I’m thrilled to do a follow up report on the Four Pillars framework with my colleague and friend, Manuel Pastor. This report looks at this process of power building for just transition in four states: California, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New York. We combine an analysis of the pillars of just transition – strong governmental support, dedicated funding streams, diverse coalitions, and economic diversification – with an analysis of how to change power at a state level that focuses on the conditions that impact possibilities, the community-level capabilities that facilitate effective voice, and the arenas in which power is contested. Ultimately, the fight for a just transition is a fight for justice. And, while we know it will be hard and long, the stories we heard showed how advocates and organizers, often in the face of great odds, come together and force the change that makes people’s lives better. Building upon these efforts through supporting organizing, coalition building, and empowering communities is the blueprint for advancing a just transition. Through these channels, we can transition from a dirty polluting past to a just and healthy future. The report can be found here.
As part of the Just Transition Listening Project, convened by the great Labor Network for Sustainability, we interviewed over 100 people who have either experienced transition or who face transition. This effort is the groundbreaking both in the scale of the effort and also the centering the voices of those directly impacted by transition. The report is broken down into three sections: problem, process, and pathways. The problem section looks at the challenges that arise from transition, including the long history of unjust transition. The process section analyzes how labor comes together and how labor, climate, community, EJ, Indigenous, and other interests come together. The final section presents ways to advance a just transition. The report concludes with a set of policy recommendations necessary for not just the energy transition but also for a just future. I’m honored to have worked with my brilliant colleagues at Colorado State University, Rutgers University, and CSU-Dominguez Hills.
In 2019, with generous funding from the 11th Hour Foundation, my colleagues at USC, UC Berkeley, Occidental, and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) analyzed how to implement a “just transition” for California. Just Transition advocates for an equitable transition to a low-carbon future that mitigates the economic losses from decarbonization, particularly for fossil fuel workers and communities dependent upon fossil fuel extraction and use for economic security. We argue that just transition must also address the historical injustice created by the fossil fuel economy and ensure that opportunities in the low-carbon economy are available to all communities, not just those that have historically benefitted from an extractive economy. We present a four-pillar framework to guide the creation and implementation of just transition policies.
During these dark Trump times, some good climate news: NY Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an major climate jobs initiative based on work that my colleagues at the Worker Institute and I did. This work is part of Labor Leading on Climate, a three-year initiative of the Worker Institute that, “advances knowledge, policies, and practices to enhance the role of labor and working people in addressing the environmental and climate crises. The initiative’s efforts focus on building a truly sustainable society and economy.” As part of this initiative, I co-authored a report Reversing Inequality, Combatting Climate Change: A Climate Jobs Program for New York, which was the basis for the climate jobs initiative that lays out a policy agenda for creating good, family-sustaining jobs while substantially reducing carbon emissions.
Back in 2009, for over a year and a half, Urban Agenda convened 170+ stakeholders to create a vision for how to build an equitable green economy in New York City. The culmination of that effort is the New York City Green-Collar Jobs Roadmap, a co-release between Urban Agenda and the Center for American Progress. The Roadmap covers six priority areas: growing the green economy and green jobs, ensuring these jobs are good jobs that reach target populations, transitioning existing workforces into sustainable fields, increasing coordination between agencies and local, state, and federal efforts, expanding and greening existing programs, and collecting data for refining programs and approaches.
As a senior fellow at Data for Progress, I’ve co-authored a number of blogs:
- Voters Want a Green Stimulus, this piece details the popular support for a Green Stimulus, post-COVID. It build upon the call for a Green Stimulus, which I was honored to be a part of.
- We also highlighted a series of cities on how the Covid/Climate/Environmental injustice crises descend. We looked at Detroit, MI and Albany, GA.
In addition, I have written extensively on green economy, climate justice, and environmental justice issues for several years:
Climate Jobs and Just Transition
- Save the Climate by Improving Jobs
- Against the Depoliticizing of Environmental Struggles: Notes On Non-Reformist Reforms
- A just transition for whom? Contested Just Transitions and the Powder River Basin
- Passing Climate Bills Without Labor Standards Won’t Transition the Economy
- The Fight for Climate Justice and the Biden-Harris Administration
- For a Path Forward on Climate, Let’s Learn From the Original New Deal
- Reject the ‘jobs versus environment’ narrative – we can do both
- As We Transition Away From Fossil Fuels, We Must Also Tackle Inequality
- In The Dakota Access Pipeline Fight, The AFL-CIO Is Not The Enemy
- The Fight Against Coal Can Save Miners’ Lives
- Red states, green jobs
- New York to the Nation: Here’s How to Create Green Jobs
- Building an Equitable Green Economy in New York City
Renewable Energy and Fracking
- Privatizing Clean Energy Development is Putting Lipstick on a Pig
- Voluntary Standards Don’t Make Fracking Safe
- The Answer Is Not Fracking or Coal. It’s Neither.
- When Politics Hits Reality
- What 204,000 Comments Say About Fracking
- We Need More Than Energy Independence
- Voluntary Standards Don’t Make Fracking Safe
- The Role of Money in Politics: Extreme Energy Edition
- Stopping Renewable Energy From Going the “Dirty” Path
- Private Profit, Public Risk
- Unnatural Gas: How Government Made Fracking Profitable (and Left Renewables Behind)
- How Anti-Fracking Became the Environmental Cause Celebrities Love Most
- Matt Damon’s ‘Promised Land’ Gets to the Heart Of the Trouble With Fracking
Race and the Environment/Climate
- The EPA Fails to Address Environmental Racism
- Flint water crisis is classic case of environmental racism
Beyond GDP and Alternative Metrics
- How Do We Value Nature?
- Hurricane Sandy and the Failure of GDP
- Inclusive Wealth Index Shows Economic Impact of Natural Capital
- By Any Other Measure
Other climate writing
- Happy Birthday, Walmart. Thanks for All the Greenwashing
- Climate Silence Is Bad for Our Economy
- ‘All of the Above’ Energy Plans Should Really Be ‘Some of the Above …
- 34 Years Later, Did We Learn Anything From Love Canal?
- How a Few Wealthy Individuals Shape the Climate Agenda
- Invasion of the Climate Deniers
- Barry Commoner’s Legacy
- Big Oil’s Political Blitz
- Why Turning On Your AC Will Actually Make You Hotter in the Long-Run
- U.S. Gas Prices Are Falling, But For How Long?
- Gas Prices Are High, But Drill Baby Drill Policies Will Not Bring Down Costs
- Government Should Invest in Renewables and Clean Energy
- Diversity is the Lifeline for the Future of the Climate Movement
- LA School District Uses Its Spending Power to Support Local Farms, Workers’ Rights, and Kids Nutrition
- Fighting Inequality and Climate Change through Localizing Economies
In addition, I blogged at PolicyShop several times a week. My full list of blogs can be found here. Here are some highlights:
Green Jobs
- The Sky is Not Falling: The Real Facts about Green Jobs and the Clean Economy
- It’s Not Easy Being Green: Has President Obama Given up on Green Jobs Creation?
- Good Day, Sunshine: Solar Industry Shows Strong Job Growth
- Public Foes, Private Allies on Green Jobs
- New BLS Report Shows 3.1 Million Green Jobs — And That’s Not All of Them
- Really Want Jobs? Invest in Clean Energy
- Want to Create 2 Million Jobs? Invest in Water Infrastructure
- More than Meets the Eye: New Report Shows Value of Green Jobs
- How the Labor Movement is Fighting Climate Change
Renewable Energy
- Planning for the Future: Why We Need Government Investment in Clean Energy Development
- The Muddled Attack on Solyndra Loan
- Feed in Tariffs: Investing in a Renewable Energy Future
- Keystone Pipeline: A Huge Step Backwards for Jobs and for the Clean Economic Future
- Renewable Energy: The Key To Liberty
- Dirty Air, Dirtier Politics: How the Ozone Rules Were Killed
- No, Exxon Mobil, You Are Not the 99 Percent
- Case Dismissed: Chu Swats Down Solyndra Attacks
- What the CBO Report Really Says about Energy Subsidies
- Leveling the Playing Field for Renewables
- Big Oil’s (Taxpayer Subsidized) Big Profits
- Renewable Energy Production Grows in Nearly Every State
- Solar Installation Hits Record High
- “All of the Above” is Not Good Energy Policy
- New York Could Be Completely Fossil Fuel Free by 2030
Fracking
- The Missing Information on Fracking
- Limited Fracking is Still Fracking
- No Middle Ground on Fracking
- North Dakota’s Fracking Boom Is A False Panacea
- Fracking Is No Breakthrough
- Fracking or Coal? None of the Above, Please.
- The Missing Information on Fracking
- Memo to Bloomberg and EDF: No Amount of Money will Make Fracking Safe
- Fracking Water Hogs
- How Much Influence Does the Fracking Industry Have in New York? A Lot
- Exactly Where is the “Safe” Fracking?
- States and Towns Fill Federal Void on Fracking
- Fracked up Logic
- God, Climate Change, and James Inhofe
Carbon Tax
- Tax Reform: The Case for Pollution Taxes
- People, Politics, and the Pipeline
- ‘Tis the Season… to Stop Buying Crap
- Progressives and Green Taxes
- Tax Reform: The Case for Pollution Taxes
- We Could Cut the Deficit in Half Just with a Carbon Tax
- Now that the Climate Silence has been Broken, How about a Carbon Tax?
- Win-Win-Win: The Case for a Carbon Tax
- NYC’s Climate Resiliency Plan Should be Funded with a Carbon Tax
Climate Change
- The Climate Change Movement Needs a Reboot
- Rethinking Growth and Sustainable Development
- Recipe for Instability: Water Scarcity and Climate Change
- Limit Wall Street Oil Speculation to Lower Gas Prices
- The Difficulty of Climate Messaging
- Does Climate Change Increase Likelihood of Extreme Weather? Yes.
- How Do We Value Nature?
- When Markets Misfire: Carbon Credits and the Case of HFC-23
- God, Climate Change, and James Inhofe
- Colleges Divest from Fossil Fuels
- The Climate Fiscal Cliff
- Domestic Climate Refugees
Other climate writing
Mijin Cha 