But there is no consensus on the definition of green jobs, and Republicans caution that demand for them should emerge from the market rather than through government fiat.

Both parties agree that more job training is needed for environmental occupations and that developing green workers will require upgrading the federal workforce system.

Capitol Hill grappled with the role of green jobs for the second time in a month at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Tuesday, April 21.

A House Education and Labor subcommittee held a hearing March 31 in which panel members and witnesses debated the meaning of green jobs.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington and chair of the April 21 hearing, acknowledged that the term green jobs is amorphous.

“While there isn’t a hard and fast definition, these jobs tend to provide products and services that promote renewable energy resources, reduce pollution and conserve energy and natural resources in any industry,” Murray said. “From solar panel installation to green building to retrofitting our homes and offices, the jobs of tomorrow start with increased training efforts today.”

The Obama administration has made energy reform a cog in its economic recovery strategy, arguing that huge investments in efficiency and renewable sources will result in new jobs.

The $787 billion economic stimulus bill enacted in February includes $500 million for green jobs training out of $3.4 billion devoted to workforce development.

“The promise of green jobs is not only to help restart the economy and put Americans back to work, but also to help make America more energy independent,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at the Senate hearing, her first Capitol Hill appearance since being confirmed in March.

The Labor Department is encouraging states to expand existing training programs to prepare workers for the energy sector, Solis told the Senate panel. The agency also is putting an emphasis on green jobs training throughout the nation’s workforce system.

Collaboration across the government is important for realizing the potential of green jobs, according to Solis.

“The Department of Labor and other federal agencies have already begun to coordinate our work to strategically implement programs that ensure connections between investments in infrastructure and research and development on one side and job training and worker placement on the other,” Solis said.

But the ranking Republican on the Senate labor committee said the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for green jobs should not distort market signals.

“The strength of our current workforce system is that it is demand-driven,” said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming. “We need to consider whether we are creating an artificial demand for green jobs or if we are responding to a true market demand for more workers to fill green jobs.”

Green jobs training should be integrated into a comprehensive approach to enhancing the skills of American workers, according to Enzi.

He is a strong advocate of reforming the law governing the workforce development system—the Workforce Investment Act. The measure, signed into law in 1998, has been up for renewal for nearly six years.

The current system creates “stovepipes” that don’t allow it to adjust to emerging jobs, Enzi said. Republicans and Democrats have vowed to modernize the law this year.

“I thought we would get it done three years ago,” Enzi said. “This better be the year.”

He said that the economy has undergone “a lot of change in nine years, and we ought to catch up with it.”

A House labor subcommittee has held two hearings on reauthorizing the workforce training law. Murray said the Senate labor committee has hosted a number of recent roundtables on the issue with educators, business leaders, workforce and economic development experts, and organized labor.

“We have every intention to get the WIA reauthorization done in a timely manner—and hopefully this year,” Murray said.

—Mark Schoeff Jr.

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