15000.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) (1) “Green jobs” are manual labor jobs in businesses whose products and services directly improve environmental quality. Green jobs are high-quality jobs, with relatively low barriers to entry, and are in sectors that are poised for dramatic growth. Cultivating green jobs can serve as an effective strategy to provide low-income Californians with jobs that pay living wages, provide benefits, and allow opportunities for advancement and meaningful work that serves communities.

(2) Green jobs involve environmentally friendly products or services, such as construction of green schools, solar panel manufacturing, energy-efficient retrofits of homes, and environmental cleanup and waterfront restoration. Green jobs are also jobs that contribute to environmental protection, such as the manufacture and installation of pollution control equipment or recycling plants.

(3) Green jobs often are locally oriented, which makes it harder to move those jobs offshore. Green jobs create sustainable living economies, decrease pollution, and create healthier cities and better neighborhoods for families.

(b) The Legislature recognizes that the green industry creates three times more jobs than the chemical industry, six times more jobs than the apparel industry, and 10 times more jobs than the pharmaceutical industry. A study done by the Environment California Research and Policy Center shows that, for California alone, a renewable energy industry servicing the export market may generate up to 16 times more employment than an industry that only manufactures for domestic consumption.

(c) Funding a “Green Jobs Initiative” is a cost-effective investment by the state, and the state will recoup the cost of its investment through lower unemployment.

15001.

 The California Green Jobs Act of 2008 is intended to address the labor shortages that impair the construction of energy-efficient buildings, manufacturing of energy-efficient vehicles, biofuels development, and the overall growth of the green technology industry.

15002.

 The Employment Development Department shall establish a statewide database for identifying and tracking new jobs and the skills needed to expand the renewable energy and energy-efficient industries, and to link research and development in the green industry to job standards and training curricula.

15003.

 The Employment Development Department shall establish green job training programs and shall ensure that those programs include vocational training useful to workers in the renewable energy and energy-efficient industries.

15004.

 It is the intent of the Legislature that occupational training and supportive services for workers be included in the training programs created under this act, with priority given to training programs for veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth, and participating private partnerships.