The Blue Green Alliance (BGA), a strategic partnership of the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club, has joined Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection (ACP) as part of its rapidly expanding coalition of organizations working to solve the climate crisis.

The BGA and the 850,000 members of the USW will work jointly with the ACP to educate its members about global warming and activate them behind solutions which can promote economic prosperity, according to a statement released on Monday by the USW.

The member-to-member program will be the first of its kind, the statement said, to build a blue-collar constituency for global warming solutions, highlighting the opportunities for high-paying domestic jobs in renewable energy, clean technology, and “green” manufacturing while also explaining the environmental and economic risks associated with accelerating climate change.

“We are looking towards a future—a very near future—in which good, high-paying American jobs will be created with the onset of a green economy,” said USW International President Leo Gerard. “Developing, manufacturing, installing, and maintaining new technologies to fuel our homes and businesses will create a whole new industry that will translate into millions of new jobs.”

David Foster, executive director of the BGA, said that the U.S. is approaching an historic moment when thinking green will soon become our new “common sense” and the norm in the business world. “We believe a renewable energy strategy can get our economy moving again and create a new generation of domestic manufacturing jobs while solving global warning. During World War II we built more than 50 planes a day. We should be able to build a renewable energy plant a week to protect our environment, end our addiction to foreign oil, and lead to new industries that will create thousands of real jobs.”

Other members of the ACP include the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Audubon Society, and Earth Day Network.

In March the BGA, USW, and Sierra Club launched the “Green Jobs for America” campaign which will focus on defining global warning and clean renewable energy solutions as key economic opportunities for rebuilding America’s manufacturing infrastructure and creating a broader green economic renaissance.

“The Blue Green Alliance is honored to partner with Vice President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection,” Foster said. “We look forward to bringing the voices of working Americans into this critical national discussion.”

Posted 4/1/2008