newser) – In Pennsylvania, the New Republic's Dayo Olopade finds an effort to unite working-class union types with the liberal elite that could long outlive Barack Obama's heyday: the search for green-collar jobs. Stelworkers have long viewed environmentalists skeptically, but both groups have a stake in finding a "new industrial policy based on the twin causes of sustainability and job creation."

Efforts to turn America green, both industrially and domestically, will require the hard-won expertise of workers whose aims have long been seen as at odds with tree-hugging Sierra Club types, Olopade writes, pointing to the Blue-Green Alliance, which ties the green group to the United Steelworkers. The infant effort, while promising, will surely face obstacles, Olopade concludes: "Just ask Barack Obama."

Source New Republic

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"There's concrete to pour, there's rail to tie, there's major manufacturing and service industry for bringing people into the middle class," says one analyst of the need for 'green collar' jobs.   (AP Photo)
"There are people in the Steelworkers who view the Sierra Club as tree-huggers, and there may be those in the Sierra Club that view us as Luddites," says one organizer.   (AP Photo/Steve Klaver)
The Sierra Club and United Steelworkers have formed an alliance to pursue "new industrial policy based on the twin causes of sustainability and job creation."   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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Barack Obama  • environmentalism  • liberals  • Sierra Club  • green construction  • United Steelworkers


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