Labor Must Play A Role in Climate Change Legislation

By Paul Burton

The UC Berkeley Labor Center hosted a panel discussion on Labor and California climate change legislation February 8 to look at how working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also create jobs. Panelists discussed the impact of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, which calls for reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The legislation will impact California’s economy and workers as well as certain industries like transportation, construction, energy and manufacturing. The speakers offered ideas on what can be done to ensure that the legislation creates high-quality jobs in California rather than sending jobs to states with less stringent environmental regulations, and how labor can play a role in making sure good jobs are created rather than lost as the legislation is implemented.

Representatives from several unions attended, including the Sheet Metal Workers, Carpenters, Laborers, Service Employees, Engineers and Scientists, Electrical Workers and United Auto Workers. A number of environmental groups were also represented, including Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network. The forum was sponsored by the California Labor Federation’s Workforce and Economic Development Program, Apollo Alliance, Redefining Progress, and the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Impacts and Opportunities

Carla Din, Western Regional Field Director for the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups led by the Steelworkers and Sierra Club, said that global warming would impact labor in several sectors: agriculture would be affected as temperatures rise and growing seasons are affected by severe weather and drought; fishing will be impacted by rising sea temperatures and loss of habitat; firefighters will be affected as soil moisture is lost and dry conditions lead to the doubling of wildfires over the next 50 years; public health and the health care industry will be impacted by air pollution and diseases that thrive as temperatures rise; and tourism and travel will be disrupted by severe weather and impacts on tourist destinations.

She said that despite the dire predictions, “I see an opportunity for labor to capitalize on the changes as you have the skilled workers and the programs to train workers for the new jobs and technologies that will need to be developed.”

AB 32 establishes a comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases. Because of California’s huge and growing economy, the state is the 12th largest emitter of carbon in the world—despite leading the nation in energy efficiency standards and protecting its environment.

AB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regulations and market mechanisms to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Mandatory caps on emissions will begin in 2012. The Agency must adopt a plan by January 1, 2009, indicating how emission reductions will be achieved from significant greenhouse gas sources through regulations, market mechanisms and other actions and adopt regulations by January 1, 2011.

Prior to imposing any mandates or authorizing market mechanisms, CARB must evaluate impacts on California’s economy, the environment and public health and ensure that the rules do not disproportionately impact low-income communities.

“Labor needs to be involved in the rulemaking that will determine how AB 32 is implemented,” Din said. She said that CARB, which will define the rules to implement the bill, was reaching out to labor. “Labor can provide the skilled workers for the new jobs that will be needed,” she said.

Din said that the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was also undertaking a massive effort to reduce energy consumption in new and existing buildings. She said the changes would benefit California workers, and Labor should look at how implementation of AB 32 will affect manufacturing, transportation, and construction.

“It’s possible there will be a benefit to labor through the cap-and-trade process if we re-invest to fund job creation and re-tooling industries,” Din said. Under cap-and-trade, the amount of carbon or greenhouse gasses a company could emit would be capped, and credits for achieving reductions well below the caps could be traded or sold to businesses who exceed their cap.

“Labor can and will be part of the solution,” Din said. “There are already workers employed weatherizing buildings, installing solar panels, and in green building construction.”

Andrew Hoerner, Sustainable Economics Program Director of Redefining Progress, an Oakland-based think tank dedicated to “smart economics,” said his organization was studying the links between a clean environment, a strong economy and a just society. “AB 32 now is a blank slate,” he said. “It sets targets but doesn’t say how to reach them.” He reiterated Ms. Din’s point that it was critical that Labor get involved in defining the rules of implementation so AB 32 doesn’t lead to a loss of jobs. “The difference between good or bad implementation of AB 32 is on the order of 400,000 jobs,” he said. “There is a lot at stake from one set of decisions.”

He said implementation of cap-and-trade could create jobs or cause the loss of jobs. “The caps restrict supply, so that increases the price consumers and businesses pay for energy,” he said. “That money can go to out-of-state stockholders or be re-invested back into the state to create jobs. We can auction off the credits and re-invest or give them away.” He predicted that 210,000 jobs would be created by 2020 through energy efficiency and public investment.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency would also benefit low-income Californians, Hoerner said. He pointed out that the poorest 40 percent of households are responsible for about 15 percent of pollution while the richest 20 percent account for 50 percent. “Low income people spend a larger percentage of their income on energy than high income households,” he said. “Anything that raises energy costs hurts low income people more.” If energy prices rise as a result of implementation of AB 32, there should be mechanism like tax credits to help low income people or reinvestment of funds from the cap and trade system to fund low income programs, he said.

Hoerner pointed out that the electric sector was important and already heavily unionized. He said that if automobiles move in the direction of plug-in electric vehicles, more power generating plants would be needed and therefore more jobs created. He warned that there needs to be a level playing field so that in-state electrical generation subject to the AB 32 regulations isn’t at a disadvantage to out-of-state sources of electricity generation. “We have to stop bringing in dirty coal-generated electricity from out of state and generate clean energy in state,” he said. “The whole world is moving to a more energy-efficient paradigm and California needs to lead the way. We should use AB 32 to leverage investments to fund manufacturing and re-industrialize—while also growing the union sector.” He said it was time to build strategic partnerships between labor and environmentalists and that Californians are in a position to “do good by doing well.”

But Hoerner warned that there were barriers to making sure AB 32 is implemented in a way that benefits workers and low income Californians. “One barrier is bureaucratic inertia at the CARB, which has never had to deal with something this big,” he said. “Another is politics, with Republicans opposed to regulatory approaches. We have to push the legislature to get involved and the only way we can do that is through union action—that’s the only force that cares enough about the issues and has the political clout.”

“We know that labor needs to be involved to ensure economic justice,” said California Labor Federation Workforce and Economic Development (WED) Program Senior Manager Peter Cooper. He said through the WED Program he tries to get funding for training and for re-training workers whose jobs are lost or outsourced. He said that the California Economic Development Department had projected that there would be 6.5 million job openings between 2004 and 2014. About 4.5 million would be due to retiring workers and another 2 million would be new jobs, he said.

The Labor Federation is looking at the opportunities for new jobs and the need for workers to upgrade job skills as part of the transition to a new economy. That effort should lead to high wage union jobs that will stick around, Cooper said. He said the upcoming Workforce and Economic Development conference sponsored by the federation would include a track focused on issues around AB 32.

“We are also working on issues of pollution at ports,” Cooper said. The CARB has called for reducing diesel soot emissions from idling trucks. The Teamsters are trying to organize port truckers classified as independent contractors to allow them to become employees and able to unionize. As independent contractors, they also can’t afford to purchase new trucks that will be less polluting. The port may begin a program of replacing polluting trucks with new ones while also trying to reduce emissions from offshore vessels that burn low-grade crude oil. The Longshore unions are involved in that effort as well as the move toward electrification of vessels and trains at the ports.

Cooper said that many unions would be affected by implementation of AB 32. “We are at a crossroads and labor should be a driving force,” he said.

State Building and Construction Trades Council Legislative Director Jay Hansen and California Labor Federation Workforce and Economic Development (WED) Program Senior Manager Peter Cooper.

State Building and Construction Trades Council Legislative Director Jay Hansen said he had spoken at four separate events in the last three weeks on issues of AB 32 and climate change. He said that labor and environmental issues were often seen as being in opposition but that, “We have a shared social agenda and should focus on that. We all want clean air and care about better jobs.” Hansen said that it was in labor’s interest to partner with conservation groups. “The more clean the technology needs to be means more jobs with the complex work needed,” he said. “The unions have the best trained workforce.”

Hansen said there would be lots of opportunities for everyone, but a key component would be expanding Career Technical Education. Hansen noted that 150,000 high school students drop out every year, partly because of the emphasis on standardized testing and preparing students for college. “The legislature thinks all students must go to college, but only 20 percent of 9th graders will go to a four year college and graduate,” he said. “The other 80 percent need options other than college and are looking for a different path.”

Hansen said that there were 53,000 apprentices in the state being trained through joint labor management apprenticeship programs. “The apprentices now are positioned to do the jobs of the future,” he said. “We need contractors and the business community to be involved and understand what’s happening in the green economy.” He said with the budget deficit there was no new money in the system to expand training and Career Tech Education and Republicans oppose any new tax hikes. He said the SBCTC was supporting a Green Technology bill by Assemblymember Loni Hancock that included funds for training as well as a bond measure authored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg to fund Career Tech Education in high schools.

Hansen pointed out that there were some who wanted use cap-and-trade to allow businesses to trade emissions reductions made out of state. “How will that help California?” he asked.

Hansen, who is also an appointee to the California Energy Commission, said Labor has to be involved in the process of implementing AB 32 at every step along the way. “We’re on the right track; we’re ahead of the non-union sector,” he said. “We have to partner with business and environmentalists and remember our shared social agenda.”