Vice President Joe Biden wrote a newspaper op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer, advancing his first Middle Class Task Force meeting scheduled for Friday.

Under a "Green jobs are a way to aid the middle class" headline, Biden highlights the $20 billion in the $787 billion stimulus plan for green investments, including job training programs and alternative energy research.

"At a time when good jobs at good wages are harder and harder to come by, we must find new, innovative opportunities," Mr. Biden wrote, noting that "green" jobs pay 10 to 20 percent more than others and are more likely to be union jobs.

"Right here in Philadelphia, for example, there are 400,000 rowhouses that could be weatherized and made more energy-efficient," he wrote. "Just doing that would lower household energy consumption by 20 to 40 percent, saving families hundreds of dollars a year."

The White House created a new Web site -- AStrongMiddle Class.gov -- and will post updates on the task force all day.

The site is now touting the Biden op-ed, which concludes on a positive note.

"We're starting to make the investments needed to leave a cleaner world to our children while also creating good jobs right now," he wrote. "When you're creating green jobs, you're doing well by doing good."

Read the full piece here.

— Christina Bellantoni, White House correspondent,
The Washington Times

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