Van Jones

Photo Source: Wylie Maercklein

For those who have seen the news this week, Green Jobs Advisor to the President, Van Jones has recently resigned due to criticism that he is a radical from the right.  While I won’t use this site to convey my opinion, I would like to share excerpts of his speech at the Clean Energy Summit of 2009.

Van Jones addressing the issue of energy efficiency and the politics of The Green Movement stated:

“This (The Green Movement) should be the common ground agenda.  We should be able to come together on this one, and the reason for that are the values that underlie this clean energy conversation, which we don’t speak to enough, are the common ground values of America.  Clean air is better than dirty air for the health of our children.  That’s common ground.  That’s why we need clean energy.  We have been blessed in this country with so many resources.  Conserving them, saving them, treating them with wisdom and respect is better than wasting them.  That’s why energy efficiency is so important.  And if we have the opportunity to fight both poverty and pollution by putting people to work in these new industries, we would be wise as a country to do that.  That is common ground and that is why this administration is so committed to energy efficiency.  We think this is the most fiscally conservative thing to do with federal dollars.

I think it’s important that we recognize for all the battleground politics that is going on, this is the one place that should be a safe harbor for us.  We should be able to stand together.  We are asking questions that progressives like, but we are giving answers that conservatives should like.  We are asking questions about how we move the needle on poverty and pollution and give economic opportunity, especially for people in the lower part of our economy.  But the answers are answers conservatives should like.  We are not talking about expanding welfare.  We are talking about expanding work.  We are not talking about expanding entitlements. We are talking about expanding enterprise and investments.  We are not talking about redistributing existing wealth.  We are talking about reinventing an existing sector and creating new wealth by unleashing innovation and entrepreneurship.  This should be common ground.  We should be able to stand together and be one country on this.

There is so much work that needs to be done in this country.  To retrofit America, to cut these energy bills and there are so many people who need work.  This is our opportunity as a country, and it comes along very rarely, to take the people who most need work and connect them to the work that most needs to be done.  To fight pollution and poverty at the same time, and be one country.  Let’s be one country.”