Critics of the notion that clean, sustainable industries can fuel an economic recovery have always relied on one potent argument: nice idea, but when? After all, wind, solar, hydro, and a variety of other reliable, renewable energy sources have been around for years. Why haven't they created any "green collar  jobs yet?

Well, the fact of the matter is, they have. And now, a new web feature from the Union of Concerned Scientists has driven the point home with a variety of real-life renewable energy success stories. Faces of Renewable Energy profiles people across America who are simultaneously driving the shift to sustainable energy sources, as well as helping to rouse the economy out of one of its deepest slumps ever.

By providing a human face to the successes engineered by clean energy sources, the feature severely undermines the dismissive "pie in the sky" treatment clean technology has gotten, and makes expanded domestic coal and oil drilling operations seem far less "common sense" by comparison.

This is certainly needed, as crude oil prices have slumped to near-record lows, reducing dramatically the short-term economic value of expanding clean energy sources.