Hill Heat

THE CLIMATE JOBS SUMMIT

Live video

AGENDA SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

9:30 AM Welcome, Purpose, and Review of the Day

• Gary LaBarbara, President, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and New York State Building and Construction Trades Council & Climate Jobs NY
• Michael Fishman, President and Executive Director, Climate Jobs National Resource Center

Opening Lightning Round: Messages from Labor and Allies on How to Ensure Good Jobs In Clean Energy Industries

• Maulian Dana, Tribal Ambassador, Penobscot Nation
• Eric Dean, General President International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers (IW)
• Lily Gardner, Sunrise Movement member
• Aliya Haq, Vice President, U.S. Policy and Advocacy, Breakthrough Energy
• Becky Pringle, President, National Education Association (NEA)
• Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

CJNRC Video

10:15 AM Ali Zaidi, Deputy White House National Climate Advisor

10:30 AM American Jobs Plan: Impact & Opportunities for Clean Energy and Good Jobs

• Moderator: Lara Skinner, Director, Labor Leading on Climate Initiative, Worker Institute at Cornell University ILR School
• Marilyn Brown, Director, Georgia Tech, Climate and Energy Policy Laboratory
• John Cartwright, President, Toronto/York Labour Council (Retired)
• John Doherty, Special Assistant to the General President, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)
• John Podesta, Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, Center for American Progress (CAP)
• Chris Shelton, President, Communication Workers of America (CWA)

12:00 PM Break

12:15 PM Equity and Good Jobs in a Clean Economy: State Strategies for Winning Labor Standards and Equity in Opportunity

• Moderator: Vincent Alvarez, President, New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO & Climate Jobs NY
• Priscilla De La Cruz, Senior Director, Government Affairs at Audubon Society of Rhode Island, President of the Environment Council of Rhode Island, Co-host Climate Jobs Illinois
• Aziz Dehkan, Executive Director and Lead Organizer, Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs
• Pat Devaney, Secretary-Treasurer, Illinois AFL-CIO & Climate Jobs Illinois
• Cynthia Phinney, President, Maine State Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
• Melissa Shetler, Executive Director, Pathways to Apprenticeship

1:45 PM Two Concurrent Panel Discussions:

Building Carbon Free and Healthy Schools

• Moderator: Nikki Budzinski, Advisor, Climate Jobs National Resource Center
• Joseph Bryant, President, Service Employees International Union, Local 1021 (SEIU)
• Seanelle Leesang, Science Teacher, IS 68 Brooklyn, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)
• JP Patafio, Bus Operator/VP Transportation Workers Union Local 100 (TWU) & Climate Jobs NY
• Anil Singh, 2021 NYC public schools graduate, Sunrise Movement member
• Justin Thompson, Senior Policy Analyst, National Education Association (NEA)
• Gina Walsh, Deputy Director of Heat and Frost Insulators Cooperative Trust & Climate Jobs Illinois Executive Board

Building a Robust, Equitable Offshore Wind Industry in the U.S.

• Moderator: Lee Smith, Managing Member, American Solar Partners (ASP)
• Hae-Lin Choi, New York State Political Director, Communications Workers of America District 1 (CWA)
• Doreen Harris, President and Chief Executive Officer, NY Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
• Eric Hines, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University
• David Langlais, Business Manager, Iron Workers Local 137 (IW)
• Amanda Lefton, Director, Bureau Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM)
• Grant Provost, Business Agent, Iron Workers Local 7 (IW)

3:15 PM Secretary Marty Walsh, U.S. Department of Labor

3:40 PM Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO

3:50 PM Closing and Call to Action

Kyle Bragg, President, Service Employees International Union, 32BJ (SEIU) & Climate Jobs NY

4:00 PM Adjourn

21/09/2021 at 09:30AM

The Senate Democrats’ Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has released a 263-page report detailing a “clean economy” agenda with “bold climate solutions.” Entitled “The Case for Climate Action: Building a Clean Economy for the American People,” the report, which repeatedly emphasizes economic growth and job creation, was developed by the ten-member committee chaired by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Legislation must now be developed to meet the overarching goals of the committee:

• Reduce U.S. emissions rapidly to help achieve 100 percent global net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
• Stimulate economic growth by increasing federal spending on climate action to at least 2 percent of GDP annually—and ensure that at least 40 percent of the benefits from these investments help communities of color and low-income, deindustrialized, and disadvantaged communities.
• Create at least 10 million new jobs.

The report, while largely in the spirit of the Green New Deal platform – in particular in the listing of recommendations from environmental justice leaders – avoids any mention of that phrase. Several of the photographs in the report are of rallies and marches of Green New Deal advocates.

Unlike most Green New Deal advocates, the report makes space for “safer nuclear power” and “fossil generation paired with carbon capture and storage.” “Carbon capture and removal technologies are an essential supplement to decarbonization,” the report argues in an extended section.

An entire chapter of the report is dedicated to “Dark Money” – specifically, the “undue influence from the leaders of giant fossil fuel corporations” who “used weak American laws and regulations governing election spending, lobbying, and giving to advocacy groups to mount a massive covert operation” to “spread disinformation about climate change and obstruct climate action.”

In order to advance bold climate legislation, we must expose the covert influence of wealthy fossil fuel executives, trade associations, and front groups that have done everything possible to obstruct climate action.

The report credits the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision with allowing “fossil fuel political power to effectively capture Republican elected officials nationwide.”

In addition to ten hearings, the committee held twelve in-depth hearings with advocates, four of which were exclusively with corporate executives (utilities, health care, insurance, and banks). Two meetings were held with international representatives (a United Nations representative and European central bankers). Two meetings were with union officials (one included environmentalists); two were with environmental justice activists and mainstream environmentalists; one was with youth climate activists. The last meeting was with surfers and surfing industry representatives.

Notably, the committee did not meet with any climate scientists in academia.

Download the report here.