Maybe you didn't know it, but today, over 9,000 bloggers are talking about poverty. It's Blog Action Day, a day where thousands of bloggers talk about one issue in their own unique way. Here's a quick breakdown on how poverty fits into some of Fresh Energy's key issues.

Energy Justice
Too often, energy costs lead to an unfair burden on low income communities. It is far less affordable for a low income family to endure utility rate hikes as the cost of carbon goes up or home cooling costs increase as the temperature rises. The irony is that the families that feel the worst financial effects of global warming are the ones that are affecting the problem the least. Low income families own fewer cars, they use transit more often (the American Public Transportation Association estimates that 94 percent of people on welfare rely on transit to get to work, their homes are smaller, and they generally purchase less goods that have to be transported all over the country. As we move forward to create a clean energy economy, energy justice advocates are ensuring that energy projects are fair to the low income community.

Green Jobs
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are 7.6 million people unemployed in the country. Unemployment does not alone cause poverty, but it's a factor that sets many families back—especially during these hard economic times. The good news is that novel opportunities are developing as the nation works to revolutionize its energy system.

They're called green jobs, and education programs are turning up in community colleges all over the Midwest. Last month, Wisconsin's Mid-State Technical College proposed offering the degrees of renewable energy specialist and energy efficiency technician. This would fall on top of its already existing degrees in biorefinery technology, renewable electricity, and renewable thermal energy.

And there are plenty of entry level jobs being created, such as construction workers or transit drivers, that require no specialized background. A study by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts' Political Economy Research Institute shows that a national investment of $100 billion in the green economy would grow 2 million jobs "of all different kinds" in two years and reduce unemployment from 5.7 percent to 4.4 percent.

Cap and Auction
Many clean energy advocates support putting a price on carbon through cap and auction. This would place a mandatory limit on how much an institution is allowed to pollute. Then, a regulating body would give each institution a set amount of polluting permits and put a price on any additional ones. Depending on whether an institution pollutes above or below the designated limit, it would have the option of buying more permits or selling its extra ones. The system would then generate revenue.

If the system led utilities to raise their rates, it would likely place a disproportionate cost burden on low income families. So, a common proposal in a cap-and-auction system would put the generated revenue toward weatherization programs for low income families. Though weatherizing a home pays for itself in energy savings, the upfront costs of an energy-efficient heater or refrigerator is often completely unaffordable to low income families. The revenue would give families an initial financial boost that would pay off in the long run by lowering heating or cooling bills.