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Attacking Global Warming Could Rebuild Manufacturing
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Over the past decade, more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the United States. But effective public policies could revive the manufacturing industry, political leaders and economists told a forum, sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) as part of its Agenda for Shared Prosperity, earlier this week.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who keynoted the forum, said creating jobs to tackle global warming and create renewable energy is key to manufacturing. Brown says we can build a high-productivity, high-wage manufacturing sector that also meets other national goals, such as securing energy independence.
We are at a fork in the road and each single day we spend without working to renew American manufacturing means two days by our children and grandchildren paying the debt. There are choices we have to make—on climate change, on trade, on tax policy. Congress will address climate change—and with that the creation of a market for clean energy and green jobs.
By creating markets for clean energy, not only can we stabilize our nation’s energy supply and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, we can also bolster manufacturing. From wind, to solar, to biofuels, to clean coal technology, we have the capacity to become a leader in clean, alternative energy manufacturing.
About 10 percent of U.S. workers are employed in manufacturing, which accounts for some 12 percent of total gross domestic product and more than half of the nation’s spending on research and development. Manufacturing continues to be a source of better-paying jobs compared with other types of employment, especially for non-college-educated workers.
Several economists presented studies showing that focusing on climate change could be the catalyst to rebuild manufacturing. As EPI President Lawrence Mishel said:
Too often we are told that attacking the challenge of climate change will harm our economic wellbeing. But these studies show this is a false choice. A responsible energy policy can also create hundreds of thousands of good-paying “green jobs” and help restore our vital manufacturing sector.
Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University, estimated that a program that creates sufficient renewable energy to meet 10 percent of U.S. electricity demand would employ about 340,000 people. But revitalizing manufacturing will require that everyone—workers, government and business—is involved, she said.
She called for adopting policies:
that harness the knowledge of all of a firm’s stakeholders to create a highly productive, high-wage economy.
Helper also proposed that government develop policies to help manufacturing build high-road production and discourage employers from taking the low road. For example, she said we need policies that train skilled workers, increase workers’ bargaining power, provide universal health care and adjustment assistance to displaced workers.
To discourage employers from taking the low road, she calls for including labor and environmental rights in trade treaties, pushing China to revalue its currency and strengthening regulation of unsafe products and workplaces. George Sterzinger, executive director of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, said the United States imports large amounts of oil, while it allows companies that foster technological advantages related to renewable energy to move overseas. Instead, he said, the role of government in any climate stabilization program:
should be to stimulate private industry to commercialize and produce as many carbon-free technologies as possible. Federal incentives should steer private actors to provide public benefits, the reduction of carbon dioxide.
Helper offered a series of policy solutions the federal government should undertake.
- Raise the cost of greenhouse gas emissions and stop treating air as a “free carbon dump.”
- Use revenue from energy policy for social purposes—addressing market failures and providing relief for low- and middle-class citizens.
- Fund new initiatives in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
- Reward companies that adopt “high-road” production, working together with employees and suppliers to make better use of information technology.
- Prevent the creation of greenhouse gas havens in other parts of the world.
- Help developing countries reduce emissions as well.
Just yesterday, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, held at the United Nations, that the global economy cannot prosper unless we secure a stable climate and sustainable sources of energy.
In the final analysis, Brown said, the future of manufacturing depends on the political will to make important policy changes.
Manufacturing has been and continues to be the engine of U.S. economic growth. There is a valuable work ethic in manufacturing. There is dignity in manufacturing. [Americans] understand the words of Pope John Paul II: “We judge any economic system by what it does for and to ordinary people and by how it permits all to participate in it. The economy should serve the people, not the other way around.”
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1 Comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Let’s not concentrate exclusively on wind and solar renewable energy. Biomass energy is available all the time and many kinds of wastes can be used. This is considered slightly carbon negative to carbon neutral.
Manufacturing gasfication and pyrolysis systems could rejuvenate our manufacturing base while producing a means for “distributed energy.” Renewable energy efforts should absolutely concentrate on biomass systems because they can be constructed in any number of local fabricator shops and be operational in a matter of months.
joel.keller@randaenergysolutions.com