Union Members, Environmentalists Continue Cross-Country Bus Tour to Demand Senate Action on Clean Energy Jobs

Indianapolis, IN – A bus tour that highlights the potential to create good American jobs by passing comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate stopped in Indianapolis today urging Senators Bayh and Lugar to support action on comprehensive legislation that will create and save millions of American, clean energy jobs, including up to 45,000 jobs in Indiana.

“Nearly 1 out of 10 Americans are still out of work and we need action now to create and preserve millions of jobs across the country,” said Jim Lardin, President of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7703. “We have a solution right at our fingertips — we can create good jobs here in Indiana with clean energy.”

The Job’s Not Done tour will travel to 17 states — with more than 30 stops along the way — and feature clean energy workers, union members and environmentalists urging Senate action on important job-creating clean energy legislation. Workers on The Job’s Not Done Tour worry that China will take the millions of potential jobs that will result from the transition to a clean energy economy.

“Instead of importing clean energy technologies, we should develop and manufacture the technology to harness American energy here at home,” said Mark Mullholand, a member of USW Local 1915 in Fremont, Ohio. “We can’t afford to let China take the millions of jobs that could be created in America by transitioning to clean energy.”

“Comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation will put America back on the path to economic success — revitalizing current industries and creating new ones, establishing the United States as the undisputed leader in clean energy technologies, and creating good American clean energy jobs now,” said Gerald Nickelson, President of IUE-CWA Local 86114 in Washington, Missouri.

The tour will continue to Ohio and wraps up on September 3 in Richmond, Virginia. For more information, visit www.bluegreenalliance.org.

“This tour is a reminder that millions of people are out of work, and clean energy is the best way to jumpstart the American economy. We need the Senate to get back to work and get the job done — for our families, the economy, our environment, and the future,” said Bowden Quinn, the Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter.