Edgar Perez fits a hose from a truck containing used vegetable grease into a ceiling-high tank holding methanol and sodium hydroxide. His timing in releasing the hose's content is key to whether the mixture will produce bio-diesel fuel to power fleets of "green" trucks and buses.

It also is key to Perez's self-esteem. The 22-year-old Oakland resident with a high school education had been working in construction, living contract to contract, until he heard about this job at Blue Sky Bio-fuels Inc., one of Oakland's green businesses.

The job, Perez said, "makes me feel like I'm part of something and I'm improving myself every day." Perez could be the poster child of a movement started in the East Bay and then advocated in presidential campaign speeches and tucked into federal energy legislation: Train at-risk youths and people stuck in low-end jobs or joblessness to work in the millions of manual labor "green economy" jobs that are emerging as this country tries to reduce global warming.

"We call it green pathways out of poverty — connect the people who most need the work with the work that most needs to be done," said Van Jones, the Oakland social justice worker who started the Oakland Green Jobs Corps as well as the national Green for All campaign gaining cross-country attention.

Both the local and national programs are establishing job-readiness training programs for unskilled workers so they can get jobs in such green