“When we think about climate change, we think jobs — good-paying, union jobs,” Biden said.
Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, 350.org and Greenpeace made that connection explicit in a previously unreported Nov. 24 letter to Biden endorsing Levin for Labor, saying the Michigan Democrat is “someone committed to your vision and who is capable of bringing together the labor and environmental movement to implement it.”
Levin’s environmental backing comes amid misgivings about Seth Harris, a former deputy Labor secretary in the Obama administration, who is on the shortlist to become Biden’s Labor secretary and has long been considered a serious contender. The environmental groups have privately raised concerns about Harris's support for ethanol, the corn-based fuel that many environmentalists oppose over concerns that it drives deforestation.
Some in and close to the labor movement have also questioned Harris’ appeal, noting that he hasn’t gotten the same fanfare of support from unions compared to Levin.
But potentially bolstering his appeal to labor, Harris has been vocally critical of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, frequenting media shows and calling for more economic aid to boost the unemployed. In a podcast in late October, he called Congress’ inaction on another coroanvirus aid package “frankly as stupid an economic approaches you can take in a time when what we really need is public investment in recovery.”
Some unions have backed Biden’s push for clean energy. Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was a key Biden labor ally who served on the so-called unity task force with supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to develop climate change compromises between the presidential primary rivals.
Still, a climate push faces political headwinds with other unions. While Biden and environmental activists have spoken of a need for a “just transition” in which fossil fuel workers and resource-dependent communities are taken care of with training, better benefits and other assistance, there's anxiety about entire towns or regions becoming economic losers in any shift.
Organized labor also has strong ties to fossil-fuel industry jobs. Unionization rates in coal-fired generation, natural gas and the transmission, distribution and storage of power hit 10, 11 and 17 percent, respectively, besting the 4 percent in the solar installation sector, according to a report by the Energy Futures Initiative — run by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz — and the National Association of State Energy Officials.
And union workers report better pay, wages and benefits in oil and gas than in renewables, according to a July survey by North America’s Building Trades Unions, which endorsed Biden for president.
