Obama picked a green jobs leader for Labor Secretary: Hilda Solis. Conservatives oppose the very notion of green jobs and strong green jobs proponents, as we’ve seen. So it’s no surprise that they are coming after her. I am reprinting a post by Josh Dorner, Deputy Press Secretary for the Sierra Club, first published here. For all the info you could possibly want — or to sign a petition or Twitter on the matter — go to FreeHilda.com.

As more than 2,500 environmental and labor activists gathered this week in Washington D.C. at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference, the nation’s chief green jobs advocate-in-waiting, Labor Secretary-Designate Hilda Solis, remains in political purgatory thanks to conservative objections to a long overdue piece of legislation that will make it easier for workers to form unions.

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Green jobs have become a core rallying cry for progressives, a way to talk about a key economic benefit of jumpstarting the transition to clean energy economy. And green jobs are very much a reality — last year alone jobs in the wind industry increased 35,000 or 70%, a fact lost on much of the media (see “Voodoo economics reporting“). You can expect any good progressive idea to see a knee-jerk push back by conservatives. Today’s guest post by Frank O’Donnell of The Campaign for America’s Future (first published here) is on this very subject.

As the Senate continues to wrestle with the economic stimulus legislation, it’s been fascinating to note the counter-attack against the idea of “green jobs.”Just yesterday, for example, CNN followed a green pitch by President Obama with an interview with one Thomas Pyle, described as being with the “Institute for Energy Research.” (See transcript, below.) Pyle attacked the idea of promoting renewable energy.

What CNN didn’t tell viewers — could this be because CNN recently fired its entire environmental unit and now appears utterly clueless in covering these issues? [see "CNN fires staff covering science and environment, hires psychic to cover climate change"] is who Pyle is, and what is the “Institute for Energy Research.”

So, let us fill in a few gaps. First, on Pyle:

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