2 million new green jobs? Propaganda, certainly, but a good topic for debate nonetheless

The Natural Resources Defense Council and affiliated lobbying groups is urging lawmakers to bone up on a new report from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) that suggests ideas for a $100 billion, two-year economic stimulus program that it believes could create up to 2 million new jobs.

The report, called "Green Recovery -- A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy," suggests the following:

- $50 billion for tax credits aimed at inspiring commercial and residential building retrofits - $46 billion in government spending for public building retrofits along with expansions in the mass transit, freight and electric grid systems and investments in renewable energy - $4 billion for federal loan guarantees

Here's the full report, which was commissioned by the Center for American Progress and released by the NRDC along with some labor and environmental groups. Incidentally, there is also a link to fact sheets on 34 states, if you want to explore the local picture.

The report suggests that the new investment program could be financed by auctions of permits under a global warming cap-and-trade program. Here's a primer on this controversial concept. Where would the jobs crop up? At new alternative energy companies, certainly, but also within the construction and manufacturing industries where PERI thinks the program could revitalize 800,000 jobs alone.

Hmmm, with the unemployment rate now hovering above 6 percent, is this something to ignore?