FOR MANY OF US stressed-out workers, the 5.1 million newly unemployed and the millions more who are scared we might soon be, the green job has become the light at the end of the tunnel. What started as a crusade by Green for All founder (now White House special adviser) Van Jones to include low-income communities in the emerging clean-tech economy has become a big part of America's ticket back to prosperity.

"We are not talking Buck Rogers jobs or science-fiction jobs or George Jetson jobs," Jones told Congress in January. "These are very familiar jobs in familiar trades—roofers, metal workers, electricians, carpenters, etc." And the beauty is that they can't be outsourced. "Solar panels don't install themselves," he said. "Wind turbines don't manufacture themselves. Homes and buildings don't retrofit or weatherize themselves....Real people must do all of that work."

They're about to. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will provide $500 million for green-jobs training—and that's only part of nearly $60 billion in overall renewable-energy investment, which will push the demand for those green workers even higher. With a lot of the cash funneled through competitive grants, states are scrambling to come up with training programs to grab their slice of the pie. It doesn't matter if your state is red or blue, or whether or not you believe in global warming: As one New Mexico rancher told John Fogarty, director of the Santa Fe–based policy group New Energy Economy, "if I were a chocolate maker, I would not need to believe in the Easter Bunny to get excited about Easter."

I figured my own state was as good a place as any to explore the new green workscape. The Land of Enchantment may rank a mere 37th in the nation in renewable-energy generation today, but we're No. 2 in solar-energy potential, No. 4 in geothermal, and No. 12 in wind. In addition to the $1.8 billion the state is expecting in stimulus funds, New Mexico has a brand-new "green cabinet,"our own green-jobs act, and $1 million a year in state funding for apprenticeship programs.

But as I learned, you can't just go out and get yourself one of them green jobs. First, while any American, jobless or not, can call up the federal Employment and Training Administration's One-Stop Career Center Helpline, the real government boosts will go to people who've traditionally gotten the shaft: low-income populations, at-risk youth, returning veterans, single moms, and, here in the Southwest, members of the Navajo Nation, where unemployment rates hover near 50 percent. If you're currently employed, that means no jobs training for you.

Second, this ain't your grandfather's CCC. While the National Park Service has plenty of opportunities for young people who want to fix trails or pull weeds, a big chunk of its $750 million in stimulus money will pay for renewable-energy projects. And to do that kind of work, you need serious technical training.