114: the greening of US manufacturing?

Well, here is some good news: it seems that US industry is waking up to global warming. Kind of. According to today's linked article from AP, US investment in green technology (and specifically renewable energy) is growing, and some are optimistic that this could revitalize a flagging US manufacturing sector. The new buzz term is 'green collar jobs' - i.e. generating employment in the clean technology industry. The difficulty in the US right now is that there are few tax breaks for green industry and little government investment in skills development for the sector. However, the main Democrat presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have both promised to channel resources towards 'green collar' skills development - and the Republicans are taking an interest too. Competing to be green? It's a phenomenon of growing significance (see e.g. posts 105 and 106 on this blog) - and definitely a reason to be hopeful in my book...