A fair and equitable transition must keep workers and communities whole, revitalize and diversify local economies, and address racial inequities while ensuring the retention and creation of–and accessible pathways into–good-paying, union jobs. Therefore, many of the policy ideas and structural recommendations in this document are applicable to a wide universe of communities and workers in the energy economy. These ideas include the recognition that the best approach to energy transition among workers and communities not already impacted is one that prevents economic disruption and employment loss.

This platform recommends policies that will bring immediate and long-term benefits to workers and communities. Immediate economic recovery policies are now even more desperately needed as a result of COVID-19 and its health and economic impacts. Low-income communities, communities of color, and deindustrialized communities were already hurting before the pandemic, with lower wages, higher poverty, and disproportionate exposures to toxic pollution and climate threats. Prioritizing the policies outlined in this plan and targeting recovery efforts to these workers and communities is therefore more important than ever.

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