Join the BlueGreen Alliance
Help us identify ways to turn today’s environmental challenges into job-creating and economic opportunities!The growing demand for clean energy goods generates enormous potential to create quality manufacturing jobs that tend to have higher pay and stronger union density.
The Challenge
When imported, many clean energy goods are ironically made with higher-than-average pollution. That’s because overseas corporations tend to be more emissions-intensive than U.S. facilities in producing the aluminum, steel, and cement that goes into wind turbines, solar panels, and other goods. Producing the average ton of steel in China, for example, causes twice as much emissions as in the United States. Onshoring clean manufacturing would help to reduce such emissions.
Numerous studies find that the decline in U.S. manufacturing under unfair trade policies has contributed to income inequality. Laid-off manufacturing workers have been forced to compete for lower-paying jobs in other sectors, sending middle class wages downward across the economy. Less reported is the fact that the manufacturing decline and resulting pay cuts have disproportionately impacted Black workers. Black manufacturing employment has fallen more than 30% since the late 1990s, contributing to the Black-white wage gap. Targeted manufacturing growth can help to reverse these trends in support of a more equitable economy. We cannot rebuild prosperity if we fall behind the rest of the world in building the technologies of the future, or if working people and the communities they live in fail to see the gains from innovation and a cleaner economy.
The Opportunity
The United States can once again lead the world in manufacturing the technologies and products of the future. In line with achieving net zero emissions economy-wide by 2050—we can modernize and transform our industrial base to make it the cleanest and most advanced in the world, while spurring the creation of a new generation of good, safe jobs manufacturing clean technology. Manufacturing directly employs about one in 11 American workers, and contributes $2 trillion a year to the gross domestic product (GDP), including the industry’s purchases of goods and materials. Additionally, manufacturing accounts for one-third of U.S. economic output or more.
Today, the growing demand for clean energy goods creates enormous potential to create quality manufacturing jobs that tend to have higher pay and stronger union density than other available jobs. By harnessing that potential to create clean energy manufacturing jobs in deindustrialized communities, we can boost economic security and build broader support for the climate action we need.
The Inflation Reduction Act makes historic investments to expand clean energy and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, and to transform the industrial sector to reduce emissions and enhance competitiveness. These investments will be a game-changer in boosting clean manufacturing in the United States. The more than $50 billion in clean manufacturing investments in the law will create an estimated 900,000 jobs over the next decade.
Key Facts
More than $50 Billion The Inflation Reduction Act includes more than $50 billion clean manufacturing investments. (Source)
900,000 Jobs over 10 years The more than $50 billion in clean manufacturing investments in the Inflation Reduction Act will create an estimated 900,000 jobs over the next decade.. (Source)
30% Black manufacturing employment has fallen more than 30% since the late 1990s, contributing to the Black-white wage gap.. (Source)