June 10th, 2009 by Underground
Standing up for the American worker.
Above, an ad from our new campaign for the American Wind Energy Association, highlighting the contribution wind power can make to a new economy. The people featured in the ad, and in the longer videos after the jump, work for companies like Cardinal Fastener, who makes the bolts for the turbines, and Gamesa, a re-tasked steel plant, now building the turbines themselves. They have the kind of quality manufacturing jobs that help blue collar workers get into, and stay in, the middle class. Sure, wind power means using less coal and it means a fighting chance for all of us against climate change, but it also means good jobs for real people.
Right now, Congress is debating the American Climate and Energy Security (ACES) Act. The bill is a big step towards a new direction on climate change and energy policy in this country, but that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. In particular, while a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) is part of it, there’s a chance it will get watered down in the horse-trading that accompanies big pieces of legislation. And that would be a disaster– the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that a 25% by 2025 RES would create 297,000 jobs, and anything less than 12% by 2012 would actually mean losing jobs. We just can’t afford that right now.
Renewable energy is a huge growth industry around the world, with 37 countries, including China already having firm RES in place. Standing up for the climate, and the American worker, means doing the same here at home. You can learn more about RES at PowerofWind.com. After the jump, a couple longer videos we did highlighting the stories of some of the workers from the ad.
