energy

By Veronica Wilson - Labor Network for Sustainability, March 1, 2024

Workers in California have allied with environmental, environmental justice, and community groups to move the state closer to a just transition to renewable energy. 

California has a strong movement for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), which allows municipalities to bargain with electricity suppliers over both price and environmental responsibility. Nine Community Choice Aggregators are united in a joint power procurement agency called California Community Power. 

California’s Workforce and Environmental Justice Alliance has been pushing California Community Power to establish policies to protect workers in the transition to climate-safe energy. In a recent win, Ava Energy in the East Bay adopted these policies – the fourth member of California Community Power to do so. According to Andreas Cluver, Building Trades Council of Alameda County:

Any approach to climate action must also factor in the sustainability of our workforce. By passing this package of policies, Ava Community Energy uplifts local workers while fulfilling its obligation towards responsible environmental stewardship. We look forward to partnering with Ava on these important community projects. 

This marks a pivotal moment for workers and communities as the region looks to ramp up investments in green technology and decarbonization. Ava’s new policies underscore the positive impact CCAs can have on labor standards, environmental stewardship, and community well-being.

Learn more about the Alliance’s impactful work: https://action.greencal.org/action/wej 

By Alex Nieves - Politico, December 4, 2023

One of California’s most powerful unions is not loosening its grip on oil jobs.

Despite the Biden administration and California lawmakers pouring billions of dollars into new climate-friendly industries like electric vehicles, hydrogen and building electrification, a key player in state politics is still defending fossil fuel interests that provide thousands of well-paying jobs.

President Joe Biden’s investment in clean energy sectors through a pair of massive spending bills — which promise lucrative tax credits for projects that pay union wages — was supposed to speed up the labor transition away from oil and gas. That hasn’t happened in deep-blue California, home to the country’s most ambitious climate policies — and most influential labor unions.

“We believe we’re still going to be working in the oil and gas space for the foreseeable future,” said Chris Hannan, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents nearly 500,000 members across dozens of local unions, from pipefitting to electrical work.

Unions’ longstanding — and well-founded — distrust of the renewable energy industry as a reliable source of labor-friendly jobs is slowing the “just transition” that Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders around the country have pushed.

With federal officials trying to get clean energy funding out as fast as possible ahead of the 2024 election, and California politicians cracking down on the fossil fuel industry, unions’ reluctance to relinquish fossil fuel jobs undermines Democrats’ aggressive climate targets, according to a lawmaker who serves both a union- and oil-rich area of the state.

While the union embrace of fossil fuels is unique to California — one of the few blue states with significant oil production — the struggle highlights a larger question over how states can quickly build massive amounts of clean energy infrastructure without undercutting labor.

By Li Mei Brusey, Tim Lang, Grant Howard, Matthew Jeffrey, Maddy Yerbury, and Zane Alcorn - Green Left, November 24, 2023

By Béla Galgóczi - European Trade Union Institute, November 2023

Were national response measures to the energy crisis targeted, and were they social and climate friendly? 

These are the main questions addressed by this book, which examines whether and how short-term national responses to the cost of energy crisis applied social and ecological preferences. Europe has ‘survived’ two much-feared winters without energy shortages, power cuts and recession, showing a considerable level of resilience. Between September 2021 and August 2023, EU Member States allocated almost 700 billion euros to shield consumers and industry from rising energy costs. Were these resources properly targeted and is there a climate dividend? The national case studies included in this book reveal that the measures were mostly broad-based, including subsidies, tax cuts and price controls. The chapters also address questions on how such policies tackled the conflicting objectives and examine whether there are any good practices that can be identified in which short-term social protection can be aligned with longer term ecological objectives.

Download a copy of this publication here (link).

By staff - UNITE, November 2023

For further background, visit this site.

We are at the crossroads. There are two paths on offer, and it’s time to choose. On the one hand, there is a path of cuts: further decimating our steel industry and the town. On the other, a path of growth: an immediate gateway to rebuilding the industry.

The current plan from Tata is a hammer blow. It would severely shrink the plant: cutting production capacity by another 40%, with thousands of job losses. Another well-meaning proposal from the consultants Syndex also involves cutting capacity. It would also mean thousands of job losses: some immediately, and some in the longer term.

Why can’t we have another option? A path that would deliver profitability in the long term, and safeguard every job now. That’s the Unite plan. The cuts path wouldn’t just cost thousands of jobs on the site. It would also have massive knock-on effects on contractors, downstream sites, and the town and local economy of Port Talbot.

Our industry has suffered decades of decline. We don’t forget the impacts of the mine closures, or of the steel works at Ebbw Vale. We must not let Port Talbot be next. It is time to stop this vicious cycle.

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

By Veronica Serrano - Texas Climate Jobs Project, October 13, 2023

Houston, Texas – Today Texas Climate Jobs Project, a nonprofit organization working with more than twenty labor organizations in Texas including the Texas AFL-CIO, announced it has filed public information requests with public bodies across Texas that are listed as partners on HyVelocity’s website. 

Today’s announcement to pursue more information about the HyVelocity hydrogen hub comes after the Department of Energy’s decision to select the HyVelocity application as one of its regional clean hydrogen hubs.

“Enough is enough,” said Bo Delp, executive director of Texas Climate Jobs Project. “HyVelocity, which is partnered with some of the largest and wealthiest corporations on Earth, is poised to receive $1.2 billion in hard earned taxpayer dollars and Texas families deserve to evaluate these projects in the light of day.”

“While we welcome the concept of a hydrogen hub in Texas, without concrete agreements in place with labor organizations this application could have profoundly negative impacts on working people in Texas.” 

Workers in Texas face growing racial and economic inequality and worsening safety standards, and HyVelocity has failed to provide meaningful answers for how it intends to mitigate these deeply concerning dynamics in the Texas economy. 

Texas Climate Jobs Project and its coalition of more than twenty Texas labor organizations are calling on HyVelocity to commit to binding community workforce agreements and labor peace agreements to address these concerns and ensure a just transition for fossil fuel workers.

Link: Website

Link: Digital thread on today’s announcement

By Veronica Serrano - Texas Climate Jobs Project, October 13, 2023

Texas Climate Jobs Project and the Texas AFL-CIO released the following statement in response to the Department of Energy’s decision to award the HyVelocity Hub application federal grant dollars to continue its pursuit of developing a hydrogen hub in the Gulf Coast region of Texas:

“A hydrogen hub in the Gulf Coast region has the potential to transform industries in Texas, and for more than a year labor organizations in Texas have raised concerns about the lack of transparency involved in the project as well as its impact on workers. Now that these corporations are poised to receive taxpayer dollars to develop this hub, it is critical to ensure that all involved in this project redouble efforts to ensure that public funds are used to create safe, family-sustaining jobs.

We support the concept of hydrogen hubs and what they can bring to Texas, but we are disappointed in the lack of any real commitment from Texas applicants to ensure that workers have a voice in the process. The Biden administration has consistently delivered for workers around clean energy projects across the country and we urge them to hold Texas applicants accountable to make sure that the needs of workers and communities in Texas are addressed on these hydrogen hub projects. 

Workers in Texas face growing racial and economic inequality and worsening safety standards, which makes strong labor standards ever more necessary today. Texas is the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t require employers to provide workers’ compensation insurance and Texas also leads in worker deaths. We are ready to work together to ensure that the growing hydrogen industry in Texas creates jobs in which workers can support their families and where they can go home safely every night.”

By various - California Environmental Justice Alliance, October 13, 2023

We represent heavily polluted communities throughout the State of California. Our communities border oil refineries, gas-fired power plants, industrial farming operations, fossil fuel extraction facilities, waste processing centers, ports, transportation corridors and other polluting operations. These cumulative sources of pollution cause a wide range of adverse health outcomes in working class communities of color. Our communities share a common fence with facilities and operations that emit toxins, foul smells, and noise and cause nuisance impacting people’s quality of life at all hours of the day and night.

The State of California intends to expand the use of hydrogen as a fuel, and to this end, we offer these guiding principles, which are essential to respect and protect our communities.

The following principles represent our collective values and positions to support communities as hydrogen energy is utilized across the state.

These principles were developed in 10 workshops and learning sessions for environmental justice partners across California between March and September of 2023. The learning sessions examined the current science, including risks, benefits, and unknowns, and shed light on each stage of the hydrogen cycle, including production, delivery, storage, and use. The workshops allowed our organizations to discuss different perspectives, build consensus, and reflect on how hydrogen may impact our communities. 

We adamantly oppose all non-green hydrogen proposals and projects. We insist that new projects protect communities first and do not perpetuate the injustices that polluting infrastructures impose on fence-line communities today. Each stage of the hydrogen life cycle—production, delivery, storage, and end use—can present unique risks and harms to environmental justice communities and to all Californians.

Discussions about building new green hydrogen infrastructure must involve the community, and its members should be meaningfully engaged. Siting green hydrogen infrastructure should also take into account the cumulative impacts of environmental justice communities and the risks associated with hydrogen.

By Veronica Serrano - Texas Climate Jobs Project, October 11, 2023

TEXAS UNIONS, FAITH COMMUNITY CALL FOR TRANSPARENCY AND LABOR STANDARDS IN HYDROGEN ENERGY PLANNING

Department of Energy expected to announce next steps for $8 billion program on Friday

Union members and community activists took part in a banner drop to bring attention to lack of transparency, commitment to strong labor standards around a planned hydrogen hub in the Houston area 

Action follows concerns raised by Texas congressional delegation

Houston, TX — Union members and community activists gathered near the outside of the Hydrogen North America conference and dropped a 15-foot banner from a Houston overpass and picketed, demanding transparency and a commitment now to strong labor standards from HyVelocity Hub planners.

The HyVelocity Hub is applying for taxpayer dollars to build a clean hydrogen hub in the Gulf as part of the Department of Energy’s $8 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub program. HyVelocity states its vision for a Texas hydrogen economy “could add an estimated $100 billion to Texas’ GDP.”

“The HyVelocity Hub is seeking taxpayer assistance for this project, and we have a collective responsibility to ensure that our dollars result in high-paying jobs performed by skilled union workers, and that safety is at the forefront,” said Bo Delp, executive director of Texas Climate Jobs Project.