Jobs

If 25% of the US economy is tied to pollution, what’ll happen to employees once polluting stops?

Many planners propose a “Just Transition” to include government funded…“retraining…and …early retirement.”

These planners know that previous attempts at “Just Transitions” have not gone well.

California labor leaders say, “The…just transition is pure fiction.”
    “The so-called just transition has not become a reality.”

A 2021 report suggests that policy planners have been naive,
    “I don’t think that they…have a sense of the enormity of the problem .”

“Replacing [oil] rig work with solar panel manufacturing is…harder than it sounds.”

In Coal Country, these plans face “deep skepticism”:
    “Job retraining…[is] difficult to pull off…and often yields jobs that don’t pay as well…Do I have to relocate my family?”

Who might lose pollution-related employment, and where might they end up?

“Commercial aviation [is] nearly $1.5 trillion in U.S. economic activity and…10 million jobs.”

“‘Oil’s gonna fight tooth and nail till the end — they don’t believe that they’re gonna end…soon’.”

“The two occupations with the fastest projected job growth in the US…
will be solar photovoltaic installers and wind turbine service technicians.”

"The median…wage for a solar-pv installer…was $44,890, while that of a wind-turbine technician was $52,910.

[ 2019 / annual / USA ]

Median wages in the fossil-fuel power sector … aid between $70,310 and $81,460."

And, “Jobs installing solar panels or building wind turbines tend to disappear once a renewable energy facility is up and running, since such facilities require little ongoing labor.”

…a climate crisis adaptation fund to help the Sami transition to new livelihoods. But Māret sees the problem as much larger than Norway. “Someone has to pay for this life, this lifestyle – and it seems it is the animals and our indigenous way of living. That is the cost.” - The Guardian

Just Transitions may be unusual, but they do happen:

Virginia – “Siemens Gamesa…will invest $200 million to build the first U.S. offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility…creating 310 jobs.”

Illinois – “In 2012, we decided to buy the factory for ourselves and fire the boss. We now own the plant together and run it democratically.”

Spain – “Unions only agreed to Just Transition after the government guaranteed both early retirement and massive investment to create alternative jobs.”