Alliance Calls on Congress to Address Devastating Job Losses
The Alliance to Save Energy News
Alliance Calls on Congress to Address Devastating Job Losses
WASHINGTON – The Alliance to Save Energy released the following statement from Vice President of Public Affairs Ben Evans on the jobs report released Wednesday by E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), E4TheFuture and BW Research Partnership. The report found that more than 413,000 U.S. energy efficiency workers lost their jobs in March and April – nearly 20 percent of the total efficiency workforce.
“These are devastating numbers, and we need to start focusing here in Washington on what to do about it. This is about blue-collar workers, most of them working for small businesses, who have suddenly lost their livelihood. While the relief bills that Congress has passed are of course helpful, it’s time to think ahead and invest in programs that will accelerate energy efficiency work when it’s safe to do so, giving employers confidence to retain workers and create new jobs.”
“This isn’t about green energy versus fossil fuels. It’s about putting people back to work. Energy efficiency is a huge economic sector, and it’s mostly in construction and manufacturing, so unless we look at how we can restart some of this work, and soon, there’s going to be a lot of pain in communities across the country.”
The Alliance has developed several policy priorities for rebuilding the efficiency sector, including enhanced tax incentives for energy efficiency improvements in homes and buildings, funding for retrofits of critical public facilities to improve efficiency and resilience, and a new small business energy efficiency program providing matching grants to existing utility efficiency programs. Read more about these priorities here.
About the Alliance to Save Energy
Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit, bipartisan alliance of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders working to expand the economy while using less energy. Our mission is to promote energy productivity worldwide – including through energy efficiency – to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security, affordability and reliability.
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