The White House, Washington, D.C.
Friday, June 19, 2009
June
19, 2009
The White House, Washington,
D.C.
On Friday June 19th,
the White House Office of Intergovernmental
Affairs & Public Engagement and
the Council on Environmental Quality hosted a
Green Jobs and Clean Economy
Briefing for minorities.
By invitation,
members of NCME’s Board of Directors and
representatives of other key
organizations met with administration officials
to discuss opportunities for
participating in Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(stimulus) programs and grants
in the green jobs and energy area.
NCME was
represented at the briefing by Chairman Ezekiel
Patten, Past Chairman Jerry
Curry, Treasurer Frank Torbert, Jr., Secretary
Spencer Jordan, General Counsel
Bill Bethune, and by Board members Frank Geary,
Suyen Pell, and Joe Chow.
Our delegation
made meaningful contacts at the Briefing with
government agencies that will be
administering grants and projects and with
non-profit groups with whom we can
potentially partner in seeking grant dollars
for green job training and
sourcing in the energy area. Information
on stimulus programs and dollars may be
accessed at www.recovery.gov.
Although not every agency is at
the same pace, the Department of
Labor (DOL) in May released information
concerning its plans to distribute the
$500 million for "green jobs" training that was
included in the
Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This
should be a rich source of funding for green
job training programs, and those
programs should prime the pump for green job
sourcing efforts.
DOL's guidance (http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=2755) is
designed to help potential grant applicants
prepare to apply for the
funds. The actual
Solicitation for Grant
Applications should be made available later
this summer. Much
of the funds will pass through state
channels of distribution.
We will be following up and
monitoring activities at the federal
level.
We need the assistance of our members in
monitoring activities at the
state level.
Chairman Patten has set up a task
force to clear information and assess
opportunities for NCME’s members. Persons interested in
serving on this
important task force should contact Zeke,
zeke.patten@pattenenergy.com, Jerry
Curry, jcurry@vicintlltd.com, or Joe
Chow, jchow@semprautilities.com.
Stay tuned for more to come.