USW Stresses Need for Energy, Climate Legislation to Create Jobs

Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), today issued the following statement upon release of the discussion draft for the ‘American Power Act’ (APA) and the need for comprehensive energy and climate legislation that creates and retains jobs.

“The USW has long believed that the goals of stopping the threat of climate change and creating thousands of clean energy jobs can and should be two sides of the same coin.  To do this, a climate bill must ensure that emissions are actually reduced and not simply off-shored along with millions of American jobs.

“A well-constructed approach should limit the amount of carbon ‘leakage’ – the incentive for production of goods and jobs to simply move to countries that fail to address global climate change.  This leakage of emissions and jobs has the potential to undermine both the economic and environmental goals of energy and climate legislation, and it is critical that any climate bill include a comprehensive and fully-funded package of policies to prevent it ... more