Garamendi promotes clean energy legislation during Solano visit
VACAVILLE — Rep. John Garamendi called Thursday for creating more clean-energy jobs to recharge the economy and cut the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
The congressman made his pitch while surrounded by the Vaca-Dixon Solar Station’s solar panels, a relatively new addition to the Solano County landscape.
“I like this,” said Garamendi, D-Walnut Creek, as he lauded the facility and noted that increasing the use of clean energy such as solar power can help secure national security so America doesn’t have to depend on oil from dangerous parts of the world. “This is what we have to do.”
Garamendi used the afternoon news conference at the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. solar station to voice support for President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, his own Make It In America clean energy legislation and the BlueGreen Alliance’s Jobs 21 initiative.
The solar station is a solar energy pilot project completed in June 2010. It generates 2 megawatts as part of PG&E’s effort to promote the development of up to 500 megawatts from medium-sized solar facilities.
Garamendi said his legislation will ensure that taxpayer dollars would be spent on renewable energy systems.
“Tax money ought to be used to buy American equipment. This is not just to create clean energy, but also to create American jobs,” Garamendi said, pointing out that the solar arrays at the Vaca-Dixon Station were made in Arizona.
The congressman was joined at the event by Lisa Hoyos, director of the BlueGreen Alliance, and Hunter Stern, business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245.
Hoyos, whose group is a partnership of labor unions and environmental groups, said the creation of programs supporting jobs and clean energy is needed “to protect our climate and economy.”
Stern said his union is “ready, able and willing” to build these facilities and that the government has to focus on creating more clean-energy job opportunities.
“It is critically important to put people to work,” Stern said. “We need more such support from the federal government.”
Garamendi said that such government support for renewable energy is in danger of being stopped and that Republican members of Congress are working to disassemble the federal subsidies that support clean energy.
George Guynn, president of the Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group, agreed that renewable energy and clean energy development is important, but said it alone is not the answer.
“I feel that it’s not going to solve all our problems,” he said. “It’s nice to have energy that doesn’t create pollution, but to think green energy is going to solve all of our problems, it’s not going to happen.”
Guynn said the country needs a reliable energy supply, which requires more than a single, green-energy focus. He said development of new technology to produce and sustain that energy supply should not stem solely from government initiatives.
“Government is not the solution to all of our problems. The private sector seems to be much more adept at providing solutions to help humans progress, and not the government,” he said. ”If the money that the government soaks up was in private hands, I think we would progress a lot sooner.”
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net. Glen Faison contributed to this report.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=98499
Posted by Ian Thompson
on Oct 20 2011.
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I saw a most interesting ad first thing this morning. A group of people were at a Gamblers Anonymous meeting. Turns out they’re Democrats. Then there’s a clip of Obama saying we have to gamble on green energy. Who should appear next, but our esteemed congressman Garamendi talking about–of all things–green energy!
Thanks Mr. Thompson and Mr. Faison for including my comments in this article. It is interesting that Congressman Garamendi talks about promoting American jobs, but when I questioned him at the Town Hall Meeting, Wednesday, about enforcing the laws against illegals, he was for the Bush plan to handle illegals. I thought we were supposed to be a nation of laws, not accomodation! Could it be that Congressman Garamendi is more concerned with the Save Obama Act (aka Obama’s American Jobs Act) than in actually creating jobs by solving the illegals problem? Illegals don’t just have low paying jobs. They practically own the construction industy now. Not that many years ago, illegals were almost non-existant in construction. It appears to me that many government folk don’t care about citizen interests, but are more concerned about providing cheap labor for business interests. BTW, nice comment Marci!
Thanks, George. I enjoyed your comments too. Maybe green energy will be applicable in the future, but right now it is prohibitively expensive, inconvenient, and kills jobs. What’s to like?! The Democrats only care about potential voters and POWER, not the future of the state.
Thank you!