The EPA has a unique opportunity through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to deliver meaningful, lasting benefits in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

We are pleased to offer comments to the EPA on Indoor Air Quality in buildings, which is an opportunity, especially for school buildings in disadvantaged communities, to protect and improve people’s health while optimizing opportunities for quality job creation. This is aligned with the Justice40 initiative to ensure federal investments benefit disadvantaged communities as well as the Good Jobs Initiative that calls on federal agencies to create good, quality jobs. 

Our Policy Advisor, Ben Davis, responded to questions on Direct Air Capture and on the use of CCUS for industrial facilities, calling for the inclusion of high-road labor standards and strong protections for land, air, and water to be included as the IRS implements the 45Q tax credit.

BlueGreen Alliance Washington held their Apprenticeships 101 workshop where members of several prominent environmental and climate advocacy groups, along with representatives of key trade unions, learned about the role of apprenticeships in building Washington’s skilled, clean energy workforce.

As the U.S. Department of Energy develops its implementation strategy, it should view DPA funding as part of a holistic industrial strategy.

The BlueGreen Alliance joined the Worker Power Coalition in sending a letter to Congressional leadership calling for increased funding for the National Labor Relations Board. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released new guidance for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August, includes—for the first time—high-road labor standards that go hand-in-hand with clean energy deployment. Specifically, to receive the full value of the tax credit, developers will have to pay a prevailing wage and utilize a certain percentage of registered apprentices in the projects. The guidance released today provides further details of how those requirements will work.

We are at a groundbreaking moment for this legislation as the Department of Treasury begins work to implement the centerpiece of this law: the new and strengthened clean energy tax credits. These tax credits have the potential to create good jobs for workers and transform communities and the clean economy.

One of our organizational priorities highlighted in BGA’s Solidarity for Racial Equity is to “Make Drinking Water Safe and Affordable Starting with Lead Service Lines in Disenfranchised and Marginalized Communities.” LSLR represents a significant and scalable opportunity to create good, union jobs, improve the health of entire communities, and address environmental injustice by prioritizing those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by toxic legacy chemicals like lead. 

President Biden today announced the release of a draft supplemental U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to curb methane emissions at oil and gas facilities. In response to the release of the rule, the BlueGreen Alliance released a statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh.

These incentives are the keystone of the climate, justice, and jobs strategy that motivated this legislation, and efficient implementation of them will be critical to meeting our climate goals.

The updated 30D Clean Vehicle Tax Credit represents an opportunity to lower the upfront cost of electric vehicles (EVs) for consumers, to accelerate the deployment of EVs, and to reshape the global automotive supply chain to support auto manufacturing workers and communities here.