President Joe Biden wasted no time in doing an about-face when it comes to the nation's policy on climate change, acknowledging its ongoing devastating effects nationwide and directing a shift that promotes clean energy. His plan is not just about going green, but creating jobs as the country turns away from a reliance on fossil fuels.
It's an approach that rightly builds on two realities: the need to create new jobs if those in the fossil fuel industry are eliminated, and the need to act as environmental stewards before the situation worsens.
Biden's immediate directives would double the nation's offshore wind energy, conserve 30% of the country's lands and waters in the next 10 years and move to an all-electric federal vehicle fleet. The more ambitious long-term goal is to eliminate pollution from fossil fuel power plants by 2035 and from the economy, overall, by 2050.
It's a risky move by the new president, but one that can be doable by promoting job creation, particularly in the renewable energy and automotive sectors. He pledged to create "millions of good-paying, union jobs" for those building electric vehicles, installing wind turbines and solar panels, and those doing environmental cleanup such as capping abandoned gas wells.
Transforming the country's energy sector is a huge undertaking, but a necessary part of combating climate change that has contributed in recent years to extreme weather events such as increases in storms and hurricanes in the East and deadly wildfires in the West.
Pittsburgh residents know a thing or two about successfully transforming an economy. Several decades ago when the steel industry collapsed and unemployment soared throughout the region, there was much hand-wringing over what the future would hold. What came about, through innovation and commitment, was an economy built on world-class medical facilities and universities, research and development in technology and reclamation of former mill sites into commercial and retail hubs.
If Biden's plan has any hope of success, he must commit to not only job creation but also job retraining for those in the fossil fuel industries. The energy sector employs an estimated 6.7 million people nationwide, according to the National Association of State Energy Officials.
FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
