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“Al Gore’s Oil Spill Silence,” The Daily Beast, 14 June 2010.

Is the famous environmental activist putting the Gulf crisis to waste?

In the spring of 1989, weeks after the catastrophic sinking of an Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr. was leading the outcry against the company responsible for the second-worst oil spill in United States history. From his position on the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Gore demanded to know if Exxon was “stonewalling” the cleanup efforts. A flustered Coast Guard commandant, Paul Yost, told Congress that Exxon was doing “the most that can be done.”

In the years after the disaster, Gore has become synonymous with environmental action. In an advertisement for his 2000 campaign for president, Gore explicitly called for a ban on offshore drilling: “For me, this issue is not only an economic issue and a health issue, it is also a moral issue,” he said. “I think we have an obligation to do right by the environment.”

The spring of 2010 has brought an oil spill already several times larger than Exxon-Valdez, featuring the same cycle of catastrophe, recriminations, and pledges to do better. But 56 days after oil began flooding the Gulf of Mexico, Gore—whose Academy Award and Nobel Prize have made him the most influential environmental activist in the country—has been largely silent during the worst environmental catastrophe in memory.

His nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection has emailed supporters that “the only way to end catastrophic oil spills like Deepwater is to end our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.” But the climate crusader has not engaged with either the White House, the Department of the Interior, or the EPA. His most notable public statement has come in a short article for The New Republic’s website comparing the oil gusher to CO₂ emissions. When President Barack Obama, who has pledged to move climate legislation forward this summer, convened a group of business leaders and energy experts in the Roosevelt Room of the White House last week, Gore was nowhere to be seen.

Friends and foes alike are noticing his absence.

“Al Gore has been keeping his head down now for some time, partly because of the scandals over climate science, partly because people revealed his financial incentive in passing climate legislation,” says Kenneth Green, an environmental policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “He seems to have decided to take his money and hit the door.”

Says Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who worked on Gore’s energy team in Clinton’s administration: “I don’t know why he hasn’t been more visible on this. Vice President Gore has a lot on his plate… He’s been trying to move the focus from threats to solutions.”

But, Hendricks adds, the crisis is an ideal opportunity to enact solutions to the problems that have become Gore’s life’s work. “The real security comes from guaranteeing that this will never happen again, by absolutely committing to a low-carbon path forward,” he says. “If the oil spill continues and a robust case is not made for climate legislation, it will be a missed opportunity.”

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“Good Clean Jobs,” The Root, 7 February 2009

America no longer has to choose between creating well-paying jobs and saving the planet.

The hopeful conveners of the “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” conference held in Washington this week are convinced that they have a solution to the twin problems of a shrinking U.S. job market and the existential threat of climate change. Their answer? Green-collar employment for millions of Americans.

We’ve heard of white- and blue-collar work—but green jobs?

After a week of political dog-fighting over an economic stimulus package ended with news that the U.S. economy shed almost 600,000 jobs in January, President Obama called the news “devastating.” And recently, his Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned, ominously, that without swift action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Americans might see their way of life grind to a halt. “I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going,” Chu told the Los Angeles Times.

Enter green jobs. The Apollo Alliance, one of the organizers of the conference and among the earliest advocates of an earth-friendly economy, defines them as “family sustaining” employment that protects or cleans the environment, slows climate change, and, in many cases, is resistant to outsourcing. These jobs involve everything from the obviously green—clean water projects and brown fields cleanup; to the high-tech—solar panel installation, ethanol or biodiesel production; to the sensible—flood control work, or weatherizing homes and businesses to reduce heating and cooling costs. Times are tough, but plenty of green jobs already exist. And some existing work may find more ecological applications: Workers at a manufacturing plant may stay on an existing assembly line, but instead of cranking out gas-guzzling SUVs, they may be making parts for hybrid cars and high-performance electric batteries, or steel turbines for wind power.

Lisa Jackson, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, addressed the three-day conference on Friday, touting the White House’s plan for green stimulus. She insisted that the nation no longer had to choose between creating well-paying jobs and protecting the environment. “Not long ago you had to choose—you could have one green or the other green,” she said. Initiatives that provide good union wages and help the planet—say, electrical engineers helping to install light rail lines to the suburbs—she added, are “a very tangible demonstration … that you can have both the clean job and money in your pocket to feed your family.”

It is a timely debate; job losses continue to mount in the construction and manufacturing sectors, where the potential for green job creation is great. More than 320,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing and construction in the last month.

The White House was also showcasing it green-jobs commitment this week, when Melody Barnes, the president’s domestic policy adviser, talked about “energy investments as a primary form [of economic stimulus].” She highlighted the administration’s attempts to put green-job training funds in the proposed legislation. The president’s proposal also included funding for making government buildings more energy efficient, but those provisions seemed not to have survived a late-night compromise reached Friday.

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