Name: Ensuring High Quality Job Creation in the Buildout of Clean Energy Infrastructure
Start: 2025-04-03T16:45:00-0400
End: 2025-04-03T18:00:00-0400

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Thursday April 3, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm EDT

Abromson Room 213

Climate infrastructure must be rapidly built in the next 5 to 25 years to meet impending demands of decarbonization in the face of growing climate risks. With the new federal administration, the infusion of massive investments in the green economy is at risk, as well as the labor standards that helped make these investments a historic win for the working class. Yet despite the unclear future of pro-labor federal climate investments, the demand for climate solutions will continue to exist and grow. This panel discussion will examine the consequences of building out climate infrastructure with poor working conditions in the solar industry in New York and Texas, the opportunity to rectify these consequences and foster a pro-labor environment in emerging climate industries like thermal energy networks, and pathways to build the high-quality, equitable union workforce to meet this unprecedented moment.

Lessons learned from the growth of the solar industry: The number of solar job postings has more than tripled since 2010 (Curtis & Marinescu, 2023), however, recent findings from two studies supported by the Climate Jobs Institute in the last year have highlighted serious concerns around job quality, from potential legal concerns to severe racial disparities within each sample.

Applying these lessons and the case of thermal energy networks: Thermal energy networks are an emerging technology to reduce emissions from buildings at the block, neighborhood, or campus scale with the potential to utilize the existing unionized fossil fuel workforce. As thermal energy networks or TENs rapidly gained popularity across the U.S., their proliferation offers a chance to apply the lessons learned from the growth of the solar industry and instead create a truly just transition for organized labor and communities alike.

Ensuring the buildout of a just, equitable green economic future for the working class: Building out the needed infrastructure for a climate-safe economy will take millions of workers, but there is no guarantee that these workers will be highly-trained, well-paid, diverse, and treated with dignity on the job. Union-led programs around the country show what is possible when industry leaders and policymakers prioritize high-road job creation and investment in skill development. Successful models of pre-apprenticeship that specifically support expanding diversity in the trades provide a roadmap for how community, labor, government, and industry can work together to ensure an equitable transition.

Moderators

Rohan Palacios

Extension Support Specialist, Climate Jobs Institute

Speakers

Avalon Hoek Spaans

Assistant Director of Research, Climate Jobs Institute

Jillian Morley

Research Support Specialist, Climate Jobs Institute

Reyna Cohen

Research and Policy Development Associate, Climate Jobs Institute

Melissa Shetler

Assistant Director of Labor Outreach and Workforce Equity, Climate Jobs Institute

Melissa began her labor career as a community organizer with the Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund (LIUNA), working to build multi-stakeholder community labor coalitions to ensure quality and labor standards in affordable housing. She was the Director of Organizing and Political... Read More →

Thursday April 3, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm EDT
Abromson Room 213 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101

Panel Discussion

Just Transitions Summit

Rohan Palacios

Avalon Hoek Spaans

Jillian Morley

Reyna Cohen

Melissa Shetler

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