California is a national leader in innovative policies to decarbonize our energy system and economy. However, the state lacks a holistic approach to scaling deployment, creating high-road jobs, and ensuring affordability. Labor and environmental groups have come together in support of two essential bills to protect our climate while expanding jobs in the manufacturing sector. 

SB 787 (McNerney) and AB 1280 (Garcia) will help decarbonize sectors of California’s economy while keeping our businesses competitive and creating high-road, union jobs. It has never been more important for California to take the lead amidst an uncertain federal environment so workers and communities are not left behind. 

SB 787 (McNerney) will create a new Senior Advisor in the California Energy Commission to coordinate supply chains for accelerated deployment of renewable energy, ensuring energy affordability, and generating high-quality union job growth. California is leading the charge in clean energy demand—millions of heat pumps, dozens of gigawatts of offshore wind, and millions of batteries can be a boon to in-state manufacturing, economic development, and union employment. 

Creative approaches to structuring domestic markets in these industries can reduce costs to ratepayers and low-income Californians, ensure environmental justice, and accelerate deployment and decarbonization. SB 787 is a clear and strategic next step on this path. 

“Senate Bill 787 aims to reverse the effects of industrial decline by laying the foundation for a proliferation of high-paying union manufacturing jobs that will help build strong communities outside of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego”, said Mike Miller, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 6 Director. “More broadly, it allows us to capitalize on our climate leadership by developing in-state supply chains for clean energy technologies.” 

“There may be a vacuum of leadership in Washington, but that doesn’t require Californians to give up on making our world—or at least our state—cleaner, fairer, and more prosperous,” Miller continued. “Bills like SB-787 offer a competing vision of what we can do together. The legislature should pass it so California can keep up the fight on climate change and economic fairness.” 

Another bill to decarbonize industry while creating benefits for communities and workers is AB 1280 (Garcia). The bill would expand existing programs at the California Energy Commission and iBank to support the installation of commercially available clean technology to reduce climate emissions at industrial facilities while creating high road jobs. These investments will ensure California’s manufacturing facilities modernize while keeping businesses and jobs in the state. 

California is a leader in manufacturing with more facilities than any other state. However, the sector is also a significant contributor to health-harming air pollutants that disproportionately impact fenceline communities. Incentivizing facilities to upgrade to cleaner technology is a huge opportunity to reduce pollution while advancing high-quality jobs. 

Labor and environmental groups recognize that California must take leadership in the climate space in the midst of unprecedented levels of misinformation and attacks against our state. Uncertainty with funding at the federal level makes it even more essential for California to invest in decarbonization and high-road jobs. These two pieces of legislation present an opportunity to ease pollution in overburdened communities and create jobs to clean up our manufacturing sector while building out our supply chains to place our economy in a strong position.