EPA Administrator Announces National Grants to Train Jobseekers in Green Jobs and Clean Up of Contaminated Sites (HQ, GA)
WASHINGTON – Today in Atlanta, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced
that EPA is awarding more than $6.2 million in national
environmental workforce development and job training grants to 21
grantees to recruit, train, and place unemployed, predominantly
low-income residents in polluted areas. Administrator Jackson was
joined by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed at the press conference where
the two highlighted the impact the investment will have on five
targeted low-income Atlanta neighborhoods that will benefit from
funding and training under the grant program.
“These job training grants are not just helping to create
good jobs, they’re helping create good, green jobs that
protect the health of local families and residents and prepare
communities for continued economic growth. We’re looking to
the people and community organizations who know these areas best to
find the places where green jobs and environmental protection are
going to do the most good,” said EPA Administrator Jackson.
“Creating good green jobs proves that we don’t have to
choose between cleaning up our air and our water or creating jobs
in our communities. We’re showing that it’s possible to
do both at the same time.”
"Today marks a great day for the city and for the
future of workforce development in Atlanta," said Mayor Reed.
"Congratulations to the Center for Working Families on being
awarded this grant. I also want to thank EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson for making this important announcement in Atlanta. The
EPA's focus on developing more green jobs is in lock-step with my
administration's priorities, and will helps us to build a green
workforce and create sustainable jobs."
Since 1998, EPA has awarded more than $35 million under the
Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program. As of
May 2011, more than 6,683 individuals have been trained through the
program, and more than 4,400 have been placed in full-time
employment in the environmental field with an average starting
hourly wage of $14.65. The development of this green workforce will
allow the trainees to develop skills that will make them
competitive in the construction and redevelopment fields.
Graduates of the program are equipped with skills and
certifications in various environmental fields including lead and
asbestos abatement, environmental site sampling, construction and
demolition debris recycling, energy auditing and weatherization, as
well as solar panel installations and green building techniques.
Graduates use these skills to improve the environment and
people’s health while supporting economic development in
their communities. The program has also trained and helped employ
residents in the Gulf Coast responding to and cleaning up the BP
oil spill, revitalizing New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina,
and aiding in the response and clean up of the World Trade Center
on 9-11.
The agency’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job
Training Program helps provide unemployed individuals with the
necessary skills to secure full time, sustainable jobs that help to
clean up toxic chemicals in communities, advance the
country’s clean energy projects and support environmental
initiatives. Trainees include hard to place residents that live in
the disadvantaged communities that will benefit the most through
these projects.
Twenty-one governmental entities and non-profit organizations in
twenty states are receiving up to $300,000 each to train
individuals in the cleanup of contaminated sites and in health and
safety, while also providing training in other environmental
skills, such as recycling center operator training, green building
design, energy efficiency, weatherization, solar installation,
construction and demolition debris recycling, emergency response,
and native plant revegetation.
More information on environmental workforce development and job
training grants: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm
More information on EPA’s Office of Solid
Waste and Emergency Response: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-land-and-emergency-management
