AFL-CIO Calls for Energy Policy to Fight Global Warming

by James Parks, Jul 26, 2007

The AFL-CIO is strongly backing efforts to combat global warming, achieve energy independence and revitalize American manufacturing in the process.  

Bob Baugh, co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on July 24 that along with fighting global warming, the United States needs an energy policy for the 21st century “that will result in a cleaner planet, greater energy efficiency and the revitalization of our manufacturing base.”

Climate change is a serious environmental threat in need of a prompt legislative response by the U.S. Congress. It is also an opportunity for our nation to prove that economic development and environmental progress can and should go hand-in-hand. 

To help achieve these goals, the AFL-CIO has endorsed the Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007. Introduced by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the bill sets a goal of reducing the nation’s carbon emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050.

Electrical Workers President Edwin Hill says the legislation

offers an effective approach to address climate change while allowing our economy to grow. The fact that this bill is the only climate change legislation that also addresses the problems of international participation in emissions control makes it unique.

 In February, the Energy Task Force issued a report, saying: 

It is time for our nation to take bold steps to meet the 21st century challenges related to energy policy. We believe our nation should embrace a balanced approach that assures abundant, affordable energy supplies, creates good paying jobs for American workers, improves the environment, and reduces our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

 A growing body of scientific evidence has confirmed the environmental challenges posed by global warming. Human use of fossil fuels is undisputedly contributing to global warming, causing rising sea levels, changes in climate patterns and threats to coastal areas. Because of these dangers, the AFL-CIO supports balanced measures to combat global warming.  

Click here to read the entire report.

America’s workers have a direct stake in the nation’s energy policy. Since 1998, the United States has lost more than 3.5 million manufacturing jobs and more than 40,000 manufacturing facilities have closed. Reliable and affordable electrical energy is the lifeblood of the manufacturing, transportation, construction and service industries, according to the Energy Task Force report.

To ensure a steady supply of electricity for manufacturing and still meet carbon reduction goals, we have to use our existing coal resources, Baugh says. The United States has the largest known coal deposits in the world (see chart), a resource that provides over half of the electrical energy in the country. But we must use our coal more efficiently, he says, by speeding up development of new technologies that make burning coal cleaner. 

We also must address the need for more fuel efficient and cleaner cars. The automobile industry makes up 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. But many of the advanced technology vehicles that burn fuel more efficiently are now assembled overseas, and virtually all of the key components are built in foreign countries.

A study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute demonstrates that federal incentives to encourage domestic production can reverse this trend, create jobs and result in higher tax revenues for the federal and state governments, Baugh says.

To strengthen the automotive industry, the AFL-CIO and the UAW have called for Congress to establish a Marshall Plan to help re-tool the U.S. auto industry to accelerate domestic production of advanced technology and alternative fuel vehicles and their key components.  

But building more environmentally friendly cars and cleaner fuel technology will not be enough to end global warming and revive manufacturing unless other nations, especially developing countries, also are involved.

Mexico and Brazil account for more than half the carbon emissions from Central and South America.  Deforestation is estimated to account for 20 percent to 30 percent of carbon emissions due to the burning of forests in the Amazon basin to create land for development.  

The biggest culprit for global warming soon may be China, Baugh says. By some estimates, China passed the United States in carbon emissions in 2006. They have a new  “1950’s technology” coal plant coming online every week with 500 plants being planned. They are dirty but cheap to build.

Unabated, by 2030 China’s emission will grow 139 percent and make up 26 percent of the world’s total. They and other major developing nations must be part of the solution or everything we and other nations do to cut carbon emissions will be for naught. China, and other rapidly developing countries are already a magnet for manufacturers seeking to avoid labor, environmental, currency and other standards. 

With 70 percent of China’s foreign direct investment in manufacturing, the new plants that are spitting pollution also will suck up good American jobs, Baugh says. 

To put it bluntly, it is not in our national interest to see our efforts to reduce carbon emissions become yet another advantage that a developing nation uses to attract business. However, it is in our interest and the worlds interest to have developing nations become part of the solution because the problem cannot be solved without them.

Click here to read Baugh’s testimony.

United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, who joined last year with the Sierra Club to form the Blue Green Alliance, sums it up this way:

We need to put an end to the lies, the myths, the hysteria, that say you can have either a clean environment or good jobs. You can have both, or you have neither.

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