BlueGreen Alliance | Labor, Environmental Groups Call on Congress to Create Clean Energy Manufacturing Jobs in Minnesota

Labor, Environmental Groups Call on Congress to Create Clean Energy Manufacturing Jobs in Minnesota

Minnesota could gain 18,000 manufacturing jobs by passing a 25 percent by 2025 Renewable Electricity Standard, according to labor and environmental leaders who gathered to call on Congress to pass comprehensive climate change legislation.

November 20, 2009

BlueGreen Alliance Report Provides Recommendations for Creating Manufacturing Jobs in Minnesota 

Roseville, Minnesota (November 12, 2009) – Highlighting a report showing that Minnesota could gain 18,405 manufacturing jobs if Congress passes a 25 percent by 2025 Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), labor and environmental leaders gathered today at a closed manufacturing plant to call on Congress to pass comprehensive climate change legislation that creates clean energy manufacturing jobs in the United States.

“Our state and nation need to lead the world in manufacturing clean energy,” said Tim Lovaasen, who is the President of the President of the Communications Workers Minnesota State Council and the Industrial Union Council. “As the Senate debates comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation, recommendations are vital to creating a clean energy economy that will create good paying manufacturing jobs to replace the ones we have lost here in Minnesota.”

The press conference comes after the release of a report by the BlueGreen Alliance, Building a Clean Energy Assembly Line: How Renewable Energy Can Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing and the American Middle Class, which outlines specific recommendations for creating hundreds of thousands of clean energy manufacturing jobs in the United States, including market building, financing, capacity-building, and market reforms.

A fully copy of the report is available at www.bluegreenalliance.org

The analysis builds on a report earlier this year by BlueGreen Alliance and the Renewable Energy Policy Project that estimated more than 850,000 manufacturing jobs could be created across the United States, including more than 18,000 in Minnesota, with the enactment of a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 25 percent by 2025. With a strong RES, more than 42,000 existing manufacturers could experience growth based on the demand for parts and more than 850,000 jobs in existing U.S. firms across the country could be created if the component parts for clean energy are manufactured in the United States.

“We can create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. by building a clean energy economy,” said Margaret Levin, Sierra Club North Star Chapter State Director. “We’ll create whole new industries and establish America as a global leader in clean energy technology, while protecting our environment and making ourselves more energy independent.”

“We must move our country forward to take the lead globally on manufacturing our own clean energy future,” said Joshua Low, Minnesota Organizer for the BlueGreen Alliance. “Minneapolis Saint Paul has the fourth largest number of manufacturing jobs of any metropolitan area. The Twin Cities have local leadership from city governments, labor, business, and environmental groups. We now need the Senate to do its part.”

The report was developed using research compiled by the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP). A full copy can be found on the BlueGreen Alliance’s Web site: www.bluegreenalliance.org.

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 The BlueGreen Alliance is a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.