Policy Forum In-Depth: Supporting Workforces in the Clean Energy Transition | Article

Renewable energy and energy efficiency are already playing an essential part in helping the United States reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move toward a decarbonized economy. EESI’s recent Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy Forum focused on how the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (P.L.117-58) will put the United States on a quicker path to achieving those goals. In the process of moving towards a clean energy future, it is essential that investments are equitable and uplift all communities and workforces. For this article, EESI sat down with clean energy leaders whose organizations participated in the Policy Forum to learn more about how their sector or organization is supporting communities and local workforces in this transition.

Check out the two other articles in our Policy Forum series, one covering implementation of the IIJA and the other providing key resources and reports that are helping advance renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Job Creation

When it comes to employment, the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries are heating up, and the newly released U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs Report (USEER 2022) provides further reason for optimism. According to the report, in 2021, energy jobs grew four percent from 2020, even faster than overall U.S. jobs, which grew 2.8 percent. Energy efficiency, the largest sector in the clean energy field with more than 2,160,000 jobs, grew 2.7 percent from 2020 to 2021. This exciting growth is made possible through the bold leadership of clean energy leaders.

The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), a coalition of energy companies and trade associations, continues to see great potential for job growth in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors, particularly with expanded federal support, public-private partnerships, and investments in workforce development. According to BCSE, “The opportunity to create millions of additional clean energy and energy efficiency jobs is before us.” It notes, however, that it is critical for clean energy investments to reach underserved and underinvested communities.

Members of the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO) are making great strides in facilitating energy job growth. They are working to implement measures like demand response, automation and control systems, energy efficiency, and distributed generation projects, primarily for public sector customers. According to NAESCO, those efforts have resulted in 650,000 person-years of employment, with a person-year equivalent to one person working full time for one year. In addition, they’ve led to 560 million tons of carbon dioxide emission reductions, equal to the yearly energy use of over 70.5 million homes.

The hydropower industry, the second-largest source of renewable energy in the United States, is also a source of good-paying, domestic jobs. According to the National Hydropower Association (NHA), a nonprofit association working to advance hydropower and marine energy, the hydropower industry provides jobs for more than 68,000 people in the United States, ranging from facility technicians to machinists creating the energy-generating equipment. These hydropower jobs come with a side of cheaper electricity for customers. According to NHA, “Since hydropower is a mature clean energy resource that relies on a renewable energy source, power generators do not need to recover construction or energy costs in consumers’ electric bills. This makes hydropower a relatively low-cost electricity source. Therefore, maintaining hydropower generation can help keep energy costs low during the transition to renewable resources.”

According to USEER 2022, the federal energy jobs report, “jobs in carbon-reducing motor vehicles and component parts technologies grew a collective 25 percent in 2021.” The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), a trade association for electric vehicle technologies and infrastructure, has been touting its industry’s spectacular jobs growth, but emphasizes that job creation is not the industry’s only benefit. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, EDTA notes that activity in the electric transportation industry contributed around $29 billion to U.S. GDP in 2019.

A Just Transition

Clean energy leaders are also working to ensure that the transition to clean energy, and the accompanying job growth, is fair and equitable. Growth Energy, a biofuel trade association, notes that the biofuel industry supports an “outsized share” of jobs for union workers and veterans. According to Growth Energy, the biofuel sector “has opened up a new generation of green economic opportunities for small towns and rural communities across America, supporting growth and creating new revenue streams across the agricultural supply chain.”

Meanwhile, BlueGree n Alliance, an organization that connects labor organizations and environmental groups, is dedicated to ensuring the clean energy transition is as fair as possible. According to the organization, “A transition that is fair for workers and communities isn’t something that will just happen organically and we cannot leave communities or workers behind.” The organization works at the local, state, and federal levels to help ensure clean energy jobs are good-paying, union jobs, as well as to support workforce training and ensure the investment prioritization of communities of color, low-income communities and communities that have suffered from deindustrialization, or decreases in manufacturing employment.

A similar intentional approach to job growth is applied by the Solar Energies Industry Association (SEIA), a trade association. SEIA observed that the solar industry would need to quadruple its jobs to one million workers in order to reach U.S. climate goals, so the association is focusing on job growth as well as diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in its programming. SEIA leads a DEIJ certification for energy companies and worked with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), an independent nonprofit organization, to publish the 2020 Solar Jobs Census on the state of solar employment in the country (IREC recently released the 2021 Solar Jobs Census). SEIA also supports IREC’s Solar Ready Vets program, which works to connect veterans with career opportunities in solar.

American Clean Power, a member group for renewable energy companies, highlighted the importance of workforce investment in the growth of the clean energy sector. American Clean Power’s programs help retrain workers to transition to the clean energy sector, cultivate industry-specific skills, provide continuing education, and implement classroom clean energy learning.

Ensuring that all communities and workforces are included in the transition to a decarbonized economy is crucial for long-term success. As BCSE’s Board Member Jeannie Salo stated during the Policy Forum, “By doubling down on this commitment to building a strong, digital, clean energy workforce, we will, as a country, become more competitive, and we will actually inspire people to want to do these jobs.”

Author: Molly Brind’Amour