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Social Policies to Facilitate a Just Carbon Transition

MCLI Recommendation: “Congress should enact and fund the RECLAIM Act of 2017 (H.R. 1731) (also known as “POWER Plus”) to provide $1 billion dollars over five years to restore abandoned coal mines to something like their natural state, while also scaling up economic diversification efforts in coal country.”

LPDD Recommendation: “Congress could adopt “carbon adjustment assistance” for dislocated carbon workers modeled on Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers dislocated by trade, and move toward an overall “active labor market system” through which society as a whole covers more of the costs to workers and their families of all economic transitions.”

LPDD Recommendation: “Congress could use grants, technical assistance, and peer learning to induce more companies to reposition themselves from carbon to non-carbon energy markets, retraining and retaining more of their existing workers, and reducing job loss in communities currently dependent on carbon jobs. Congress should also require the participation of workers and their representatives in sectoral reemployment initiatives.”

LPDD Recommendation: “State legislatures could allow utilities to charge ratepayers for the cost of industrywide hiring halls and for retraining that bridges the gap between workers’ old skills and new occupations. State legislatures could require within future renewable energy portfolio standards or energy-efficiency mandates hiring preferences for workers dislocated from coal-fired power plants. State legislatures should also promote the creation of more clean energy jobs in coal country; local governments should also promote the creation of more clean energy jobs in coal country. State legislatures should re-envision the severance taxes that create natural resource trust funds as tools for phasing down extraction of fossil fuels and raising more near-term resources for social policies that support just transitions. To reduce or eliminate the wage gap between carbon and non-carbon jobs, state legislatures could establish within RPS and energy-efficiency laws occupational wage standards in non-carbon energy industry occupations.”

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35 resources

Resource Congress

EDF/RFF Report, Enabling Fairness for Energy Workers and Communities in Transition

A March 2021 report from the Environmental Defense Fund and Resources for the Future compiles findings from a series of reports that unpack existing US and European policies related to just transition...
Resource Congress

Proposed Environmental Justice for All Act (2020)

This proposed 2020 federal bill establishes an Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice Compliance and Enforcement to help identify and address the disproportionate burden federal actions ha...
Resource States and State Governments

Michigan’s Worker Economic Transition Office Legislation

Michigan’s SB 519 (2023) creates a state community and worker economic transition office to aid workers and communities whose jobs are impacted in the transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable s...
Resource Foreign

Report, Real People, Real Change

The International Institute for Sustainable Development published a 2018 report, Real People, Real Change, which highlights political and communications strategies for a just transition, building on r...
Example States and State Governments

New York’s Clean Climate Careers Initiative

The Clean Climate Careers Initiative was launched in 2017 with the goal of creating 40,000 new clean energy jobs by 2020. The Initiative includes an Environmental Justice and Just Transition Working G...
Resource Congress

Proposed Clean Energy Worker Just Transition Act of 2015

The proposed Clean Energy Worker Just Transition Act of 2015 would award temporary adjustment assistance to workers of adversely affected coal-related industries who are totally or partially separated...
Example States and State Governments

Colorado’s SB-236

Colorado’s SB-236 (2019) authorizes the securitization of coal plants, and uses some of the millions of dollars in savings from securitization to reinvest back in workers and vulnerable communities.
Example States and State Governments

Washington’s Coal Phaseout

In 2019, Washington passed SB 5116, which will require utilities in Washington to stop buying electricity generated from coal by the end of 2025 or face penalties. The Utilities and Transportation Com...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Environmental Justice Strategy

In February 2024, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy of Environmental Affairs (EEA) unveiled the state’s first-ever Environmental Justice (EJ) Strategy. The document provides guidelines to e...
Resource Foreign

Canada’s Just Transition Task Force Final Report

The government of Canada’s Just Transition Task Force issued a 2018 Final Report, which makes ten recommendations on what Canada could include in a just transition plan for coal workers and communitie...
Example Public Utilities

PG&E Joint Proposal on Shutting Down Diablo Canyon

A 2016 PG&E joint proposal to retire the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant provides one model of a just transition. The agreement outlines: a severance program for 1500 employees; a retention program ...
Resource Congress

Proposed American Miners Act of 2019

The proposed American Miners Act of 2019 would transfer certain funds to provide pension and health benefits for retired coal miners who have been affected by issues such as coal company bankruptcies.
Resource Congress

Report, Green Stimulus for Oil and Gas Workers: Considering a Major Federal Effort to Plug Orphaned and Abandoned Wells

Resources for the Future and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs authored this 2020 report examining the potential to boost US employment in the oil and gas workforce whil...
Resource States and State Governments

Impacts of the ReImagine Appalachia and Clean Energy Transition Programs for Pennsylvania

A January 2021 report by the Political Economy Research Institute outlines the benefits of an economic plan created by ReImagine Appalachia that includes climate policies. The economic plan is expecte...
Resource Foreign

Report, Shaping an Inclusive Energy Transition

This 2020 study from Guidehouse and Cambridge economics looks at the distributional effects of EU climate policy and makes recommendations on steering policy towards a just transition. It combines eco...
Resource Congress

Report, Build a Better Future for Coal Workers and Their Communities

The Brookings Institute’s 2016 report, Build a Better Future for Coal Workers and Their Communities, reviews the challenges facing the coal workforce and the case for significant federal investment in...
Resource Congress

The Roosevelt Project

The Roosevelt Project was launched in 2020 out of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research to provide an analytical basis for charting a path to a low carbon economy in a way that p...
Example States and State Governments

Minnesota’s Community Energy Transition Grants

Minnesota’s HF 1842 (2020) established the Community Energy Transition Grants program, a transition grant program for communities housing a coal, nuclear, or natural gas facility that is scheduled for...
Example Public Utilities

CPUC Closure of Mohave Coal Facility

The closure of the Mohave coal facility provides an example of a just transition secured solely under PUC authority. CPUC considered the impacts of closing a Mohave coal facility on the nearby Hopi an...
Resource Congress

Proposed RECLAIM Act of 2017

The proposed RECLAIM Act of 2017 would provide $1 billion dollars over five years to restore abandoned coal mines to something like their natural state, while also scaling up economic diversification ...
Resource States and State Governments

Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act

This 900-page energy and climate bill, passed in September 2021, covers a variety of subject areas, listed below: On electricity: The bill raises the renewable portfolio standard to require 40 percent...
Resource Foreign

Report, Blueprint for Europe’s Just Transition

This 2019 report lays out the principles and strategies for a Green New Deal for Europe. Its scope comprises three distinct institutions: A Green Public Works investment program. An Environmental Unio...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, A Program for Economic Recovery and Clean Energy Transition in California

This June 2021 study from the Political Economy Research Institute presents a recovery program for California that targeting durable foundation for an economically robust and ecologically sustainable ...
Resource Private Entities

Just Transition Fund

The Just Transition Fund is dedicated to creating economic opportunity for the frontline communities and workers hardest hit by the transition away from coal. They provide both grants and technical as...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: Occupational Wage and Benefit Standards in Clean Energy Legislation

In order to promote the continued growth of the clean energy economy and ensure that this growth creates (a) secure, high quality jobs that promote equity and social well-being, (b) stable labor marke...
Example States and State Governments

Colorado’s HB-1314

Colorado’s HB-1314 (2019) establishes a Just Transition Office in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The office is charged with creating an equitable plan for coal-dependent communities ...
Resource Congress

Proposed Healthy Employee Loss Prevention Act of 2018

The proposed Healthy Employee Loss Prevention Act of 2018 would establish a worker adjustment assistance program to provide assistance and job retraining for workers who have lost their jobs due to un...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Creating an Economic Diversification Trust Fund

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy published a 2012 report, Creating an Economic Diversification Trust Fund, which highlighted the potential of a natural resource trust to fund economic div...
Resource Congress

Report, The Economics of Just Transition

The Political Economy Research Institute published a 2016 report, The Economics of Just Transition, which proposes a just transition framework for U.S. fossil fuel workers. At $600 million per year, t...
Resource States and State Governments

California’s Transformative Climate Communities Program

The Transformative Climate Communities Program, funded by cap-and-trade dollars, is a competitive grant program that gives resources to the most disadvantaged communities in the state to achieve major...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, A Role for State Attorneys General in a Just Transition

A 2022 report by the State Ener­gy & Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Cen­ter and the State and Local Enforce­ment Project at the Har­vard Labor and Work­life Pro­gram con­sid­ers how state attor­neys gen­er­a...
Resource Congress

Proposed Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act (2020)

The proposed Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act, a nod to the economic recovery plan for Europe after World War II, would ensure health care coverage for coal workers as well as cover higher education...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Advancing Equity through 100% Clean Energy: A Review of the Plans of 12 States

In February 2023, the Clean Energy States Alliance published a report reviewing the 100% clean energy plans of the 12 US states with published plans, and analyzing equity and environmental justice com...
Resource Congress

World Bank Report, Managing Coal Mine Closure

The World Bank’s 2018 report, Managing Coal Mine Closure, summarizes lessons-learned from more than two decades of World Bank assistance on coal mine closure to governments, enterprises, workers and t...
Resource States and State Governments

RMI Reports on Just Transitions for Coal Communities

In October 2022, RMI released two reports on the economic transition of coal communities. The first report, Coal Community Transition Policy in Action, analyzes 16 bills passed by states since 2011 to...