- In The News
- June 2024
Michigan Advance: As Michigan’s clean energy industry expands, the state is helping workers with the transition
June 27, 2024
Michigan Advance writes how the state’s Community and Worker Economic Transition Office is poised to help workers transition to the clean energy economy.
“As Michigan sets its sights on 100% clean energy sources, and automakers shift production away from gas-powered vehicles to electric models, a newly established office within the Department of Labor of Economic and Opportunity (LEO) is looking at efforts to help workers bridge the gap between jobs working with fossil fuels, to those working with renewables.
Created as part of the clean energy and climate package signed into law in November, the Community and Worker Economic Transition Office in hopes of facilitating a just transition by retaining and creating jobs in autos, manufacturing and energy.
While the office has not received state funding, it has leveraged federal funding and philanthropic investments to begin retooling manufacturers most impacted by a shift to renewables, support clean energy workforce training and diversify Michigan’s energy supply chain.
In conversations with stakeholders including labor groups, local government officials and business leaders, Jonathan Smith, LEO senior chief deputy director, said the most critical thing discussed was acting before an economic change occurs and brings about negative impacts.”
About the Alliance
Launched in 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 61-66 percent by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories continue to advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the latest data shows that as of 2023, the Alliance has reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent below 2005 levels, while increasing collective GDP by 34 percent, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal of reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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