The labor movement and environmental groups have not always been the best of friends. Labor tended to view environmental regulations as impediments to construction, auto manufacturing, and other activities that provided good jobs that paid well.
Both sides seem to be moving beyond that old construct. One clear sign of the determination to work together to hasten the transition to a low-carbon economy is the BlueGreen Alliance. It was founded by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, a duo that its executive director, Jason Walsh, describes as the “original odd bedfellows.”
The Alliance has grown to include 14 major national and international unions and environmental groups that collectively represent about 50 million Americans. The guiding principle that keeps these groups together is a belief that Americans shouldn’t have to choose between good jobs and a clean environment; we can and must have both.
Research by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Worldwide International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) documented that employment in renewable energy reached 12.7 million in 2021, a jump of 700,000 new jobs in one year, despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 and the growing energy crisis.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) has so far provided the biggest share of renewable energy jobs (4.3 million), followed by hydropower and biofuels (2.4 million each), and wind power (1.3 million). Other sectors like geothermal, heat pumps and ocean energy make up the rest of the jobs growth.
Guy Ryder, who recently completed ten years as ILO’s director-general, said; “Beyond the numbers, there is a growing focus on the quality of jobs and the conditions of work in renewable energies, to ensure decent and productive employment. The increasing share of female employment suggests that dedicated policies and training can significantly enhance the participation of women in renewable energy occupations, inclusion and ultimately, achieve a just transition for all. I encourage governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations to remain firmly committed to a sustainable energy transition, which is indispensable for the future of work.”
Of course, there can be friction between labor and the environmental movement. “Permitting and siting certainly is a tension point that we are working through,” Walsh told Dan Gearino of Inside Climate News, “particularly with all of these new investments coming online. That requires us as a country to build a lot of stuff at speed and scale, and figuring out a position for our coalition that honors and protects our existing environmental laws, while also building out a lot of infrastructure, is a needle that we have to thread.
“We are working internally right now to be able to put forward a unified position on permitting reform, and particularly focusing on transmission, which all of our labor and environmental partners recognize is absolutely a critical part of realizing the climate benefits of the investments from the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Another challenge for the alliance, Walsh told Inside Climate News, is the pay gap. “We were and still are—because the law hasn’t fully kicked in yet—seeing significant gaps in wages between workers in renewable energy sectors and workers and fossil fuel sectors. And that’s a big problem. It’s an equity problem, and it is a political problem. And we certainly can’t expect workers to accept the necessity of this transition if their jobs are going away, or they’re getting other jobs in clean energy sectors that pay less and offer less voice on the job and security on the job. So, our push for clean energy investments with strong labor and equity standards was an enormous unifier.”
As implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) continues, there will be more and more opportunities for labor and environmental groups to cooperate on the energy transition. Of course, that transition would occur more rapidly if Congress put an honest price on carbon.