Word around the blogs is that Van Jones has been tapped to serve as a “green jobs czar” in the Obama administration. We’re still trying to confirm, and we’ll have more soon on this potential new role for someone who’s been a household name here at Grist.
[UPDATE: A well-placed source confirms that Jones has been offered a position in the administration, but said that “green jobs czar” is an overstatement. We’ll have more on exactly what the job entails soon.]
[UPDATE 2: It’s official: Jones has been tapped to be special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation in the Obama administration.]
We asked Jones at the Democratic National Convention last August whether he’d want to be a “green jobs czar” or something similar in the Obama administration. At that point, he told us, “I can’t imagine what position he would offer me except the janitorial recycling staff, which I’d be happy to be a part of.”
We also saw Jones, whose renown as a green-jobs visionary has been rising steadily in the past months, in Philadelphia on Feb. 27, where he presented to Joe Biden’s Middle Class Task Force about the need to “green the ghetto first”: “Give those kids on the corner the opportunity to put down the handguns and pickup a caulking gun instead,” he said.
And a few weeks ago he testified to the House Committee on Education and Labor on the need for a green jobs corps and national green service programs. Here’s the video:
