Date set for Ciavarella cases

Bear Creek Charter School board votes to drop Iowa Tests

<b>First Posted:</b> 8/11/2009<br><br>By OSKAR GARCIA Associated Press Writer 

LAS VEGAS &amp;mdash; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Monday that she believes hiring in the alternative energy industry will pick up in the next 12 months, but it will take longer than that for so-called green jobs to become a bigger part of the U.S. job market.

Solis told The Associated Press that new government incentives will kick-start hiring in the fledgling industry as companies regain confidence and find it easier to borrow money.
&amp;ldquo;Once you start seeing more investments made in our economy recovering, as we stabilize and we get people back to work, then I think there&amp;rsquo;ll be more interest in expanding,&amp;rdquo; Solis said. &amp;ldquo;There&amp;rsquo;ll be more, hopefully, credit available for this expansion, because there will be more confidence because that&amp;rsquo;s what we&amp;rsquo;re lacking right now &amp;mdash; that investment and confidence in the market.&amp;rdquo;
After a terrible start to the year there are signs of a rebound for alternative energy, in part because of a push from the Obama administration.
The second National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas drew a high-profile list of alternative energy backers, including former President Bill Clinton, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
&amp;ldquo;The economic crisis, the security crisis and the climate crisis are all intertwined, and the common thread running through them is our absurd and dangerous overdependence on carbon-based fuels,&amp;rdquo; said Al Gore, Clinton&amp;rsquo;s vice president.
Venture capitalists increased investments in alternative energy by 73 percent over the past three months compared with the first three months of the year, according to a report issued late last month by Ernst &amp;amp; Young LLP. Yet investors are still shaken and the money flowing into green energy companies remains meager compared with last year at this time.
Polls have shown that as the economy worsened, Americans were less enthusiastic about environmental policies that would come at the expense of jobs and a better economy.
That has created a rift between political leaders at the state and federal levels as to how aggressively the U.S. should push green jobs.
Money had already begun to flow into the sector at a record pace last year before new government initiatives were announced, but also before the full weight of the recession became apparent.

Labor secretary sees green job growth