Climate measure will create clean-energy jobs

Russell Hess, Guest Column

Published Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Last Friday, the United States House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or ACES.

First District Congressman Tim Walz voted for the legislation. We want to thank Congressman Walz for his vote creating a new clean energy economy based upon the principles of addressing global warming while encouraging job creating investments in clean energy and efficiency.

With the national unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, ACES is a critically needed jumpstart to our countries climb from our current economic recession. In southern Minnesota, laborers are pouring concrete for new wind turbines, electricians are installing solar panels, sheet-metal workers are installing high-efficiency furnaces that save energy, the environment, and money and local community action programs are busy retro-fitting homes for lower-income residents.

Even truckers are benefiting from the green economy, because the wind turbine blades and nacelles take specialized trucks to transport from the factories to the wind turbine farms.

This vote moves the U.S. one step closer to a clean energy future. This clean-energy jobs plan puts the U.S. on the path to slashing carbon emissions that cause global warming 80 percent by 2050, a signal accomplishment necessary to preserve the planet for future generations. It provides a sound framework for achieving its critical goals and includes several important provisions in addition to the strong long-term emissions reduction goal.

Russell Hess

ACES includes strong codes to dramatically increase the energy performance of our buildings, significant funds to jump-start the development of electric vehicles, energy-efficiency requirements for natural gas utilities, criteria to ensure offsets are high-quality, funding for domestic adaptation and limits on potent global warming pollutants other than carbon dioxide.

The bill also includes protections for working families including prevailing wages, assurances for maintaining international competiveness, and training for workers for the clean-energy economy.

The bill prioritizes significant investments in slashing energy waste in order to quickly, cheaply and effectively cut emissions, rather than focusing on other unproven and expensive technologies. We believe this balanced legislation is a responsible way to address global warming while investing in new technology to ensure that affordable and plentiful supplies of energy and power are available to American consumers and businesses.

By creating certainty for energy-intensive industries, ACES helps assure that jobs in the new energy economy do not come at the expense of current jobs. The net result will be the creation of thousands of jobs in Minnesota and across the country.

The investments in this clean-energy-jobs bill will also revitalize our manufacturing sector, create the industries of tomorrow, reduce our dependence on oil and fight global warming. It means increasing demand for energy-efficient windows and doors, solar thermal panels for hot water, hybrid electric buses — all manufactured today in Minnesota.

The bill assists other manufacturing plants in becoming more energy efficient, which will make them more competitive. Those investments are a start to break our cycle of oil dependence and begin the process of repowering America with clean, home-grown energy from Minnesota, not the Middle East.

While passage of ACES is a major step toward developing the green economy, we also must make sure the green jobs created by investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency are good jobs. That is why we appreciate Congressman Walz’s support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Passage of this bill will also benefit our environment, as unionized workers are in a better position to protect the environment and their communities. They serve as the front line of defense against hazardous pollution, chemical spills and other accidents that can devastate communities. Union workers are better trained to know about the health and safety risks of hazardous chemicals and have greater protections if they blow the whistle on hazards and accidents in the workplace.

Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act represents a significant step toward protecting workers’ rights to advocate for stronger protections for workers and for communities.

Once again, we thank Rep. Walz for supporting ACES, and we look forward to working with him to bring more clean energy jobs to southern Minnesota.

Russell Hess is the political coordinator for the Laborers District Council of Minnesota & North Dakota and is on the steering committee for the Minnesota Blue-Green Alliance. He lives in Plainview.

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