BOSTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Alternative energy sources, including wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels, are being talked up in Congress, but clean energy isn't yet seen as a job-producing industry.
A movement is emerging, however, to present alternative energies as having the potential to create jobs in the production of major component parts of wind turbines and large-scale retrofitting projects to increase energy efficiency in residential areas.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has compared the drive for use of alternative energy to other national movements in America's history.
"There's a reason that some have compared the quest for energy independence to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo moon landing," he said in a Feb 28 speech in Washington. "Like those historic efforts, moving away from an oil economy is a major challenge that will require a sustained national commitment."
Obama is not alone. The Apollo Alliance, a nonprofit group that works to build jobs from the emerging market, derives its name from President Kennedy's call for action in the space race, and has the motto: "Good jobs, clean energy." The coalition brings together labor, business and environmental interests to work at state and municipal levels to craft long-term policies that support renewable energy.
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http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20060308-050455-4209r