Green Jobs in Vegas: No Lofty, Lefty Goal, But a Last-Hope Lifeline

LAS VEGAS -- The Cabinet secretaries, the senators, the big names -- Clinton, Gore, Pickens -- had not yet arrived when Becky Jo Swartzbaugh and Hendrix Lambertus kicked off the National Clean Energy Summit with a lesson in life.
They don't see green jobs as a frill, an afterthought or a fantasy. They see them as a lifeline.

Lambertus and Swartzbaugh held forth in a hidden corner of the Cox Center at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, out of range of the 13 TV cameras set up for the VIPs. Both have been laid off from CityCenter, a huge hotel-resort-casino-residential-shopping-entertainment complex on 67 acres off the Las Vegas Strip.

Swartzbaugh, a 12-year, second-generation member of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters union, blinked back tears as she described her life: out of work for several weeks, with many friends and family losing their homes. "I'm one of them," said Swartzbaugh, and so is her apprentice, who has a baby due in two weeks, she said. "We really need these jobs in Nevada," Swartzbaugh said, her voice breaking, as two of her four children stood close.

Lambertus, a sheet-metal worker, said he was laid off about four months ago. "I'm going through a lot of hardships. I'm losing the house," he said. "There are no big jobs going on. CityCenter is about to lay off come November and there's going to be a lot more people out of work. The only thing we can do is move forward with this green program and try."

It's ironic that the symbol of doom is CityCenter. It's an environmentally friendly, sustainable project that should be a model for more to come. Instead, with a late-2009 opening on tap, it is pretty much the end of the line for construction around here.

Danny Thompson, head of the Nevada AFL-CIO, looks with terror at what has happened in northern Nevada: 50 percent unemployment among members of 18 building trades unions. Already in southern Nevada, it's in the high 20s for that group, compared to 12.1 percent for the state overall. "We went from completing a new house every 20 seconds to virtually building nothing," he said in an interview. "The housing industry is completely flat. Commercial work is non-existent. There's nothing in the pipeline."

Nevada has an economy based on tourism and mining. As Keith Schwer, director of The Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, told the summit, the state has "no comparative advantages" in the way that Kansas has "wonderful land and temperature to grow wheat" and Florida has the right conditions to grow oranges.

But Nevada's time is here, Schwer said, because it is "blessed with renewable energy" in the form of sun and wind. "This is going to become our export base. We're going to be exporting energy because we can produce it," he said. There is the small problem that the nation does not yet have a "smart grid" allowing such energy to be produced and stored in sparsely populated areas, then transported to places where it is needed. Schwer said such issues were overcome when it came to railroads, cars and electrification -- and they will be this time, too.

How did this state get into such dire shape? Some blame its leaders for not diversifying over the years. Stephen Wells, president of the Reno-based Desert Research Institute, cites a study 10 years ago that said Nevada needed to develop a high-tech sector. It was shelved. Still, he said, "To me the enemy is ourselves -- the people of our state."

Simply put, why get a college degree or learn to weatherize houses when you can earn $70,000 a year as a valet at Caesar's Palace? Of course, now that valet jobs are scarce, those alternatives sound a lot more appealing.

The summit here, the second organized by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), was notable in several respects. One was its participants: Former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, oil magnate T. Boone Pickens (a proponent of wind power and natural gas), Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- you get the picture.

Another hallmark was its practical focus: how to conserve energy, tap new energy sources and create jobs; how to keep American know-how in America; how to reduce emissions fast (Pickens wants to convert 6.5 million 18-wheelers from diesel to natural gas); what new federal policies are needed (Thompson suggested efficiency and renewable energy standards for all public works projects); new ideas on how to finance massive weatherization of homes and businesses (Clinton's idea -- get banks and utilities involved); discussion of a new system the Energy Department is developing to help people figure out in moments what their houses need to use less energy.

Even Gore, who rose to hero (and Nobel and Academy Award) status by raising alarms about global warming and the fate of the Earth, is into practicalities now -- the energy you can save by sealing off ducts, or the jobs you can create with a mass shift to energy-efficient windows and light bulbs. He's held 32 "solutions summits" that form the basis of his upcoming book, "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis."

Reid's summit was also the first he's held since what he called the "world-changing election" of Barack Obama. With Obama in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress, the party now has the opportunity to test its conviction that clean, green jobs are the key to a prosperous future.

Swartzbaugh is already a believer in the new economy. "We need it in the worst way," she said in a quavering voice -- a human reality check amid all the talk of dollars, details, high technology and hard science.