Blue Green Alliance hosts energy forum Sept. 13

The potential for creating high-quality jobs by increasing energy efficiency and the availability of clean, renewable energy sources will be the focus of a ?Blue Green Forum? Monday, Sept. 13, at the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

The forum will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Minnesota AFL-CIO office, 175 W. Aurora Ave., St. Paul. A reception catered by the Resource Center of the Americas will precede the forum starting at 5 p.m.

Bracken Hendricks, director of the union initiative known as the Apollo Alliance, and Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, will be featured speakers.

The event is sponsored by the Blue Green Alliance of Minnesota, which made its existence official on July 15 after a decade of increasing cooperation between unions and environmentalists in seeking corporate accountability and opposing unfair trade.

?For years, we?ve let politicians pit working people and environmentalists against each other,? said Ray Waldron, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. ?The choice between good jobs and a clean environment is a false one. We need to work together to get both.?

?We need to invest in technology for our future that creates good jobs and protects the environment,? said Tara Widner, of Steel Workers District 11.

Blue Green Alliance organizations include the state AFL-CIO, Sierra Club North Star Chapter, Steel Workers District 11, Clean Water Action Alliance, AFSCME Council 6, SEIU Minnesota State Council, Teamsters Joint Council 32, Minnesota Building Trades, Environment 2004, Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ME3), Izaak Walton League of America Midwest Office, Institute for a Sustainable Future, and the League of Rural Voters.

Related article
Unions, environmental groups form Minnesota Blue Green Alliance

For more information
Visit the Alliance website, www.bluegreenalliance.com

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org

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