Hilda Solis

Key Obama advisers on climate and energy

Track the debate and take action >>> UPDATED: 16 Sep 2009 President Barack Obama’s key advisers on energy and climate issues include a former top aide to Al Gore, a Nobel Prize winner, a governor, and a gaggle of former members of Congress. Here’s a rundown:     Carol Browner Assistant to the President for […]

Obama’s green achievements at 100 days

Seventy-nine percent of Americans think President Barack Obama will do a good job protecting the country’s environment, according to the latest Gallup poll on the topic, released on Earth Day. That includes 95 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and – most surprisingly — 65 percent of Republicans. At 100 days, what has he […]

Biden’s Middle Class Task Forces asks some tough questions about green jobs

At the first meeting of the Middle Class Task Force on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden celebrated the progress on a new, green economy kicked off by the stimulus package, and called for continued efforts to create more jobs that “keep up with 21st century needs and lower energy costs.” But his cabinet members also […]

Senate finally confirms green-jobs advocate Hilda Solis

From the about damn time files: Senate confirms Hilda Solis as labor secretary. Now, to get to that green jobs work you’ve promised …

Bernie Sanders to head new green jobs panel in Senate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been named chair of the newly formed Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the senator announced on Thursday. “Today we face the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. There is no better moment to move forward aggressively on energy efficiency and […]

The players: Obama’s people

Obama’s green team Joe Romm says, “I honestly don’t know if it is politically possible to preserve a livable climate — but if it is, these are the people to make it happen.” I don’t know if I’d go that far, but Obama has certainly put together a team capable of great things. Coordinating is […]

Senate panel to (finally) vote on Solis confirmation

Since I’m over here at the Green Jobs, Good Jobs summit, perhaps I should post on one of the top green jobs questions on everyone’s mind here: When is the Senate going to finally get around to confirming Obama’s green-jobs-promoting nominee for Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis? There has been an anonymous hold on her nomination […]

Labor nominee Hilda Solis talks green jobs at her confirmation hearing

The topic of green jobs cropped up at Friday's confirmation hearing for Labor nominee Hilda Solis before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. From Solis's opening statement:

If confirmed, I will work with President-elect Obama, my colleagues in the Cabinet and you to reinvest in and restructure workforce development and ensure a strong unemployment insurance system. This includes promoting what we now know as green-collar jobs. These are jobs that will provide economic security for our middle-class families while reducing our nation's dependency on foreign oil and resources. These are jobs that will also stay in the United States. My hope is that these jobs will not be outsourced.

And later in the hearing:

I know in the state of California we are looking very anxiously to see that we can help rebuild our schools, help to transform our transportation system to help reduce air pollution and congestion, and get people to work on time ... I think the greatest asset that I see here sitting before you is to promote the green-collar jobs and trying to make that opportunity available, not just to those that are already looking for jobs, but those that want to have an opportunity for a career change.

And then this soft-ball exchange with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):

Sen. Sanders: Now, let me begin by just asking you a few questions, and the first one is going to be a very, very tough question. You helped create in the House the Green Jobs Workforce Training Program, and I worked with you in the Senate, along with Senator Clinton. Now, on that very tough question, will you help us move that program along, the one that you helped create?

(Laughter.)

Rep. Solis: Yes.

Obama's Labor pick expected to champion green jobs

President-elect Obama's Labor Secretary nominee, Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), will face a Senate confirmation panel on Friday morning headed by one of her most ardent fans, the ailing but powerful Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

Longtime GOP lions Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) could also be on hand to grill her, but the presence of Kennedy at the gavel, who presented Solis with the "Profile in Courage" award in 2000, is tangible proof that after a career spent battling Republican governors, presidents, industry lobbyists and even moderate Democrats, she could now be in the cat bird's seat. [UPDATE: News from the hearing.]

"No one else was even going to fight for the stuff that she's fought for her whole career. Now it's not about fighting, it's about governing, and I've seen Hilda Solis, she's effective at governing," said Ian Kim, director of the Green Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center in Oakland.

As Labor Secretary, Solis would in fact be in charge of implementing the Green Jobs Act she fought to "smuggle through" a hostile Congress and Bush administration in 2007, said green jobs guru and best-selling author Van Jones.

The act authorized $125 million annually to train 30,000 workers in environment-friendly jobs such as installing solar panels or weatherizing homes. But it went unfunded in 2008, due to opposition from manufacturers and other industry groups angered by its mandate to include organized labor.

Fast forward to a year later, with a tanking economy and a new president, and matters look decidedly more green. Obama made clear in his economic policy speech Thursday that such jobs will be a key component of his massive stimulus package. And no one is better qualified to make that happen than Solis, say her fans.

"She is the 21st century, Hilda Solis represents the future of this country both demographically, and in terms of her vision," said Jones, who shrugged off criticism by some that the appointment was minor compared to other Cabinet posts. "We need new, clean, green jobs for the 21st century, and in her we've got somebody who connects both those things."