Clean energy and the "green jobs" attached to it enjoyed wide support in testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing in Pittsburgh yesterday, but differences remain about how and how quickly federal policies should push those goals.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who hosted the hearing, acknowledged those tensions between "competing interests" in Pennsylvania coal, natural gas and alternative energy industries as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began work on legislation titled "Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act," introduced earlier this month.

Michael Peck, North American spokesman for Gamesa USA, a Spanish wind turbine manufacturer with factories and 850 employees in Pennsylvania, urged establishment of a national standard mandating 12 percent renewable energy by 2012. That would send a strong message to investors and boost demand and job creation, he said.

"We're predicting a 40 percent drop in new wind projects this year and the recession has crippled demand. Our factories are idle," Mr. Peck said. "The U.S. is at the brink of losing manufacturing jobs to India and China and implementation of a near-term renewable energy standard would send a strong message and would do the most to boost demand."

Jason Walsh, representing Green For All, a national organization supportive of "green" economic growth, and Holly Childs, executive director of the Green Building Alliance of Western Pennsylvania, said up to 13,000 new blue-collar jobs could be created in the Pittsburgh region by federal training programs included in the draft legislation under consideration.

But greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 20 percent by 2020 are unrealistic, said Daniel Kane, United Mine Workers secretary-treasurer, because that doesn't allow enough time to install carbon capture technology on new or existing coal-fired power plants.

"We don't want to see climate legislation transformed into a mechanism for transferring jobs overseas," Mr. Kane said.

Sounding a similar job-loss theme, Stan Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the United Steelworkers international executive board, said the union supports caps on carbon emissions under discussion in Congress but only if the program contains strong protections to prevent job loss to nations that don't enact pollution controls.

Steven Winberg, vice president for research and development for Consol Energy, the state's biggest coal mining company, said the legislation should provide increased funding for development of carbon capture and storage technology, contain costs, and establish federal standards and limit liability for using the new technology.

He said if the government forces reductions it will have a negative impact on existing coal-fired power plants, increase power costs and put the coal and power industries at a competitive disadvantage.

Also yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a new report on home retrofitting that tied green job creation to home retrofits that can help families reduce energy bills by up to 30 percent or more than $700 a year.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.