New Chart and Graphic Shows State-By-State Breakdown of Jobs Created, Gasoline Saved, Net Savings to Consumers and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction 

With the imminent Obama Administration announcement of historic fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles (54.5 miles per gallon, on average, by 2025), the BlueGreen Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council have assembled a detailed accounting of the huge benefits that are projected to accrue by the year 2030. 

The data include a state-by-state breakdown of the 570,000 jobs that could be created in the United States by 2030 — as well as other benefits from the standard. In addition to the jobs created, the country will save nearly 23 billion of gasoline in 2030 alone, resulting in $54 billion in net savings to consumers and the reduction of 270 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, which helps cause global warming. 

The upcoming 54.5 mpg standards promise to bolster the strong automobile recovery we are seeing today. The chart and graphics with state-by-state numbers can be found below. Click them to see the larger version.

2030 State Benefits of Achieving 54.5 mpg-equivalent Fleet Average in Model Year 2025 

Sources: Natural Resources Defense Council and BlueGreen Alliance

• State fuel and pollution savings are from analysis by NRDC. These figures update and augment similar tables provided in NRDC’s “Relieving Pain at the Pump” publication from April 2012. Main adjustments include updates to fuel prices and vehicle miles traveled per the latest forecasts in the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2012.
• State jobs figures are from BlueGreen Alliance’s analysis for “Gearing Up: Smart Standards Create Good Jobs Building Cleaner Cars”, June 2012. 

Table 1: Jobs Created and Annual Consumer Savings of Model Year 2017 to 2025 Standards in 2030

For additional background information on the new fuel efficiency standards, see http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/obama_administration_set_to_fi.html. 

The BlueGreen Alliance's Rob McCulloch recently replied to a National Journal Transportation Experts blog question"Heavy Trucks, Fuel Efficiency, and Kumbaya?" Below is his response:

Miles to Go, but a Good Start

by Rob McCulloch, Senior Policy and Legislative Advocate for the BlueGreen Alliance.

We have miles yet to go, but yes, as a first step the Obama Administration has found a winning formula in setting the first-ever fuel and pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles with broad consensus.

These vehicles consume up to 37 billion gallons of fuel every year and account for 20 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from the transportation sector, although they make up just 4 percent of all vehicles on the road. As a result, these standards represent an incredible opportunity to lower fuel costs for truckers, cut pollution, save oil, and create jobs.

The estimated cumulative oil savings — more than 500 million barrels of oil over the 5-year program — is equivalent to what America imported last year from Venezuela and Iraq. Furthermore, the estimated market cost to implement these standards would be $7.7 billion, while truckers would save $28 billion at the pump. This means less money spent on oil and reduced shipping costs for goods and services, which means more money going back into the U.S. economy and into the pocketbooks of American workers and families.

Most importantly, it means more job creation to deliver an American-made cleaner truck fleet. Developing and manufacturing cleaner vehicles and their underlying components domestically will bolster efforts to re-energize the U.S. manufacturing sector, which has shed more than a million jobs in the recent economic recession, and strengthen America’s ability to compete in the global economy.

According to recent analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, widespread deployment of more-efficient trucks could create 63,000 additional jobs by 2020, and 124,000 jobs by 2030. All states would see net job growth, with California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan leading the way — each potentially adding more than 4,000 jobs by 2030.

It’s important to note that these savings will largely be accomplished using off-the-shelf technology. Some could argue we are leaving energy savings and pollution reduction on the table with what are generally seen as a mild standard that has buy-in from industry. But make no mistake; this is just the first step. We see this as an opportunity to set a good standard now using today’s technology, and for these vehicles now under a strong, national program that promotes innovation and domestic production, to develop even stronger standards in the future using the technology of tomorrow, creating good jobs along the way.

Joining Forces…

Today marks the beginning of a very exciting new endeavor. With 24 million Americans still out of work or unable to find full-time work, the BlueGreen Alliance and Apollo Alliance announced a merger to strengthen and unify the movement to build a 21^st century clean energy economy to fuel U.S. job creation. The newly unified organization will call on Washington to focus anew on creating good jobs, securing America’s energy future and preserving the environment for future generations. We now represent the strongest, most unified voice for a clean energy, good jobs, made in America economy.

Beginning July 1, the two organizations will combine to become the BlueGreen Alliance which will be home to the Apollo Alliance project. Together, the BlueGreen Alliance and the Apollo Alliance project will engage with labor, environmental, business and community leaders across the country to advance a bold vision of how we can transform our energy future and, at the same time, create good jobs and rebuild our economy.

The announcement was made on a press conference call with Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers, Co-Chair of the BlueGreen Alliance and Apollo Alliance board member, Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Apollo Alliance, Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club, Co-Chair of the BlueGreen Alliance and Apollo Alliance board member, and David Foster, Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance.

They were joined on the call by Senator Brown (D-OH) who announced new legislation — the Strengthening Manufacturing and Rebuilding Transit (SMART) Act — that would invest in American-made transportation infrastructure. The legislation is aimed at enhancing domestic transportation supply chains while maximizing job creation in manufacturing. Supporting the SMART Act was the first step the newly unified organization took together to create good, green jobs in the 21^st Century economy.

“Nearly three years after the bottom fell out of our economy, we are still facing a jobs crisis of historic proportions,” said Leo W. Gerard. “We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines while the U.S. misses the boat on the industries of the 21^st century — the biggest job-creating opportunity in a generation. That is why the BlueGreen Alliance and the Apollo Alliance are joining together today — to build a stronger movement to create good jobs that protect the environment for the next generation.”

“Today, with this collaboration and our support for Senator Brown’s SMART Act, we are sending a powerful message that our highest priority must be to build an economy of good jobs and broadly shared prosperity in place of the financial speculation and recklessness that brought our economy to its knees,” said Phil Angelides. “Together, we are committed to building a new green economy for America's future that will meet the convergent threats of climate change, dependence on foreign oil, and unacceptable joblessness.”

“We are thrilled that two great organizations will become one effort to build a stronger, renewed movement to create the good jobs of the 21^st century economy — the jobs that will help us to move to a clean, renewable energy economy, reduce pollution and break our country’s dependence on foreign oil,” said Carl Pope. “Protecting the planet and building a stronger, more prosperous economy for everyone are inextricably linked, and today, this movement becomes that much stronger.”

Our work ahead…

The invigorated organization will keep a keen focus on job creation. Earlier this year, the BlueGreen Alliance launched Jobs21! — a nine-state grassroots campaign calling for a national jobs plan to put America back to work building the industries of the 21^st century here in the United States. The initiative calls for investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation infrastructure and fuel-efficient vehicles, a smarter electrical grid, broadband Internet, recycling and green chemistry — industries that will create new jobs and markets in manufacturing, construction, education and many other sectors.

This initiative will be strengthened through coordination with the Apollo Alliance’s strong network of state and local affiliates — now dubbed BlueGreen Apollo Alliances — and by Apollo’s recently-launched Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) project that calls for federal investment in clean transportation that will create 3.7 million direct and indirect jobs over six years and will save Americans up to $5,000 per family each year in commuting costs.

Add your voice to the movement…

Please take a moment to add your voice to growing number of people who are calling for a national jobs plan to build a 21^st century economy today at www.bluegreenalliance.org/jobs21.

The BlueGreen Alliance is a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations working to expand the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. Launched in 2006 by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, the BlueGreen Alliance now unites 10 U.S. labor unions and four of America’s most influential environmental organizations — and their 14 million members and supporters — in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a 21^st century economy.

The Apollo Alliance is a national coalition of environmental, labor, business and community leaders committed to building a clean energy, good jobs economy. Launched in 2003, Apollo’s diverse coalition has offered a bold vision to catalyze a clean energy economy to spur job growth by harkening back to President Kennedy’s visionary call to restore America’s technological leadership by landing the first man on the moon within the decade of the 1960’s.

The U.S. Labor Department reported today that 48 states and the District of Columbia saw their unemployment conditions deteriorate in May - with Michigan's unemployment souring to 14.1 percent.

Eight states hit record unemployment rates, including California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

This comes a day after a report was released showing that clean energy investments can create jobs, and lots of them. A report by the Center for American Progress and PERI showed that 1.7 million jobs could be created with a $150 billion clean energy investment, the foundation for which could be set with a combination of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The latter is expected to be voted on next week in the House of Representatives.

This report also showed that each of these eight states stands to gain jobs with clean energy investments: California with 175,000 jobs, 11,000 jobs in Nevada, 51,000 jobs in North Carolina, 21,000 jobs in Oregon, 5,000 in Rhode Island, 25,000 in South Carolina, 95,000 Florida and 59,000 jobs in Georgia.