CWF, Push Buffalo and other local members of the Green Jobs/Green New York coalition attended President Obama’s much-touted visit to Buffalo, NY on May 13.
The vision of a reinvigorated green economy in the United States is about to be realized locally with Green Jobs/Green New York, a new mass-scale energy efficiency retrofitting program that promises up to 60,000 jobs and one million homes and businesses retrofitted.
See below for PUSH Buffalo’s press release.
MEDIA RELEASE
Contact:
Aaron Bartley, (716) 418-0829; Harrison Watkins, (518) 598-6309, PUSH Buffalo
Emmaia Gelman, (917) 517-3627, Center for Working FamiliesNetwork of Local Green Contractors and Community Groups Applauds Obama’s Vision for Green-Sector Growth
Representatives of innovative Buffalo-area partnership invited to attend President’s speech
Members of the Green Jobs/Green NY alliance, a network of community-based green contractors and organizations, have been invited to attend President Obama’s address today at Industrial Support Corp. The network of green contractors, convened by PUSH Buffalo and the Center for Working Families, includes Buffalo-area businesses, community organizations and workforce development groups. The network will be represented at the speech today by Brian Paterson of New Buffalo Impact, an energy-efficiency contractor based in Tonawanda; Dorian Gaskin of the Outsource Center, a construction training organization based on Buffalo’s East Side; and Eric Walker, co-founder of PUSH Buffalo, which mobilizes neighborhood residents to support sustainable community development.
The Green Jobs/Green NY network has come together to create a community-based mechanism for upgrading the energy efficiency of thousands of homes and businesses in the Buffalo area. Several emerging state and Federal programs are creating new opportunity for increasing residential energy efficiency, including the Green Jobs/Green NY program, supported by Federal stimulus funds, the expansion of the Weatherization Assistance Program and the Homestar program, now pending in Congress.
“The President is bringing a vision of a revitalized economy grounded in the expansion of the green, small-business sector. Our network of community-based green contractors is ready to meet the challenge of making Buffalo a more sustainable city and creating green jobs at the neighborhood level ,” said Eric Walker of PUSH Buffalo.
“We are grateful that the President chose to include companies like ours—which works to make Buffalo a greener city house by house–in his historic visit. Thanks to the stimulus, we are adding workers and are gearing up to weatherize hundreds of units in the region,” said Brian Paterson of New Buffalo Impact.
