VAN JONES, GOVERNMENT AGENT 00-JOBS

Van Jones made a visit to Fortune Brainstorm Green to talk about his new watchdog job (Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) on the Whitehouse Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Author of The Green Collar Economy and long a champion of having those who most need the work do the work that most needs to be done, Jones says the new job still feels unfamiliar because he’s been a social entrepreneur throughout his career.

He took the assignment to help coordinate the green part of the recovery because he believes the fight against global climate change starts with green jobs and because, Jones says, the President believes the same thing.

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There is $20-to-40 billion dollars from the stimulus package at stake, "the single biggest investment in green projects in the history of humanity." It makes President Obama, Jones said, not just the first black president but the first green president as well.

“My job is to make sure everything he intended to happen when he signed the Recovery Act actually comes to pass.”

So far, Jones hasn’t been spending money as much as he's been sitting in meetings. He’s interfacing with federal, state and local governments and coordinating between federal agencies. For the first time, CEQ is concerned not just with landscapes and wildlife habitat but with work and the making of things. Jones is dealing with the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Interior (DOI). At the same time, he’s thinking about how to effectively, judiciously use $5 billion for weatherization, $5 billion for battery technology development, $10 billion for the smart grid and $20 billion for New Energy.

He’s not uncomfortable under the burden, he’s excited. “I’m the first person in the history of the country to have green in the title…This is a time of transition in the Whitehouse.”

Van Jones explains the new ethic, the new commitment and the new math to Vice President Biden. This incredible talk is well worth 9 minutes of your time: “We save the soul of America when we connect people to opportunity.” It's easy to see why the President hired him. From gotSelena via YouTube.

Jones also took the time to sit in on a Fortune Brainstorm Green panel discussion about green jobs. As it concluded, he was asked to define "green job."

“People need a paycheck, people need a purpose, that’s all true. And we’re a busy species. You can watch kids and see that…We’re gonna mess with stuff … But are we locusts? Are we gonna strip the planet bare? Or are we honey bees? Are we gonna make stuff? Are we going to work in the tradition of leaving something behind for our children?”