renewable energy

By Shawn Hubbard and Don Hill - Iron and Earth, February 28, 2023

By Clifford Krauss - New York Times, February 27, 2023

Solar, wind, geothermal, battery and other alternative-energy businesses are adding workers from fossil fuel companies, where employment has fallen.

Emma McConville was thrilled when she landed a job as a geologist at Exxon Mobil in 2017. She was assigned to work on one of the company’s most exciting and lucrative projects, a giant oil field off Guyana.

But after oil prices collapsed during the pandemic, she was laid off on a video call at the end of 2020. “I probably blacked out halfway,” Ms. McConville recalled.

Her shock was short-lived. Just four months later, she landed a job with Fervo, a young Houston company that aims to tap geothermal energy under the Earth’s surface. Today she manages the design of two Fervo projects in Nevada and Utah, and earns more than she did at Exxon.

“Covid allowed me to pivot,” she said. “Covid was an impetus for renewables, not just for me but for many of my colleagues.”

Oil and gas companies laid off roughly 160,000 workers in 2020, and they maintained tight budgets and hired cautiously over the last two years. But many renewable businesses expanded rapidly after the early shock of the pandemic faded, snapping up geologists, engineers and other workers from the likes of Exxon and Chevron. Half of Fervo’s 38 employees come from fossil fuel companies, including BP, Hess and Chesapeake Energy.

Executives and workers in energy hubs in Houston, Dallas and other places say steady streams of people are moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy jobs. It’s hard to track such movements in employment statistics, but the overall numbers suggest such career moves are becoming more common. Oil, gas and coal employment has not recovered to its prepandemic levels. But the number of jobs in renewable energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and battery businesses, is rising.

By Steve Share - Minneapolis Labor Review, February 25, 2023

Labor unions and environmental groups joined with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and legislative leaders February 7 for a bill-signing ceremony at the Saint Paul Labor Center to celebrate historic clean energy legislation.

The bill, Senate File 4, puts Minnesota on a path to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 — while creating new clean energy jobs.

“Our children are counting on us to get this right,” said Governor Walz, addressing the packed meeting room at the Labor Center. “We can’t move too fast when it comes to addressing climate change.”

“It’s our skilled trades who are going to be building this future,” Walz emphasized.

Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, in her remarks, noted that “a very strong coalition” worked to pass the bill, including labor, environmentalists, and young people.

“We have a climate crisis and we need to take action to address it,” she said.

“Today’s action is the strongest action Minnesota has taken on climate change. Full stop,” declared Representative Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis), who was the chief author of the bill in the Minnesota House.

By staff - Blue Green Alliance, February 24, 2023

By Jessica Aldridge and Mark Z Jacobson - Eco Justice Radio, February 23, 2023

By Jeff Ordower and Daniel Hunter - Waging Nonviolence, February 22, 2023

The Inflation Reduction Act wasn't written for climate justice, but there’s a ton of money for organizers and movement players to access.

Yes, the Inflation Reduction Act is the most consequential piece of climate legislation in the U.S. Yes, it’s also the only federal legislation. Yes, it’s imperfect. Yes, parts of it are downright vile. Yes, the negotiations exacerbated tensions between insider green organizations and those on the frontlines. 

But let’s be real, nothing more is going to pass at the federal level in the foreseeable future. So now that the IRA is the law of the land, how do organizers and movement players work with it? 

As long-time organizers and climate justice activists, we see organizing opportunities in the roughly $390 billion in climate funding available. As an analysis from Just Solutions points out, the bill was not written for climate justice. But there’s a ton of money that suddenly we can access for poor and disenfranchised communities — and it would be a wasted opportunity to leave that money on the table.

With all its limitations, the IRA can further our campaigns if we use the opportunity.

By Simon Dyer - Pembina Institute, February 21, 2023

Alberta has always been an international leader on energy. Our abundant natural resources, coupled with our proud history of technological innovation in the oil and gas sector— particularly the oilsands—means we are renowned for our ability to use a skilled labour force to reach new frontiers in energy production.

In 2023, Alberta has an opportunity to build on that history and move towards a new energy future. In doing so, it can begin to capitalize on the multiple opportunities associated with the globally emerging clean economy.

To achieve this, Alberta needs a robust, credible plan on climate and energy. The number of governments worldwide that are legislating emissions reduction targets and policy measures to deliver them is rapidly growing each year, and it is time that Alberta joined them. This province — home to some of the world’s foremost experts on carbon capture technology, methane reduction techniques, wind and solar power, and so many other clean energy solutions— has much to offer to the energy transition, and much to gain. The International Energy Agency, for example, estimates 14 million new energy jobs and 16 million new jobs in energy efficiency will be created, worldwide, between now and 2050.

To take advantage of these opportunities, Alberta must also be willing to confront the realities of the global shift towards low-carbon energy sources, and take steps to adapt and futureproof its economy and workforce. The global outlook for fossil fuels, for example, has fundamentally shifted in the last twelve months. In 2022, for the first time, a range of assessments — including from within the oil industry — projected that the current level of worldwide policy momentum on emissions reductions will result in a sustained decline in global demand for oil, beginning this decade. If the world successfully achieves its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and avoiding the worst effects of climate change, that demand decline will begin sooner and be steeper — and will have a significant impact on Alberta’s industry. 

Acknowledging these realities, and choosing to show leadership on climate and energy policy, is integral to Alberta’s overall attractiveness as an investment destination. Now more than ever before, companies are looking for opportunities to invest in climate solutions, and for jurisdictions where they can operate while meeting their own climate goals. Choosing instead to remain out of step with the global trend towards low-emissions economies would leave Alberta at a significant disadvantage in the years ahead.

The Pembina Institute is, and has always been, proudly headquartered in Alberta; this is our home. We are committed to seeking out effective, evidence-based policy solutions that can support this province’s communities, economy, and environment. 

As the 2023 provincial election approaches, this document provides our recommendations to future leaders in Alberta to advance this province’s position in the transition towards low-carbon energy. Above all, we think Alberta can and should be a leader on climate and the energy transformation in Canada.

Read the report (link).

By Diana DiGangi - Utility Dive, February 16, 2023

Renewable energy developers must meet registered apprenticeship requirements to qualify for certain Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, but they struggle to find workers, an attorney said.

The clean energy industry is booming, but the labor supply remains low. Partnering with community colleges to offer pathways to employment could help the industry meet its increasing demand for workers, said a workforce development official with the Foundation for California Community Colleges. He was speaking at a workforce development session at Intersolar North America on Tuesday.

Community colleges are a source of “untapped talent” and are “built to be nimble” in a way that other sources of higher education may not be, Tim Aldinger, executive director of workforce development for the FCCC, said at the event.

“For the last year and a half, we’ve had more jobs posted than people looking for them. And we are also in a decade-long process where people [nationwide] are opting out of the labor market,” Aldinger said. “And this is particularly prevalent, actually, among working-age men, particularly in jobs that were called ‘blue-collar’ work.”

Though the renewable energy sector has become a significant generator of new jobs, and the Inflation Reduction Act bolstered this growth with tax credits that incentivized new projects and registered apprenticeship programs, the wind energy industry reported difficulty finding qualified applicants in a November report.

By Maristella Svampa, Trusha Reddy, Ashish Kothari, and Liliana Buitrago - Alan Fisher, February 14, 2023

By staff - People and Nature, February 13, 2023

“Clean energy transitions” by rich countries of the global north are producing “a new phase of environmental despoliation of the Global South”, states a manifesto published last week by an alliance of social and environmental organisations.

“This decarbonisation of the rich, which is market-based and export-oriented, depends on a new phase of environmental despoliation of the Global South, which affects the lives of millions of women, men and children, not to mention non-human life”, the Manifesto for an Ecosocial Energy Transition says.

Women, especially from agrarian societies, are among the most impacted. In this way, “the Global South has once again become a zone of sacrifice, a basket of purportedly inexhaustible resources for the countries of the North.”

As the rich countries secure supply chains for these “clean” transitions, the web of debt and trade agreements in which countries outside the rich world are caught is tightened.

I hope that social movements and the labour movement in the rich countries will not only sign the manifesto (which you can do here), but also – probably more to the point – think about and discuss what it means for us.