Clarke's plan: 10,000 new jobs, few details

City Council President Darrell L. Clarke on Monday unveiled an ambitious proposal he said will create up to 10,000 new jobs over 10 years by investing in energy improvements to municipal buildings, schools, small businesses and low-income homes.

But he and officials from the Philadelphia Energy Authority, the plan's architects, were unable to say how it would be paid for or implemented and said stakeholders will spend the next six months forming a more detailed plan.

"I'm just so optimistic this is going to happen," he said when asked for details at a news conference in City Hall packed with media and members of the energy sector. "I don't want to come off sounding like Donald Trump and not give you full answers. ... These folks up here know what they're talking about and know what they're going to do. So this is going to be good. Trust me."

The strategy calls for $1 billion in investments, both public and private, over the next decade in energy efficiency. It includes retrofitting 25,000 low-income homes and apartments and 2,500 neighborhood small businesses.

The improvements to school district buildings would save an estimated $24 million a year in energy costs, officials said.

The 10,000 jobs Clarke said the plan could create includes both the initial workforce needed to complete the energy improvements and the secondary jobs created when those who save money from those improvements invest it back into the economy.

Clarke said the plan would be overseen and implemented by the Philadelphia Energy Authority, an entity that was created in 2010 by Council, under his direction.

"The bottom line is we need to get started now," Clarke said. "We're literally watching dollars fly out of the window every day because of the inefficiencies associated with [city] those facilities. So it's time to get this rolling. And we're going to get it done."

Mayor Kenney, who attended the press conference, expressed his willingness to work with Council and applauded some of the initiatives, saying infrastructure investments in city libraries and recreation centers are "long over due."

But he also detailed efforts already underway by the administration to retrofit city buildings and made clear Clarke's plan was his own, thanking the Council president for inviting him to "his first major policy proposal of this new administration,"

"I think the citizens of the city, the business community, the labor community all need to understand that this team is a team," he said of Council and the administration. "And that we're not going to have competing interests."

Source: Philly.com