WASHINGTON, DC — Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at a virtual Labor Energy Partnership (LEP) workshop about Ohio’s opportunity to play a leading role in clean energy manufacturing, and the need for good paying, union jobs as the country shifts towards a low-carbon economy.
Brown believes the best way to invest in Ohio’s future is to use creative, high-tech solutions to reduce emissions and develop next-generation energy technology with the jobs and industries that are in Ohio.
“We know our state has some of the best manufacturing talent in the country. We have the history, we have the workers, we have the passion and the innovation – we have the factories and the space, ready to be retooled or repurposed or retrofitted,” said Brown. “We just need the investment.”
The LEP is a project of the AFL-CIO and the Energy Futures Initiative. It promotes decarbonization while maintaining the union jobs in industries that produce carbon, like manufacturing. The LEP sees the Ohio River Valley as a potential hub for carbon capture and use due in part to the region’s skilled work force. Brown was joined at the workshop by Ernest J. Moniz, CEO and founder of the Energy Futures Initiative.
“At the Labor Energy Partnership, we recognize the importance of regional solutions—climate solutions will not look the same in every part of the country. The Ohio River Valley has incredible potential for becoming a leading hydrogen and CCUS hub, creating thousands of good-paying, union jobs,” said Moniz.
Brown stressed investment from legislation, like the American Jobs Plan, would enhance human and physical infrastructure to improve the quality of life and provide living wages for hardworking Ohioans. Along with this historic investment, Brown also stressed the need for companies to work collaboratively with unions in a 21st century economy, so that productivity, innovation, and workers’ standard of living increase in tandem.
The American Jobs Plan contains several critical investments that would benefit Ohioans and their communities. The proposal would:
Revitalize manufacturing, secure U.S. supply chains, invest in R&D, and train Americans for the jobs of the future, by:
Create good-quality jobs that pay prevailing wages in safe and healthy workplaces while ensuring workers have a free and fair choice to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively with their employers, by:
Fix highways, rebuild bridges, and upgrade ports, airports and transit systems, by:
Deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, and high-speed broadband to all Americans, by:
Build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings, modernize our nation’s schools and child care facilities, and upgrade veterans’ hospitals and federal buildings, by:
Solidify the infrastructure of our care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers, the majority of whom are women of color, by:
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