This report, through a worker-centered lens, investigates how Michigan can tackle the climate-energy affordability crisis to create equitable economic opportunities for all residents.
Quick Takeaways
- Michigan's unions have led the way in shaping ambitious state climate policy. Thanks in large part to the advocacy of the state's labor movement, Michigan has set nation-leading clean energy goals with strong labor standards.
- Implementation is key to realizing climate and workforce goals. Continued oversight, enforcement, funding, and innovative policy will be critical for achieving the state's ambitious targets.
- Additional barriers remain to transforming the state's energy system. Rising energy demand, worsening weather extremes, changing funding landscapes, and rising living costs pose new challenges.
- Building a clean energy economy could create thousands of high-quality jobs and reduce economic inequality in Michigan. With adequate labor and community standards, Michigan's climate investment can address historic injustices and create opportunities in disadvantaged communities.
- Michigan's workers are uniquely positioned to make sure the clean energy economy is equitable. Through their apprenticeship and apprenticeship-ready programs, unions can open doors to disadvantaged communities and train Michigan’s next generation of climate workers.
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Michigan has long been a national leader, from industrial innovation to workers’ rights. The state’s labor unions also led in the passage of the state’s landmark climate targets, and they must continue to ensure these goals are implemented in a way that creates high-quality jobs and addresses the confounding crisis of inequality. Regardless of national fluctuations in energy policy, Michigan can shape its own economic future and, if done equitably, reap the prosperity climate action has to offer.
Michigan can achieve its climate goals while also creating equitable economic opportunities for workers and communities across the state. Doing so requires policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create good-paying jobs, and expand access to union careers for workers across the economic spectrum, particularly those from historically marginalized communities.
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