Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy - 9780262525923

Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy is the first book to explorethe broad implications of the convergence of industrial and environnmental policy in the UnitedStates. Under the banner of "green jobs," clean energy industries and labor,environmental, and antipoverty organizations have forged "blue-green" alliances andachieved some policy victories, most notably at the state and local levels. In this book, David Hessexplores the politics of green energy and green jobs, linking the prospect of a green transition totectonic shifts in the global economy. He argues that the relative decline in U.S. economic powersets the stage for an ideological shift, away from neoliberalism and toward"developmentalism," an ideology characterized by a more defensive posture with respect totrade and a more active industrial policy. After describing federal green energy initiatives in thefirst two years of the Obama administration, Hess turns his attention to the state and local levels,examining demand-side and supply-side support for green industry and local small business. Heanalyzes the successes and failures of green coalitions and the partisan patterns of support forgreen energy reform. This new piecemeal green industrial policy, Hess argues, signals a fundamentalchallenge to anti-interventionist beliefs about the relationship between the government and theeconomy.