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| Tue, 15th Jun 2021 16:26:00 |
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Labor power for green power |
It’s Tuesday, June 15, and California oil workers are supporting the clean energy transition.
United Steelworkers Local 675 — a 4,500-person union in Southern California made up primarily of workers in oil refining and extraction — is on board with moving to wind, solar, and other forms of clean energy. The union helped to fund and endorsed a report released last week that shows California could add 418,000 clean energy jobs per year over the next decade.
Dave Campbell, the union’s secretary-treasurer, likened the energy transition to an oncoming train in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The choice for us is, do we stand on the track and face whatever happens?” Campbell asked. “Or do we get up on the platform and try to catch that train going out of the station?”
The report, by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found that the cost of creating an equitable transition to new jobs for fossil fuel workers in California would only come to about $470 million per year, or around 0.02 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. That would include retraining, relocation, and three years of guaranteed salary.
Local 675 isn’t the first fossil-fuel heavy union to support green energy. The United Mine Workers of America announced in April that it endorses renewables — provided that miners are provided with “good-paying jobs” during and after the transition.
Read original full article
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