Last week, Creighton University economist Ernie Goss was quoted on NPR saying the country is preparing itself for another wave of lay offs. It will start at the coasts and move its way to the Midwest. Not good news for the millions of people who are currently unemployed. Unfortunately, a good number of people have become unemployed in the alternative energy industry, but a group in California is set to reverse this trend.

A new alliance of California business, labor, environmental and community leaders have formed the California Apollo Program to help create clean energy jobs in the state. According to the organization, the program is a “blueprint for moving California toward broadly shared economic prosperity, energy security and climate stability, while reinforcing the state’s commitment to a new clean energy future.”

“By implementing the California Apollo Program, we will be making the right moves to secure our economic future, retain our global leadership in clean energy and technological innovation, and engage the workers and businesses who can keep the world’s eighth-largest economy growing,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the national Apollo Alliance. “The Apollo Alliance will work with our diverse coalition of business, labor, community and environmental leaders to ensure our state seizes the opportunity to invest in California businesses and create new jobs producing the clean technologies of the future.”

The organizations blueprint has identified several key areas it believes will create and retain clean energy jobs including: modernizing the power grid to support clean energy generation and smart grid technology; revitalizing rural California by expanding environmentally sustainable renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects; investing in clean energy research and development; and helping manufacturers retool their factories and retrain their employees to produce clean energy product.

Several of California’s environmental and energy laws are under fire citing the “economic” costs of implementing the technologies required under the laws will cause financial destruction for companies in the state. The supporters of the policies claim that they will help generate up to $104 billion in economic activity by 2020.