Thank you, Dean Katz. And thank you all for inviting me to the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations to kick off your Union Days.            

Cornell ILR represents the best in academia – and America. While other colleges and universities were grooming their graduates to make easy money on Wall Street, you can be proud that Cornell ILR has sponsored Union Days when students consider careers in social justice.  I hope that, as with your predecessors, these Union Days will lead many of you to Union Lifetimes. Every day, the headlines remind us that social justice, economic security, and environmental sustainability are not just issues we debate in classrooms but causes to which we must dedicate our lives.            

Before I go any further, I want to ask you to join me in saying a prayer for the families of those who lost their lives over the past week in the mining disaster in West Virginia and the refinery fire in Seattle. These tragedies remind us that our energy supplies depend on people who work at difficult jobs under dangerous conditions and sometimes sacrifice their lives. And, when we talk about energy and environmental policies, sustainability must begin with safety at work.            

A week ago, we learned that the economy added some 162,000 jobs in March. But the unemployment rate remains unchanged from February at 9.7 percent. Seventeen million Americans are out of work. And six-and-a-half million have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more – six and a half million unemployed for over half a year.             

Among African Americans, the unemployment rate is 16.5 percent. Among Latinos, joblessness is 12.6 percent. And, among young people, the unemployment rate has hovered around 20 percent for many months.            

In a survey last fall, the AFL-CIO learned what ILR students know from your own lives, your classmates, and your contemporaries: Today's young people – the Millennial Generation – over 80 million strong – are energetic, talented, diverse and stuck in a sluggish economy. With youth unemployment rates at the worst levels since the Great Depression, many cannot find fulltime jobs, pursue educations, purchase a home, obtain health insurance, or even imagine having a pension plan or saving for retirement.            

When you think about the extreme weather events of recent years and the facts of climate change that few serious people doubt, many of you must also be worrying whether the devastation in New Orleans is the face of our future. In its issue last week, New York Magazine featured serious recommendations by leading architects about how our nation's greatest city could reinvent itself to withstand rising temperatures and rising waterlines.            

Make no mistake, the subject you have asked me to address – "Building a Green Collar Movement: Labor and the Environment" – is the great challenge for a nation poised between the miserable failures of the past and the sustainable future we seek.             

Cornell ILR was founded at another historic pivot point – 1945. That was the year when young Americans who had grown up during the Depression defeated fascism on four continents. Those remarkable people – my parents and many of your grandparents -- went on to build the first society in human history where working people were part of a middle class majority.  While earning their livings and raising their kids, the Greatest Generation continued to do great things. They propelled peaceful revolutions in civil rights, women's rights, and environmentalism. They accepted these changes because they were confident they would continue to share in the postwar prosperity.            

Don't ever forget how Americans built that prosperity. Americans made money by making things – real things -- not phony financial instruments but cars and computers, televisions and tractors.            

We discovered breakthrough technologies. We developed products and services based on these breakthroughs. We built businesses. And we generated jobs – good-paying jobs that support families, strengthen communities, and create consumer demand without credit-card debt.             

Now there's a new generation of breakthrough technologies. They can produce and use the clean and renewable forms of energy that are in demand here in America and throughout the world. They can be the foundation for future prosperity, just as autos, airplanes, and information technology provided for earlier generations.            

But will these technologies be developed here in America? Will their byproducts be built here in America? And will they generate jobs here in America?  Jobs that pay living wages. Jobs that support families. Jobs that strengthen communities. Jobs that can produce prosperity for your generation and preserve our planet for generations yet to come.            

That's what I call Green Jobs. And that's why I call for building a Green-Collar Movement -- labor and environmentalists, working together, for a shared and sustainable prosperity.             

Now, we're told time and again that we must choose between good jobs and clean air and water. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Here's the truth: We can't have secure jobs without stable and sustainable sources of energy. Our communities can't be good places to do business if they're not attractive places to live and raise families.            

And we'll never have responsible energy and environmental policies without a strong and growing economy. Secure jobs, stable benefits, and rising wages give working Americans the confidence to believe that the changes we need will work for them and not against them.            

That is why the words Green and Jobs go together, and why Green Jobs are an idea whose time has come.            

For far too long, our nation's leaders, from Washington to Wall Street, have refused to face the facts about energy, the environment and the economy.            

For about a century and a half, cheap energy – mostly oil – has made our nation and much of our world wealthy far beyond the dreams of our ancestors. But global oil production is reaching its limits, just as growth in China, India and other developing nations increases humanity's appetite for petroleum products.            

The era of cheap oil is over. The rest of the world understands this, and so should we. If soaring gas prices two summers ago didn't teach us, if our dependence on unfriendly regimes in unstable regions doesn't frighten us, and if the impact on our economy doesn't concern us, then I wonder what will wean America off its addiction to imported oil. Our consumers can't afford it; our economy can't support it; our national security can't survive it; and our planet can't sustain it.            

While our economy is still stuck in the cheap energy era of the Twentieth Century, our competitors are stepping up to the clean energy era of the Twenty-First. If we continue to stand still, we will fall farther and farther behind.            

America got its first wake-up call with the energy crises of the 1970's. During the Carter Administration, the nation began to invest in renewable energies – solar, wind, and bio-fuels. But, during the 1980's, under President Reagan and the first President Bush, our federal government hit the snooze button and actually cut back investments in solar and wind energy. A decade later, under Bill Clinton and Al Gore, America got back in the game, but then the Big Oil Dream Team of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney told the fuels of the future to go warm the bench.            

Meanwhile, our economic competitors are keeping their eyes on the ball. By the year 2030 – as the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates – total global investment in wind and solar energy alone could total $3.6 trillion. And that's not even including other forms of renewable energy.            

Yes, the United States has pioneered many of these technologies, just as we pioneered many other industries that have moved overseas. But now, we have a trade deficit of over $6 billion-a-year in renewable energy, while competitors like Germany, Japan and China are leaving us in the dust.            

Now, at long last, America has a Twenty-First Century President with a Twenty-First Century energy policy. President Obama is investing in clean energy and environmentally responsible energy policies with his economic recovery program, his federal budget, and his policies on energy and the environment.  President Obama understands the potential of clean energy and green jobs. Now he – and we – need to overcome the obstacles and seize the opportunities.            

Now I know that economists, environmentalists, and energy experts can debate the meaning of "Green Jobs" from dawn to dusk.  I'd argue that, in order to make Green Jobs a fact and not just a phrase, we need to use the widest possible definition – and take the longest possible view. Greening the economy means that green jobs must be viewed broadly and inclusively so that working Americans can see themselves and their work as part of the solution.            

So let me say, as clearly as I can: Every job that produces clean and renewable energy; every job that contributes to the clean and responsible use of energy; and every job that protects our air, our water and our planet – is a Green Job.            

We need to think creatively and act boldly, with plans that provide for scale and speed.            

We need to follow-through on the vision of the Obama Administration, which estimates that five million jobs can be created, directly and indirectly, by a $150 billion, 10-year investment.            

If we have the wisdom and the vision to invest in America's energy and environment, there can be Green Jobs in every sector of the economy.            

As the Green Jobs for America campaign has reported, hybrid and other clean cars, public transportation systems, efficient lighting and heating systems, and clean renewable power plants can create more than 1.4 million new jobs.            

With environmentally-friendly policies and public/private partnerships, investment in renewable energies can reach $343 billion in 2020 and $630 billion in 2030. We can create hundreds of thousands of jobs producing solar energy, wind power, geothermal power, and biofuels.            

Energy consumption by buildings currently produces 40 percent of carbon emissions in this country. This can be cut in half, and getting the job done can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in retrofitting old buildings and designing, constructing and equipping energy-efficient new buildings. While we're at it, we need to weatherize tens of thousands of low-income families' homes, helping these families to save on their utility bills and our country to cut our energy use.            

We can't conserve energy without using electricity more intelligently. We all know that our existing electric grid is insufficient, inefficient, and outdated. In order to bring solar, wind, and geothermal energy online, we need tens of thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission. In order to use these interruptible power sources and to make more intelligent use of all our electrical power, we need a new and smarter electrical grid. This, in turn, requires major public and private investments and will produce many new jobs.            

And maybe it's because I come from the coal country of Pennsylvania and have worked in the mines. But there's one more essential element in the energy equation. We need to develop low-carbon emission technologies – or, to put it plainly, clean coal. President Obama's economic recovery program pays for five commercial-scale coal-fired plants. Through public-private partnerships, these plants will be equipped with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage technology. These will go a long way towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the coal-fired power plants that will meet much of our energy needs for years to come.             

When we even begin to imagine what it will take to produce and use clean energy, it is clear that America has a huge job to do. And the nation needs the know-how, the dedication and determination of skilled workers and their unions to get the job done.            

Here's what labor brings to the table: In every industry that can generate Green Jobs, we conduct high-quality training and retraining programs for Americans at every stage of their working lives. We have commonsense ideas for making Green Jobs good-paying American jobs. And, because we can prepare people for Green Jobs with rising wages and secure benefits, we can reassure working Americans that change will work for them and not against them.            

In the construction industry alone, the labor movement has 1100 training centers around the country that prepare highly skilled construction workers for rebuilding green and building more efficiently.  When it comes to solar energy, among other unions, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Sheet Metal Workers offer outstanding skills training.  When it comes to building a smarter grid, the Utility Workers and the IBEW are among those taking the lead.  When it comes to weatherization, the Laborers Union is among those with pioneering programs.            

In my home state of Pennsylvania, members of the Steel Workers are building giant metal towers and gear boxes for wind turbines. Throughout the nation, members of the UAW are building more energy-efficient vehicles. Members of the American Federation of Teachers are pioneering new career training programs in environmentally friendly technologies. And members of public sector unions, such as AFSCME and AFGE, are demanding that federal, state, and local government buildings make more efficient use of energy.  And these mentions only scratch the surface of what unions from every industry and occupation are doing, can do, and will do to train and retrain new and mature workers for Green Jobs.            

American labor is building new alliances with environmentalists. At the AFL-CIO, in spite of the smears and fears from the Far Right, we have supported President Obama's energy and climate legislation. The United Steelworkers, the Communications Workers, the Teachers, the Utility Workers the Laborers and SEIU have joined together with the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council in the Blue-Green Alliance to promote good jobs in the green economy.            

To make our fullest contribution, working Americans need to have faith that Green Jobs really will be good American jobs.            

This means that public policies must do more than merely require the use of clean and renewable energy – as important as that is. American policies must also promote the growth of American companies employing American workers to produce, provide and make use of this clean and renewable energy.            

There may be an explanation – but there is no excuse – for the economic stimulus program to provide funds for wind-farms in Texas using windmills made in China. We can't afford to replace trickle-down economics with trickle-out economics.            

We need more than "buy American" requirements. We need the same strategic planning as our economic competitors to make sure that technologies invented here in America are commercialized here in America by companies here in America with plants here in America with workers trained here in America. When we plan for Green Jobs, we should remember three other colors – red, white and blue.            

And we should also make sure that Green Jobs come with American rights at work. As you know so well here at Cornell ILR, these rights – often honored more in the breach than the observance – include the rights to form and join unions, to bargain with the employer, and to be free from discrimination based on race, religion, gender, national origin, and – as we must now make sure – immigration status and sexual orientation as well.            

As we look to the future, we know what will happen if we fail to create Green Jobs, produce clean and renewable energy, and protect our natural environment. In our nightmares, we can imagine an America with longer unemployment lines, longer gas lines, and rising water lines.            

But we can also envision the America that we want, where people can prepare for Green Jobs with rising wages, stable benefits and promising futures; where we secure our energy supply without sacrificing our natural environment; where every person's talents are developed, every person's contribution is valued, and every person's dignity is respected.            

That is the America that we see and seek. That is the America that the labor movement and the environmental movement can build together. And building that America can and must be the work of our lifetimes – in fact, you could call it the ultimate Green Job.            

And now I would be glad to answer your questions.