If unemployment seems like an insurmountable problem, never fear: Bill Clinton is here, and he has solutions—14 of them, which he’ll bring next week to the first US-focused meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Among the highlights of his jobs blueprint, as shared with Newsweek:
- Make it easier to approve "shovel-ready projects" by giving states waivers that will allow them to get projects that are free of environmental concerns up and running ASAP.
- Renew President Obama’s cash-for-startups program. When Obama entered office, the US held a tiny piece of the hybrid and electric car-battery market. At the 2010 elections, it boasted 20%, “thanks in large part to the cash-incentive policy”—which Republicans in Congress refused to extend in December. Keep this going, and we'll have 40% of the market by 2015. That's a lot of jobs.
- Snag energy jobs. “When I was president, the economy benefited because information technology penetrated every aspect of American life,” Clinton writes, noting that it was responsible for 25% of our job growth. "Now the obvious candidate for that role today is changing the way we produce and use energy."
- Do as the Empire State Building did: "Our climate-change people worked on their retrofit project," which included new heating, air conditioning, lighting, insulation, and energy-efficient glass. The building's electricity use is expected to drop 38%, meaning they'll recover the costs of the project in less than five years. "Meanwhile, the project created hundreds of jobs and cut greenhouse-gas emissions substantially. We could put a million people to work retrofitting buildings all over America."
Head to
Newsweek for the rest of Clinton’s ideas.
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