BlueGreen Alliance Welcomes Release of National Economic Transition Platform
Alongside the BlueGreen Alliance and partners and allies from coal communities across the country, Just Transition Fund today released the National Economic Transition platform. The platform is the product of a year-long collaboration, bringing together local, tribal, and labor leaders with public, private, and non-profit partners to develop a policy framework and priorities to invest in communities and workers hit hard by the decline of the coal industry.
Among its pillars, the platform highlights the need for investment in supporting local leaders and organizations to lead the transition; supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurship; investing in economic development and providing a bridge of support for workers to quality, family-sustaining jobs; reclaiming and remediating coal sites; and improving physical and social infrastructure and shoring up public services.
In response to the platform release, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:
“We are already in the midst of an energy transition and the Trump administration’s denial of that is only harming those already struggling. Working people should not have to suffer economically due to the shift to cleaner, cheaper forms of energy, but a transition that is fair for workers and communities isn’t something that will just happen organically. Prioritizing workers and communities in coal-impacted communities needs to be a deliberate choice. A fair and equitable transition and the creation of good-paying, union jobs need to be baked into our solutions on climate change and this platform presents a path forward to do just that.”