Funding is being sought for supporting and training what will be the workforce of tomorrow’s green economy. Along with cleaning up the environment what is particularly interesting about this movement is making climate change relevant to youth who were otherwise marginalized in the conversation of climate change. With the proper perspective and emphasis on job-generation, better health, career opportunities, along with improving the environment an often disadvantaged or at least disinterested youth can be engaged in this conversation while reintroducing the pride and respect that is due to those laborers who get things done in this economy.

GREEN JOBS: What is a green job? And how much is the U.S. government willing to spend to create them? We speak with attorney and social activist Van Jones, who jump started a training program to teach inner-city youth in the San Francisco area how to install solar panels. Last year he persuaded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to sign onto a plan to authorize $125 million dollars to train up to 30,000 people for green jobs. From NPR’s Here and Now

Green for All

Estimated to cost around 2 cents per mile to power the Telsa Roadster is what dreams are made of. This is definitely the hottest all electric car in the U.S. Based out of Silicon Valley Telsa Motors began production of them this March. The EPA has rated the Tesla as able to go 221 miles per charge and the company states with a optional solar mounted roof charger you can get a range of 50 miles per day on just solar power. This range is great for the daily commute and even beyond. Electricity costs are estimated to be around 2 cents per mile or about $4.42 to recharge a fully drained battery or about the cost of a gallon of gas soon. He’s the really great part, it’ll go 0 to 60 in less then 4 seconds and can go up to 125 MPH. I’d love to take one of these on a test drive! Costing around $100,000 though I don’t think I’ll be getting near one anytime soon. You might make up that cost in fuel saving over the next 200 years or so though right? If you’re in the market for a $100,000 sports car this is the way to go! Order soon, there is a waiting list.

Tesla Motors

Tonight millions of people around the world are turning out their lights, turning off the TVs, and unplugging for an hour. They are doing this to raise awareness for global climate change and energy usage.

Phoenix is a flagship city in Earth Hour, an international endeavor in which it is hoped that millions will band together to conserve energy by turning off their lights.

“The city’s become very interested in ‘green’ and sustainable processes and projects, because saving energy saves money on the bottom line, and we need to be good stewards of the public dollars,” said Cynthia Seelhammer, Phoenix’s deputy city manager.

Regardless of one’s opinions on global warming and climate change, conserving energy makes fiscal sense and saves taxpayer money, she said. The World Wildlife Fund, among the world’s largest environmental organizations, is promoting the event in the hopes of making people more aware of their impact on the environment. Click here for more of this article at azcentral.com.

Locally the The Teeter House and Stoudamires are holding candle light dinners. Know of any other events? Leave a comment.

Scottsdale’s PetroSun is putting into operation the first Algae to Biodiesel plant in the U.S. They will operate this facility in Rio Honda Texas. The plan is to produce 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million lbs. of biomass per year off a series of saltwater ponds spanning 1,100 acres. The biomass can be used as feed or even fermented and used to make ethanol. For more on this story head over to Gas 2.0.

PetroSun is also working with Optimum biofuels to build a algae biodiesel plant in Arizona near Coolidge. For this plant they plan to plan to generate all their own power, consume no fossil fuels, and be carbon neutral. It’ll be interesting to see how that all pans out. It’d be great if they can achieve all their goals. I don’t know their plans on who they will be selling it to, but hopefully most of it stays in state. From what I hear from other biodiesel producers here there is a huge demand from fleets in Arizona for bio. For more on this click here.

The Navajo nation has partnered up with a Boston company to build one of the country’s largest wind farms. This will be built about 50 miles north of Flagstaff in the Gray Mountain area. When completed the farm should produce around 500 Megawatts which is enough to power 100,000 homes. To achieve this much power around 300 turbines will be installed. For a more in depth article on this head over to azcentral.com.

Here’s short video of a wind turbine being erected. It’s in a totally different environment, but I’d think much of the construction is the same.