Darrell Smith, Sacramento Bee

California State University, Sacramento, is thinking green to get local construction workers back on the job.

CSUS' College of Continuing Education has turned more than $210,000 in federal stimulus cash into a "green jobs" retraining program for jobless construction workers and facilities managers.

Staff Reports, Bakersfield Californian

The Kern Community College District will train technicians for wind and solar jobs in Kern County thanks to a grant from the California Clean Energy Workforce Training Program.

The college district received a $766,000 grant from the workforce training program, the largest of its kind in the nation, according to a press release.

Training programs will take place at Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso Community College, Porterville College and Taft College.

Staff Reports, Merced Sun Star

UC Merced professor David Kelley has received a $1.3 million grant for research to make solar energy technology less costly.

Kelley will use the three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to improve a device called a luminescent solar concentrator.

The concentrator works by absorbing sunlight across a wide area and then re-emitting it onto a small photovoltaic cell.

By Sena Christian, Sacramento News & Review

 William Abrams was working at a hardware store in Rancho Cordova when he noticed that at least half of the trash the business routinely threw away could be recycled. So he implemented a workplace recycling program. This is only one way the 17-year-old student at Jesuit High School has engaged in environmental activism.

“I drive a Mercedes which runs on vegetable oil,” Abrams explained.

The Gridley Herald

Four Butte College students are joining thousands of other young people from across the country to mobilize, network, learn, teach, make a statement and lobby congress to make some real progress on global warming.

On February 27, the students, along with an estimated 10,000, will converge on Washington, D.C. for Power Shift ’09-- a national culmination of the efforts of students acting locally to make a difference globally.

Central Valley Business Times

A $7,500 grant from Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) will fund a pilot program by the Kern Economic Development Corporation designed to encourage girls to consider careers in the energy industry.

Kern EDC says the program, the "Alliance of Women in Energy" (AWE) will promote innovation-centered education and increase economically disadvantaged female students' achievements in science, technology, engineering and math courses.

By Rob Rogers, Redding Record Searchlights

 Students in the Anderson and Shasta Union high school districts will have a chance in August to learn about solar and wind-powered technology - part of an effort to prepare them for jobs in those industries when they graduate.

The program, known as E-Tech, short for emerging energy technologies, is being offered in conjunction with Shasta College. The high school students who participate will earn both high school and college credits for taking the classes.

By Ryan McCarthy, Appeal-Democrat

 When George Parker spoke about trying to get millions of dollars from the state for work at Yuba City High, a school board trustee made a promise.

If you can do that, Fred Northern remembers telling Parker, director of facilities for the Yuba City Unified School District, I'll throw rose petals at your feet.

Success in securing the funds in 2002 was seen as a longshot. Yuba City Unified sought more than 20 percent of the money available statewide.

by Breeana Laughlin, Anderson Valley Post

 Students in Anderson New Technology High School's Robotics Club have spent the last eight weeks putting together a robot. Last weekend, they had the chance to test their creation in the Nor-Cal Robotics Championships in San Jose.

The five core students in the club have spent hours upon hours in trial and error assembling their robot and coding it to recognize color, move in certain directions, pick up objects, and turn on and off on cue.

by Heather Hacking, Chico Enterprise Record

 As a new administration grapples with the issues of today's world, students at Butte College are
learning how to focus the commitment of young people for clean energy.

In February the Butte College took part in a teach-in with the Energy Action Coalition's Power Shift, which lead to several Butte College students traveling to Washington, D.C. as part of a collective voice for a shift in energy policy.

By Debbie Arrington, The Sacramento Bee

 Children scramble through a "garbage mountain" turned play maze or test their muscle while hand-cranking enough energy to turn on lights. Teens compete in an interactive video game with a localized eco-themed "Jeopardy" spin. Parents take workshops in composting and water-wise gardening.

They all learn the value of a megawatt and the carbon impact of simple everyday actions like eating lunch.

by Ed Fletcher, The Sacramento Bee

 From college campus to the state Capitol, thousands of area residents celebrated Earth Day by learning how to build a more sustainable, energy efficient environment.

In one learning expedition, a group of 27 area residents and business leaders boarded a natural gas-powered regional transit bus for a "Green Bus Tour" of projects aimed at reducing their impact on the environment.

The Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce organized the tour.

By Lisa Van De Hey, Gridley Herald

Imagine being an authority on solar, set to give a presentation at a local elementary school and having to sit through a seven-year-old's unbelieveable solar presentation, as he tells the school board members, his parents, grandparents, great-grandmother and the audience, that "Photovoltaic means cells made of silicone which is a conduit that absorbs the sun's energy."

by Heather Hacking, Oroville Mercury Register

The progress of sustainability at Butte College was spelled out Monday for a group of Oroville Rotary Club members who had requested a tour of the college and updates on key college programs.

If Mike Miller, director of Facilities Planning and Management, has his way, Butte College will be producing more energy than it uses by 2012. The official campus goal for carbon-neutral is 2015.