Amelia Mae Steward looks on as Tahlia Williams, a weatherization worker replaces a lightbulb at her home in Canarsie.                                                                                                                                                 

On a bright, cold December morning, as a big white truck pulls up to Amelia Mae Steward’s red, brick townhouse in Canarsie, her preacher’s promise suddenly becomes true.

She had heard during a Sunday mass in September at her Baptist church in Brooklyn that there was a government program that would send out technicians to refit, or “weatherize” her home with more energy efficient insulation and technology – for free.

Skeptical at first, she went to an informational meeting and eventually decided to apply for the government’s Weatherization Assistance Program. She easily met its low-income approval criteria: the 69-year old retiree subsides on a monthly $1,180 check from the Social Security Administration, yet her gas bill alone last year totaled more than $2,500.

“I wish it would come down at least half,” she says in a booming Southern drawl that fills her whole kitchen.

Patrick Goodluck, the supervisor for the crew of five technicians who had just arrived at her home from Community Environmental Center, a weatherization contractor, gives no assurances. But they’ll aim for “as low as possible.”

Goodluck’s crew is one example of how a variety of energy conservation measures are keeping workers busy across New York during one of the most difficult economic times in the country’s history. Boosted by federal stimulus dollars, reinforced by state job training measures and local green building laws, weatherization and similar so-called “green jobs” are beginning to pulse to the economy like never before. Some see them as the beginning of a much larger industry that’s about take-off: re-fitting buildings for energy efficiency all across the US. But some critics question whether green jobs are a permanent new source of employment or a temporary boost that will fade away with stimulus spending.

The impact of stimulus spending was on full display in Steward’s home. The total materials cost for her weatherization, such as insulation, was $1,328. The total labor cost was $1,336. “This is what I have to pay?” she asks Goodluck when he shows her the invoice. “No – you don’t have to pay anything,” he answers. Weatherization is funded by the Department of Energy, which has a pool of money to give out to non-profit organizations such as the Community Environmental Center. But this year, Congress’s $787 billion stimulus bill gave the Department an additional $5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program – an amount is making a big difference to local weatherization providers.

“It has multiplied by probably about six times the amount of weatherization funding that we had before,” says Richard Cherry, president of the Community Environmental Center, based in Long Island City. “That has made it possible for us to obviously do a great deal more work [and] hire more people.”

His organization received $16 million in weatherization stimulus monies earlier this year and another $12.5 million just this month. Usually, the Center receives about $4 million in regular weatherization funding, Cherry says.

Goodluck, the man in charge of the Center’s crew of 22 weatherization technicians, says that by year’s end the Center will have hired about 13 or 14 additional technicians.

Ruby Carrasquillo, a resident of the Lower East Side who joined the Center on September 21st, got her job after she completed a weatherization training program at local chapter 10 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Chelsea. Having previously worked in sales, she is now one of two women on the Center’s weatherization crew, which is peppered with a mix of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Barbatians, Trinidadians and other Carribbean Islanders.

“This is a green company. This is where the money is at right now. If you’re looking for a job, you need to switch over,” she says.

The Center pays beginning weatherization technicians in the low-to-mid $30 per hour range, not including benefits such as health insurance, says Cherry. That’s nearly double the $17.10 hourly wage, exclusive of benefits, that Laborers’ International chapter 10 asks for its weatherization technicians.

Myles Lennon, the chapter’s director of green operations, cautions that the Center, which employs about 16 of the union’s members, may be more of an exception than the norm. Many weatherization contractors still rely on unskilled labor for temporary positions that pay $10 to $12 per hour. He is hoping to change that by bringing skilled labor to the weatherization industry and making the $17.05 wage, or $22.10 inclusive of benefits, the standard in the market.

“If you look at the cost of raising a family in New York City, $22.10 with benefits is a real family-sustaining wage,” he says.

Green job creation isn’t just limited to weatherization technicians. David Hepinstall, executive director of the Association for Energy Affordability, an umbrella organization for weatherization providers, sees a “whole range” of positions opening up in a larger industry of re-refitting buildings for energy efficiency. Heating and cooling specialists, energy auditors, inspectors and engineers who can run complex analyses of energy systems in large commercial and residential buildings are just a few of these positions. And each requires relatively more education and training than weatherization technicians.

“Whether you come in with a GED or without, or you come in with a master’s [degree] or a PhD, there’s opportunities in this field and we do training for people at every possible education level,” says Hepinstall, who views the training as a step to a career, not just a temporary job. And these days, his organization’s classes for a nationally accredited training program are always full – a demand he is able to meet because of the stimulus funding his organization has received.

Other jobs are also being created as a side-effect of the stimulus money. Cherry says that he’s had to hire two additional accountants just to keep up with all the new demand.  “The green economy is going to fill jobs from accounting to secretaries to mechanics to engineers,” he says.

The stimulus money won’t last forever. New York is receiving $400 million from the weatherization program’s stimulus funding – enough to weatherize at least 50,000 homes, according to New York’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which oversees the program. But the money must be spent in the next two years, meaning that the demand for positions and job training like Carrasquillo’s will eventually temper down.

Perhaps with this in mind, some weatherization workers are taking steps to make themselves employable in other fields. Kellon Williams, 20, recently graduated from Manhattan Comprehensive High School and began working at the Center shortly thereafter. As he looks at a building in Brooklyn in which he replaced windows, he’s proud of the skills he’s picked up. And he feels good about helping the environment through the work he does. Still, he’s studying business administration part-time at the Queensborough Community College so he’s prepared to someday transition to a different career.

For those who don’t seek higher education, Laborers’ International’s Lennon thinks there will be plenty of opportunities in similar occupations. During his union chapter’s three-week-long weatherization training program, workers learn things like window replacement, caulking, sealing, duct work, using various tools and workplace safety. “A lot of those skills are easily transferrable to construction,” he says. “So if for whatever reason weatherization suddenly went away, when the housing market comes back up and there’s more development . . . all those construction skills can be put to work.“

Lennon also points to other programs that could create long-term demand for these skills. For instance, Governor Paterson recently signed into law a new program called “Green Jobs/Green New York,” that will give small loans to businesses and home owners to help them pay for weatherization services. The goal is to create 14,000 jobs, weatherize one million buildings and ultimately save New Yorkers $1 billion on their energy bills, according to the program website. And New York’s City Council this month passed a package of green building legislation that will require buildings to undergo periodic energy audits and make changes to their ongoing maintenance to make them more energy efficient.

But some policy analysts question whether “Green Jobs/Green New York” and similar programs provide more than a passing benefit to the economy. James Taylor, senior fellow for environment policy at the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free-market think tank, concedes that “the government might be creating some short term jobs” through such measures. In the longer term, though, he believes they may be “more of a drain than a benefit on the economy” because green jobs direct resources away from more productive sectors of the economy. He cites inexpensive and efficient energy sources like coal, oil and gas as three sectors that may shrink and lose jobs, forcing people to pay more for their electricity.

“That’s going to take money out of people’s wallets,” he warns, adding that consumers could in turn spend less and slow down economic growth and job creation over the long term.

For Steward, the 69-year old retiree having her home weatherized, the opposite could well be the case. “I’m seeing my money come back to me,” she rejoices as she watches Goodluck’s crew members at work. Four toil away infusing her garage walls with layers of insulation, while a fifth is busy installing energy efficient light bulbs across her home.

And so for now the green jobs are arriving apace – and it’s beginning to show. As Goodluck drives away from Steward’s home, a radio commentator loudly celebrates the day’s big economic news: the US unemployment rate has fallen to 10 percent, down from the 26-year high of 10.2 percent reached in November.

“We’re heading in the right direction! I love it!” the commentator blares as Goodluck heads to his next site.

Tags | Community Environmental Center, green jobs, New York City Council, Weatherization