Biden wants to tackle climate change. His pitch is all about jobs.
Gina McCarthy has a message. In press briefings and interviews over the past month, the blunt-talking White House national climate adviser 鈥� dubbed by some the 鈥淎nthony Fauci of the environment鈥� 鈥� has repeated the same refrain, again and again.
It isn鈥檛 about polar bears, or melting ice caps, or even protecting the Earth for our children and grandchildren.
Instead, Ms. McCarthy鈥檚 message is about employment.聽
Why We Wrote This
Citing climate science, the Biden administration is urging a wholesale transformation of the U.S. economy toward clean energy. Here's why its big proposal is framed around jobs, not environmental alarm bells.
鈥淲hen he hears the word 鈥榗limate,鈥欌�� she said of President Joe Biden at a press briefing earlier this month, in a line that has become familiar, 鈥渉e thinks jobs.鈥�
She went on to discuss the possibilities of new innovation, of 鈥済rabbing back the supply chain we have lost offshore,鈥� and about 鈥済rowing millions of good-paying union jobs.鈥�
鈥淲e need to show people that America matters, that we are going to be leaders again,鈥� she said.聽
She is far from alone in this rhetoric, which runs more campaign-trail-meets-unions than traditional environmentalism. Ever since President Biden unveiled his sweeping $2 trillion American Jobs Plan on March 31, there has been a decided narrative shift among administration officials advocating for climate action. Largely absent are the doomsday predictions and dire timetables for warming temperatures. In their place are breathless visions of an American-dominated electric vehicle industry, predictions of entrepreneurial innovation, and promises of clean energy independence.
All of this, those who follow climate policy say, is intentional. In part, the goal is to win vital labor support for the administration鈥檚 huge environmental investment proposal 鈥� an effort that shows some early signs of success. More broadly, the aim is to merge the long-siloed policy areas of jobs and environmental protection.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 no longer the green economy, the clean economy 鈥� it鈥檚 just the economy,鈥� says Ryan Fitzpatrick, director of the climate and energy program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. 鈥淪o right now it鈥檚 not a conversation about whether we are going to, say, shift to electric vehicles. It鈥檚 about how fast, and how much can we get out ahead of that shift 鈥� for workers, industries, and consumers.鈥�
This, Mr. Fitzpatrick says, has been part of President Biden鈥檚 approach to climate conversations ever since the campaign trail.聽
Indeed, when President Biden introduced his American Jobs Plan at the Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center, he mentioned the word 鈥渃limate鈥� only once. Instead, the focus was on jobs (a word he said 28 times), economic development, and infrastructure. The climate action in the proposal is largely intertwined with these other goals 鈥� $174 billion to electrify the nation鈥檚 transportation system, for instance, which would include a nationwide network of electric vehicle chargers; or $213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit affordable housing, which would include energy efficiency measures.
鈥淐limate is integrated into everything,鈥� says Joel Jaeger, a climate research associate at the World Resources Institute. 鈥淔rom making sure that buildings are resilient to climate impacts to retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient.鈥�
According to Mr. Jaeger鈥檚 analysis, nearly $1 trillion of the plan would go to sectors that fall broadly under the umbrella of climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice. But as Ms. McCarthy said earlier this month, all of that is part of 鈥渧ery good economic policy.鈥澛�
Money invested in retrofitting old buildings, restoring public transportation infrastructure, and developing an electric vehicle charging network, for instance, would reduce emissions but also spark more innovation and allow for future growth, supporters say 鈥� all while providing millions of new jobs, the bulk of which do not require a college degree.聽
Many unions have gotten on board with support, including some that opposed the Green New Deal resolution. That 2019 plan, generally seen as a politically left-wing proposal, attempted to merge environmental action with social justice goals, including employment.
Lonnie R. Stephenson, for instance, international president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which opposed the Green New Deal, said the American Jobs Plan would be 鈥渃reating millions of good-paying union jobs building a 21st century modern infrastructure and a clean-energy future for our nation.
鈥淚t will also spur a renaissance in made-in-America manufacturing, bringing new jobs back to American communities,鈥� he said in a statement.
鈥婥oncerns remain, however. On the right, many still connect climate action鈥� to 鈥渓iberal, environmentalist job killing,鈥� as Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, put it in a statement opposing Mr. Biden鈥檚 proposal.鈥� 鈥婳n the left, some advocates believe that truly addressing climate change will require significant 鈥媟ollback of energy-hog 鈥媗ifestyle鈥媠 and patterns of global capitalism, while others worry about how to ensure that green jobs offer living standards equal to the fossil fuel jobs they are replacing.
In a February interview with Axios, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised President Biden for hiring labor-attuned advisers, but to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline without a clear jobs plan for affected Plains-state workers.
Still, some researchers say investment in green infrastructure can than those lost in fossil fuels. Congress will be debating the details of the Biden plan, but one independent forecast, by Moody鈥檚 Analytics, projects the U.S. economy will have in 2030 under the Biden infrastructure plan than without it.
鈥婣mid the long-standing debate over the economics of 鈥媍ombating climate change鈥�, some experts say the Biden team鈥檚 effort to unite climate policy and jobs comes as a relief. 鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e been pushing in this direction for a long time,鈥� says Steven Cohen, a professor at Columbia University who is the former executive director of the school鈥檚 Earth Institute. 鈥淧ersonally, I think part of the problem with people who study climate change is 鈥� they want to make people do without in order to address the climate issues. And that, politically, isn鈥檛 going to go anywhere.鈥�
Far from being at odds, climate action and jobs have a positive relationship, Dr. Cohen and other researchers have long argued. Studies from groups ranging from the Sierra Club to the business and environment group E2 show that climate-related investment leads to job growth. And many advocacy organizations have been working behind the scenes for years, promoting both this approach to climate action and the collaboration between labor and environmentalists.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a very consistent message 鈥� to both labor and the environmental movement that we have to come up out of our silos that have kept us apart and learn how to work together,鈥� says Joe Uehlein, president of the Labor Network for Sustainability. 鈥淭he environmental movement is now speaking out on jobs and worker protection policies in a way that is somewhat new, and certainly reinvigorated, in a big way. On the other side, there are a number of big unions that are moving on the climate issue.鈥�
Increasingly, too, corporations have come to see unchecked global warming as a major threat to their future prospects. 鈥婣nd a鈥� growing network of conservative-leaning clean energy organizations is promoting renewable power as an economic opportunity.聽
To some extent, scholars say, all of this might be moving the climate debate away from the identity marker it has been to a more classic policy debate, in which belief about climate change matters less than one鈥檚 position on government investment and priorities.聽
As Mr. Fitzpatrick says, 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to care about climate change to want to secure the supply chain for electric vehicles.鈥�
