Newton B. Jones, International President
Lack of legislation is already costing us jobs
GLOBAL WARMING HAS changed the way the entire world does business. The magnitude of that change became apparent in 2007, when the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as pollutants.
That ruling left Congress with two alternatives: establish new legislation to regulate greenhouse gases, or allow the EPA to create their own rules, with no congressional guidelines and no protection for workers in the affected industries.
For Boilermakers, the second option is simply not viable. Our members work in some of the facilities that produce the most greenhouse gases, such as coal-fired power plants and cement kilns. These industries will bear the brunt of emissions reductions.
The EPA can only make regulations. It cannot provide funding to assist those industries in trying to develop new and better ways to burn coal so emissions are lower. It cannot help industries that lose business to countries with lower standards.
If we are to lower GHG emissions without causing irreparable harm to our economy and the technological progress that has made our nation so strong, we need a diverse portfolio of energy sources. Such a portfolio would take advantage of domestic coal reserves that could provide energy for up to 300 years. It would use renewable resources. And it would include nuclear power, which is now generations ahead of where it was when we stopped building nuclear plants in the 1980s.
The comprehensive energy bill now in the Senate can make this approach possible and help keep Boilermakers working.
How this bill helps Boilermakers
EVEN BEFORE THE Supreme Court issued its GHG ruling, Boilermakers Legislative Director Abraham Breehey had been working with industry groups, environmental groups, and other unions to convince Congress to pass legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions without creating an unbearable burden for American workers — especially Boilermakers. The energy bill now in Congress includes many provisions our union has supported, including these:
- Creating a “Clean Energy Development Administration” to facilitate billions of dollars in financing to get new energy technology into U.S. markets and expanded as quickly as possible.
- Improving energy efficiency in buildings, homes, equipment, appliances, and the federal government.
- Establishing an off-budget Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Fund to speed the development of eight to 10 commercial-scale carbon capture and storage projects at coal-fired power plants.
- Encouraging domestic production of off-shore oil and natural gas.
- Updating and modernizing our nation’s power grid to ensure reliability and efficiency.
- Establishing a “cap-and-trade” system to reduce GHG emissions gradually and economically.
This last proposal is the most controversial and most widely misunderstood of the energy bill’s provisions.
Cap-and-trade is a proven, market-based method for reducing pollutants. It sets limits for emissions which decrease each year. But it also allows companies already beating those limits to sell “carbon credits” to companies that don’t, allowing them to stay in business while retrofitting their facilities (or building new ones), a process that can take many years.
A cap-and-trade system has been successfully used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Properly structured and implemented, a similar system can help our nation reduce GHG emissions without disrupting the public’s access to affordable electricity by putting coal-fired power plants out of business or forcing us to buy our cement from foreign sources.
Passing the energy bill will remove roadblocks and create millions of man-hours of employment for Boilermakers.
Senate must pass comprehensive energy bill
The House has already passed a comprehensive energy bill that includes cap-and-trade. Now the Senate is close to passing one as well. The Boilermakers have worked hard with our labor, industry, and environmental group partners to ensure that the cap-and- trade portion of the bill includes protections and supports necessary to ensure future employment for Boilermakers, including the following:
- More than $150 billion in incentives to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can continue to burn coal for decades — even centuries — to come.
- Prevailing wage (Davis Bacon) guarantees for projects performed with this federal incentive money.
- Language to ensure that jobs — and pollution — do not move to countries that fail to take comparable action. It will put in place tariffs on imports of carbon-intensive goods from these countries, ensuring that American businesses remain competitive in the global marketplace.
Passing this bill is one of the highest priorities of our Government Affairs Department. In the two years since the Supreme Court issued its ruling, businesses have been uncertain what the future rules for greenhouse gases will be. Without actual legislation in hand — signed by the president — they cannot be certain what the best approach will be going forward, and they don’t want to risk hundreds of millions or billions of dollars on an educated guess.
Many of our members believe that the energy bill might kill Boilermaker jobs. However, doing nothing is most certainly costing us jobs. For example, recently in Montana, a group of electric cooperatives halted their plans to build a 250-megawatt generating plant because of the “aura of uncertainty” surrounding the future of emissions regulations. Dozens of other coal-fired power plants across the nation are being cancelled or put on hold for the same reason.
That uncertainty can be greatly reduced by passing this bill. In fact, the bill’s incentives to develop carbon capture technology could potentially spur a boom in Boilermaker work. For the past five decades, Boilermakers and other trades have worked millions of man-hours installing pollution control equipment — precipitators, baghouses, SCRs, scrubbers, and low-NOx burners. Our members will also play a significant role in installing any equipment that captures carbon dioxide.
A study conducted by BBC Research and Consulting in 2008 projected that building new coal-fired power plants that produce a total of 20 gigawatts (GW) would result in 1.4 million man-years of work during the construction phase and 48,000 permanent, fulltime maintenance jobs. If the nation builds 100 GW, those numbers rise to nearly 7 million man-years of construction jobs and 251,000 maintenance jobs.
A good proportion of those hours would go to Boilermakers.
Boilermakers cannot let this opportunity pass us by. We are already losing jobs because Congress has not passed legislation to regulate emissions. Leaving that crucial role entirely to the discretion of the EPA would cause even more job losses. Passing the comprehensive energy bill will remove the roadblocks that are rapidly growing in industrial construction and create millions of man-hours of employment for Boilermakers over the next several decades.
Boilermakers must be united on this issue, and we must not give up until it passes. Contact your senators today. Let them know that Boilermakers support a comprehensive energy bill that includes cap-and-trade.
