Chicago, Ill.
America is facing two serious threats to our national security: the widening industrial and technology gap between the United States and our competitors and the vulnerability of our increasing dependence on foreign oil. It is time for our nation to take bold steps to meet the 21st century challenge of achieving energy independence in one generation. The AFL-CIO is committed to working with strategic allies towards achieving this important goal.
The United States has lost 2.7 million high-skill and high-wage manufacturing jobs since January 1, 2001. A significant strategic public investment in energy innovation and increased efficiency could create millions of high-skill and high-wage jobs, not only in the energy sector, but in construction, manufacturing, transportation, government, and service industries, using skilled labor and ingenuity to replace waste and pollution. Investing in the industries of tomorrow and rebuilding the infrastructure of our cities today will dramatically reduce dependence on foreign oil, improve the stability of the energy sector, and contribute to a cleaner environment. Failure to make these investments squanders energy and costs the economy billions of dollars and millions of jobs.
The Apollo Project, a ten-point plan for good jobs and energy independence, lays out a clear strategy that could have significant benefits for America’s workers. New efficiency incentives would accelerate capital stock turnover and increase demand for durable goods. Energy efficiency retrofits would drive new investment into existing plants, worker training, and economic development. Energy efficient appliances use more skilled labor in their manufacture, and new product markets can increase demand for U.S. goods today. Distributed renewable generation requires new investments in the electricity grid and new jobs for linemen. Deploying best available technology in existing power plants means more person-hours of work and less pollution. New research and development of clean coal technology like Integrated Gassification and Carbon Capture can provide new clean energy resources for export, and ensure reliable clean energy at home. Deploying a hydrogen infrastructure will serve as an engine for good jobs retrofitting distribution networks and manufacturing fuel cells. This research and infrastructure investment should not be delayed. Through an aggressive plan for energy independence, the nation's manufacturing centers can be revitalized as a global hub for hydrogen and hybrid cars and new energy-efficient products.
An Apollo Project for Good Jobs and Energy Independence would also drive demand for a new generation of skilled and certified construction jobs in high-performance building. Buildings consume more than a third of U.S. energy, and the average home produces more pollution than the average car. K-12 schools spend over $6 billion on energy each year, and educational buildings alone account for over 8 billion square feet of floor space nationwide. New investments in more efficient boilers and chillers, upgraded lighting, and improved building systems will stimulate demand for manufactured products, and skilled operations and maintenance. Our nation’s built environment provides tremendous opportunities to achieve cost-effective energy savings and environmental performance improvements, while saving consumers money and creating jobs in the building and construction trades.
A new Apollo Project for energy independence could also offer relief to states and cities, as they suffer the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression. State budget deficits are approaching $100 billion, and metropolitan regions face nearly $2 trillion in neglected infrastructure needs. Poorly planned development and insufficient investment in infrastructure means more time in the car and more money spent on gasoline, lost investment in cities, eroding tax bases, and subsidized business flight. Every $1 billion invested in surface transportation supports 47,500 jobs, yet transit spending lags behind demand, the nation’s rail and road systems are not maintained, and new high-speed rail projects remain unfunded. Sustaining strong levels of investment in construction and maintenance of our national and interstate highway system through the highway and transit bill must remain a high priority to relieve congestion, create good jobs, preserve our quality of life, and promote economic development. Efficient infrastructure improves the quality of public services and protects the environment, even as it saves money and preserves good jobs in construction, transportation, and the public sector.
Technology innovation and industrial leadership have always been led by public investment in basic science, research and development, and deployment of shared public infrastructure. Just as investments in the space program led to the creation of new industries and new products—from baby formula to smoke detectors, to satellites and cell phones—and government investment led to the development of the interstate highway system and the market for computer chips, investing in energy independence will revitalize domestic production and benefit working families, driving a new generation of American-made products to market.
But America risks being left behind as other nations invest in the industries of tomorrow. Poised on the edge of a hydrogen revolution, we import fuel cells from non-union plants in Canada; Japanese automakers dominate high-performance hybrid car markets; Germany leads exports of photovoltaic solar panels; and Denmark and Spain own the market for wind turbines.
Bold federal leadership on energy independence will improve our national security by reducing dependence on imported Middle East oil, and improve our economic security at home, by closing the technology gap between the United States and our economic competitors, creating jobs and stimulating growth. An aggressive plan for energy independence would improve U.S. productivity, helping reverse the corrosive effects of failed trade policies and the lack of effective urban and industrial policy. It would promote increased corporate accountability, by linking subsidies to real public benefits and ensuring a positive role for government. An Apollo Project would support labor capital strategies, creating increased opportunities for institutional investment and economic development that benefits workers, consumers, and the environment.
The AFL-CIO supports a number of energy policies and initiatives. The bold and broad-based Apollo Project for Good Jobs and Energy Independence represents an additional approach for promoting good jobs, driven by significant public investment and backed by meaningful standards that ensure domestic job creation and real efficiency and environmental gains.
The AFL-CIO further supports regional grassroots efforts to advance these important goals for working families:
1) Promote Advanced Technology And Hybrid Cars: Begin today to provide incentives for converting domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient cars, transitioning the fleet to American-made advanced technology vehicles, increasing consumer choice and strengthening the U.S. auto industry, backed by meaningful public investment and equitable standards.
2) Invest In More Efficient Factories: Make innovative use of the tax code and economic development systems to promote more efficient and profitable manufacturing while saving energy through environmental retrofits, improved boiler operations, and industrial cogeneration of electricity, retaining jobs by investing in plants and workers.
3) Encourage High Performance Building: Increase investment in construction of “green buildings” and energy-efficient homes and offices through innovative financing and incentives, improved building operations, and updated codes and standards, helping working families, businesses, and government realize substantial cost savings.
4) Increase Use of Energy-Efficient Appliances: Drive a new generation of highly efficient manufactured products into widespread use, without driving U.S. jobs overseas, by linking higher energy efficiency standards to consumer and manufacturing incentives that increase demand for new durable goods and increase investment in U.S. factories.
5) Modernize Electrical Infrastructure: Invest in a “smart” electrical grid to meet 21st century energy needs. Deploy the best available technology—like scrubbers—to existing plants, protecting jobs and the environment; research new technology to capture and sequester carbon and improve transmission to serve distributed renewable generation.
6) Expand Renewable Energy Development: Diversify energy sources by promoting existing technologies in solar, biomass and wind, while setting ambitious but achievable goals for increasing renewable generation, and promoting state and local policy innovations that link clean energy and jobs.
7) Improve Transportation Options: Increase mobility, job access, and transportation choice by investing in effective multimodal networks, including bicycle, local bus and rail transit, regional high-speed rail and magnetic levitation rail projects.
8) Reinvest In Smart Urban Growth: Revitalize urban centers to promote strong cities and good jobs by rebuilding and upgrading local infrastructure, including road maintenance, bridge repair, and water and waste water systems, and by expanding redevelopment of idled urban “brownfield” lands, and by improving metropolitan planning and governance.
9) Plan For A Hydrogen Future: Invest in long-term research and development of hydrogen fuel cell technology and deploy the infrastructure to support hydrogen-powered cars and distributed electricity generation using stationary fuel cells, to create jobs in the industries of the future.
10) Strengthen Regulatory Protections: Encourage balanced growth and investment through regulation that ensures energy diversity and system reliability, that protects workers and the environment, that rewards consumers, and that establishes a fair framework for emerging technologies.