BlueGreen Alliance | Ohio

Ohio

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Help us identify ways to turn today’s environmental challenges into job-creating and economic opportunities!

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The BlueGreen Alliance in Ohio has a strong local membership of labor, environmental, and community organizations working towards creating good jobs, while protecting our environment.

About the Ohio BlueGreen Alliance

The BlueGreen Alliance in Ohio has a strong local membership of labor, environmental, and community organizations working towards shared goals at the local, state, and national levels. Together, we identify ways today’s environmental challenges can create and maintain quality jobs and build a stronger, fairer economy.

For more information on our work, contact Lee Geisse at leeg@bluegreenalliance.org.

Our Work

From promoting clean energy and energy efficiency, to finding solutions to ensure a just transition workers and communities impacted by America’s energy transition, to protecting workers and creating jobs by reducing methane leaks in the state’s oil and gas industry, the BlueGreen Alliance in Ohio is an active and potent force pushing for a strong, prosperous clean economy in the state.

CLEAN ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Clean energy is still growing in Ohio, but due to the state freezing its clean energy and energy efficiency law in 2014, there have been many opportunities to lost.

However, before the freeze and even during it, some progress has been made. Ohio’s energy standards nurtured the state’s robust advanced energy economy, which supported more than 31,000 full- and part-time workers in Ohio’s alternative energy economy in 2012—12,000 of those jobs in energy efficiency alone. In addition, there are at least 62 manufacturing facilities in Ohio producing components for the wind industry and providing high-quality jobs to the state, and it is ranked 26th in the nation in terms of wind energy generated.

“Cleaner energy and energy efficiency can be opportunities to grow quality jobs.From the manufacturing of renewable energy component parts and power plants themselves, to construction, installation, maintenance, and operation of these cleaner energy systems, our state stands to gain from smart policies and strategic investments that build a clean energy economy right here in Ohio.”

– Teresa Hartley, United Steelworkers District 1 Women of Steel Coordinator.

METHANE MITIGATION

Methane—the primary component of natural gas—is a greenhouse gas that is many times more potent than carbon dioxide and the second largest contributor to climate change. Reducing methane emissions can reap economic benefits for workers and communities across the country. In Ohio, we are working with state and local leaders to support standards for new and existing sources of methane in the oil and gas sector. An upcoming BlueGreen Alliance report will estimate the direct and indirect jobs that could be created every year in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing. It will also examine how full and continuing adoption of leak reducing technologies and practices could create tens of thousands of jobs over the first decade of full implementation of federal methane standards, which were established in 2016.

JUST TRANSITION

We need a thoughtful approach to expanding clean energy, improving energy efficiency, and making traditional energy generation more efficient. Ohio’s energy transition has not come without pain to workers and communities. But we can take the lessons learned in other states and regions and apply them to communities and workers impacted by this transition to ensure they are not left behind.

kThe state should undertake proactive policies and investments to protect workers and aid communities impacted by America’s energy transition. These state efforts—coupled with the federal Power+ Initiative and other smart policies and investments by Congress—will help ensure the growth of Ohio’s economy while addressing climate change.

FUEL-EFFICIENT VEHICLES

Ohio has been and continues to be a state that is greatly benefitting from the resurgence of America’s auto industry, in part due to fuel economy standards that are making all vehicles more efficient—reducing pollution, saving consumers at the pump, and sustaining and creating quality jobs. In Ohio, we are working to defend sound vehicle standards for today and tomorrow. Unlike older standards that encouraged just one type of car or technology, today’s fuel economy standards ensure that passenger vehicles of every size and type make big fuel economy improvements. That means that households see fuel savings no matter what kind of vehicle they need. It also means innovation and investment across almost every automotive plant in the country, and all kinds of parts, and that means more jobs nationwide.

Watch this video about the fuel-efficient Chevy Cruze that we put together to see how one car impacted the lives of many Ohioans.