First they came for Van Jones, green jobs are next

National green jobs advisor Van Jones resigned from the Obama administration over the weekend following attacks by conservative commentators and politicians over controversial statements and actions in his past.



A Tennessee native, Yale Law School graduate and best-selling author who helped found the justice advocacy groups Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and the energy justice group Green for All, Jones came under fire for his previous involvement with the radical Bay Area group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), for advocating on behalf of controversial death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, and for signing a statement calling for attention to "unanswered questions" suggesting Bush administration insiders may have allowed 9/11 to happen, "perhaps as a pretext to war." Jones was also blasted for calling Republicans "a--holes."

Given that all this information about Jones' past was readily available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, some have criticized the White House for failing to vet Jones for the job at its Council on Environmental Quality in the first place, and others for not standing up for him once the attacks began.

But regardless of what role the Obama administration played in Jones' departure, the fact that the controversy occurred has implications for the current debate over the nation's energy future. That's because a leader of Americans for Prosperity, a pro-polluter lobby, has already seized on Jones' resignation to advance its agenda -- opining that "the Van Jones affair could be an important turning point in the Obama administration."

AFP is a corporate-funded advocacy group that has been fighting health insurance reform by organizing disruptive protests at public meetings. It's also long worked to stymie efforts to address greenhouse gas pollution. The group's chair is David Koch of Koch Industries, the nation's largest privately held oil company and a major supporter of advocacy groups promoting corporate interests.

This weekend, AFP Policy Director Phil Kerpen wrote a piece titled "How Van Jones Happened and What We Need to Do Next" for Fox News:

Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through with two critical policy victories. First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these green groups trillions, and second repeal the unspent portion of the stimulus bill, which stands to give them billions. The Van Jones affair is, as President Obama likes to say, a "teachable moment," and we need to put not just him but the whole corrupt "green jobs" concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream.

Kerken refers to the cap-and-trade legislation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution that's now being considered in Congress as a "watermelon" -- "green on the outside but Communist red to the core." He also attacks green jobs as "political jobs, designed to funnel vast sums of taxpayer money to left-wing labor unions, environmental groups, and social justice community organizers."

It's clear that progressives will have to step up their support for climate legislation currently under consideration in Congress if it's to stand any chance of passage. To that end, Green for All -- which calls Jones' resignation a "disappointment" -- has launched a petition asking people to "Stand with the Green Jobs Movement."