Published: June 26, 2008 09:12 am      

Going green saves jobs, planet

Hard hats and tree huggers unite

DANVILLE — Vermilion County stands poised for a renaissance of manufacturing thanks to a partnership between two groups.

The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club joined forces in 2006 as the Blue Green Alliance in an effort to create new jobs based on green manufacturing and renewable energy.

Former Vice President Al Gore’s We Campaign works in conjunction with them to share information about global climate change and the role technology can play in diminishing its impact.

All three groups share the goal of creating new businesses that will protect the environment while protecting workers’ jobs.

Representatives from each, as well as from the University of Illinois Energy Conservation Department and the Illinois Solar Energy Association, spoke Wednesday night at a town hall meeting at Danville Area Community College’s Bremer Center.

State Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Gifford) joined the panel whose members addressed more than two dozen local residents about this action plan to save both jobs and the environment.

This meeting wasn’t the first time Frerichs saw the potential for green manufacturing in Vermilion County. The unlikely alliance of what one speaker called “tree huggers and hard hats” also wasn’t new to the senator.

“Two of my strongest supporters (during the race for the Illinois Senate) were the unions and the environmentalists,” Frerichs said. “The value of green jobs is critical to Illinois.

“When I took office, the No. 1 issue was electrical rates. They had been regulated, hadn’t gone up in years. The underlying cost of energy was driving them up,” he said.

“I lived in China 10 years ago. The streets were filled with people on bicycles. I went back recently, and the streets were filled with cars. The increased demand for energy raises the prices.

“The question is do we pay more money for energy or take the lead?”

Frerichs explained the electric rate relief package was a short-term solution to higher prices, and that energy conservation is the long-term solution.

“We must take small strides over time,” he said. “By 2025, 25 percent of Illinois energy must come from renewable sources. Of that, 75 percent must come from wind turbines.”

In a recent meeting at University of Illinois with a Danish supplier of the new breed of energy-producing windmills, Frerichs spoke with one of the company’s representatives.

“We agreed (wind turbines were) a great fit here due to the recent legislation,” the senator said. “Then this man asked me if anyone around here could do the manufacturing. I told him, ‘There’s a community right down the road that can — Danville.’

“This could be great synergy,” Frerichs said. “Jobs have left, and some aren’t coming back. But there are new jobs that can be created in this area.”

The Blue Green Alliance sees the prospect for this in other Illinois communities as well as around the country.

Robin Rich, U.S. Steelworkers staff representative, works on the national level for her fellow steelworkers. Originally from Gary, Ind., Rich worked in steel manufacturing before she started traveling the country for the alliance.

“The Gore Foundation gave a grant to three groups,” Rich said. “That included the Girl Scouts of America, the Audubon Society and us. They wanted to reach out to the grassroots as part of their environmental mission.

“The loss of membership and jobs in recent years just chokes me up,” she said. “If we can take idled plants, get the government behind this, we can solve this energy crisis while we save jobs.”

We Campaign spokesperson Eric Torres, southwest director of The Climate Project, led the audience through an abbreviated version of Gore’s award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

“Climate change is a fact,” Torres said, using the increased number of tornadoes and the recent flooding as examples. “We can apply new technology and alter the results of our past behavior.

“The economy is suffering because of resistance to change,” he said. “Wind turbine energy and solar energy are two of the changes we can make.”