CLIMATE JOBS NY STATEMENT SUPPORTING GOVERNOR CUOMO’S NATION-LEADING PLAN FOR A CLEAN-ENERGY ECONOMY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 13, 2021
CONTACT: Jeff Vockrodt, Executive Director, jvockrodt@climatejobsny.org, 917-818-3143
CLIMATE JOBS NY STATEMENT SUPPORTING
GOVERNOR CUOMO’S NATION-LEADING PLAN FOR A CLEAN-ENERGY ECONOMY
Climate Jobs NY applauds Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading, $26 billion plan to build the clean- energy economy of tomorrow in New York. The Cuomo administration’s plans for a green economy across the energy, buildings and transportation sectors will create more than 50,000 new jobs. As the governor said in his State of the State remarks today, investing in clean energy “is how we launch ourselves into the new post-Covid economy.”
Crucially, Governor Cuomo is committed to making sure all New Yorkers benefit from the state’s clean-energy plan. He emphasized in his remarks today the importance of making sure the clean-energy plan works for all New Yorkers and ensuring economic opportunity for communities hit hardest by climate change and Covid, and stated that “we will also require prevailing wage and project labor agreements,” calling it “a matter of basic social justice.”
Governor Cuomo’s plan includes strategic investments in a number of areas essential to successfully building New York’s clean-energy future, including offshore wind, large-scale solar, and energy transmission and storage. Among other components of the plan, he stressed the importance of bringing clean-energy manufacturing to New York, instead of relying on other countries’ economies to fuel ours—further ensuring that New York will see the economic as well as environmental benefits of its clean-energy investments.
Offshore wind in particular will play a central role in New York’s clean-energy economy and has been a leading example of effectively incorporating prevailing wage and project labor agreements in large-scale energy projects. We applaud the more than $600 million in public and private investments in port infrastructure announced today—strategic investments that will go a long way toward securing New York’s role in manufacturing, assembly and installation of offshore wind farms. We also celebrate the state’s award of 2500 megawatts more in offshore wind procurement—building two more large-scale wind farms off New York’s coast, creating 5,200 new jobs, and taking another step forward in implementing the state’s nation- leading goal of 9,000 megawatts.
We look forward to working with the administration to ensure the timely, successful completion of these projects, to make sure all the offshore wind jobs driven by state
investment are good family-sustaining, community-supporting union jobs—including permanent manufacturing, operations and maintenance jobs—and to implement the governor’s commitment to using prevailing wage and project labor agreements across the projects announced today.
As Governor Cuomo said today, “Green energy is a prime economic opportunity and a pressing moral imperative.... We just have to do it.”
Gary LaBarbera, President of the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, and Climate Jobs NY Executive Committee member, said, "We support Governor Cuomo’s bold vision for New York’s clean-energy economy and applaud his commitment to concrete projects that will make it happen. We are ready to build the economy of tomorrow in New York with good union jobs and careers.”
Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and Climate Jobs NY Executive Committee member, said, "Governor Cuomo is right when he points to clean energy as central to building a new, post-Covid economy in New York. There is so much opportunity to put New Yorkers to work in new, clean-energy union jobs that will also build what we need to take on climate change. We look forward to continuing to work with the administration to implement our shared vision of a green economy that works for everyone.”
Jeff Vockrodt, Executive Director of Climate Jobs NY, said, "The plan Governor Cuomo announced today is a massive step forward in taking on climate change at the scale science demands, harnessing the economic potential of new clean-energy industries in New York, and taking concrete steps to make sure these are good, family-sustaining, community-supporting jobs and careers accessible to all New Yorkers, prioritizing economic development in disadvantaged communities.”
ABOUT CLIMATE JOBS NY
Climate Jobs NY (CJNY) is a growing coalition of labor unions—representing more than 2.6 million working New Yorkers—united to combat climate change and reverse inequality. CJNY’s mission is to advocate for a clean energy economy at the scale climate science demands, create good union jobs, and support more equitable communities and a more resilient New York. CJNY’s members include the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, the New York State AFL-CIO, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, the Long Island Federation of Labor, Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Third District, the United Association Plumbers and Pipefitters in New York State, 32BJ SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association, Laborers International Union Local 79, AFSCME District Council 37, the Transport Workers Union of America, Transport Workers Union Local 100, and Communications Workers of America District 1.
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