USW, Sierra Club Urge Senate Fixes in Climate Security Act

Contact:  Dave Foster, 612-419-9101; Gary Hubbard, 202-778-4384; 202-256-8125

Washington, DC (Jun. 5) – The leaders of the USW and Sierra Club today sent a joint letter under their banner of the Blue Green Alliance to the U.S. Senate, recognizing the Boxer Substitute (S.3036) to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S.2191) offers improvements, but doesn’t go far enough at addressing the competitiveness provisions in the proposed legislation.

Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW) and Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, released the full text of their letter as follows:

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BLUE GREEN ALLIANCE

Co-Chairs:

Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers

Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club

Executive Director:

Dave Foster

June 5, 2008

U.S. Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator:

Earlier this year, we wrote and laid-out our concerns regarding competitiveness provisions in the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191).  Since then, a substitute has been re-introduced by Senator Boxer (S. 3036) that modified important parts of this section of the bill.  While we recognize that the Boxer substitute does offer some improvements and does address some of our concerns, they unfortunately do not go nearly far enough in addressing the concerns highlighted in our earlier letter.
 
Moving forward, we urge that the competitiveness provisions of this legislation, Title XIII, be strengthened to ensure that existing manufacturing capacity in the United States is not encouraged to relocate offshore to avoid the increased costs of energy resulting from the pricing of carbon.   We are also concerned that if no further efforts are made to strengthen the Title XIII provisions, much of the new manufacturing associated with investments in the clean renewable energy economy will likewise take place far from the communities in our country that are so desperate for these employment opportunities.

While each of our organizations has additional and separate concerns with S. 3036, we are committed to working together to strengthen this critical area of the legislation.

The simple point is that America’s manufacturing workers and their communities have suffered enormously at the hands of the global economy over the last two decades.  More than three million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last seven years alone.  As we craft the necessary and scientifically based solutions to global warming, we must make sure that we do not worsen their plight and that we share the benefits of our investments in the clean renewable energy economy of the future with those who have been the most disadvantaged.

Sincerely, (Individually signed as follows)
 

Leo W. Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers

Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club

Dave Foster, Executive Director, Blue-Green Alliance