A year and a few days have passed since the US Congress passed and President Biden signed into effect the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is pumping previously unknown amounts of resources into clean energy projects like part of the crucial fight against climate change.
The law paved the way for a firm turn in the direction the country’s economy is heading.
Quickly, new industrial plants have emerged dedicated to the development of wind and solar energy, as well as the production of batteries and the manufacture and assembly of electric vehicles, among other projects.
A report from Climate Power was released last week, according to which 46,660 new clean energy jobs have been created since the law was enacted, predominantly in Latino communities and of color in states such as Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California and Colorado.
The Inflation Reduction Act was a unique victory in the Biden presidency. He had to put aside other no less important legislative objectives in order to invest all the political capital he had. In this sense, he recalls the historic dilemma that Barack Obama also had to face, who managed to promote and approve the law called Obamacare in 2009, being forced to set aside, for example, immigration reform.
However, because of the opposition of those who profit from pollution and their allies, the fight undertaken by the government to save the country from the worst consequences of climate change, perhaps took too long to arrive and culminate.
It would be naive to assume that the battle for public opinion has been won. Because through the mass media, by the strength of their economic and political weight, by their ability to define the terms of debate, dialogue, even vocabulary, polluters – especially or directly the big oil companies – they fight and will fight to the last breath for their source of profit.
And what they are trying to establish is that they are the ones creating good jobs for the Latino and African American communities, and that new investments in clean energy will hurt them. You could not be more wrong.
In this field in which realities and the very concept of knowledge are disputed, real numbers become more important. Especially this crucial fact: “65.5% of new clean energy jobs and 73.8% of new projects are in communities of color across the United States.” From this data a correct social equation can be deduced: clean energy and in general the fight for a better environment and against global warming is a progressive, just fight. But it is, not because we hurt the fate of an endangered species like the California eagle, not because our feelings are hurt. It is fairly progressive and I would even say inevitable because the path of pollution is the path of poverty and economic crisis, and the path of clean energy is that of development. All this without even counting the harmful effects on health caused by environmental pollution.
As for Latino communities, Climate Power’s deeply detailed study states that “in total, are there 61 projects in communities with Hispanic/Latino populations above the national average? Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California and Colorado are the top states for new energy jobs in Hispanic/Latino communities.”
The authors compared the information on investments in industries related to electrification in general with statistical data on the population of the place where their projects are developed, taken from the last Census.
The jobs created in the clean energy economy are good jobs, with wages rising between 8% and 19% for workers compared to jobs they had before, as this Brookings Institution study confirms. By comparison and contrary to what polluting companies claim, jobs in oil and gas are stagnant. Most of them are gas station attendants, whose median annual salary is around $25,000, which is in the federally determined poverty line area for a family of four. The report says that in the electric car industry, median wages exceed $80,000 per year, which is comparable to the best earnings that miners can receive in coal mines in Northern California, while their national average is $58,000. by year.
It would seem that we are on the threshold of a new era for the industry, and that the transition beyond oil and gas, far from being a negative element, is synonymous with development and progress, even before taking into account that this process saves lives and prevents serious diseases.
That’s right: in 2021 and 2022, jobs in the energy sector grew faster than overall employment, reaching a total of 8 million jobs nationwide…
An analysis by the World Resources Institute finds that globally, green investments generally create more jobs per million dollars than investments related to fossil fuels.
This led Joel Jaeger, lead author of the report, to say: “Investing in the climate is not a cost but an economic opportunity.”
The situation is not perfect: many of these jobs are informal and unprotected, especially in developing countries, compared to those that are shrinking. But the trend is clear. And it gives reason for optimism.
Yes, ultimately the transition away from coal, gas and oil, fossils that are extracted from the depths of the earth, will put thousands of people out of work. It is also true that some of the new jobs are not necessarily being created in the same areas. And that other new jobs such as the manufacture of solar panels do not provide the corresponding income for highly qualified personnel.
But at any point in the business cycle, there are entire industries that rise and fall, because they mean obsolete technologies or dangerous products or simply no demand. Of course, it is the job of governments to defend and help those who lose their jobs and to support their organization.
But that doesn’t mean keeping outdated industries alive.
Concern for the stability of thousands of workers is in place. But that is not what motivates the opposition of the polluting companies. For them they are just manipulated pretexts.
Finally, the closure of old infrastructure means an opportunity for regions and countries to take a great technological leap forward, as a way for their further development.