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Labor and Environmental Groups Have Learned to Get Along. Here’s the Organization in the Middle

Summary

The BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental advocacy groups founded in 2006 by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, seeks to advance common interests in the growth of the clean energy economy. While there are still some points of disagreement between union leaders and environmental groups, such as building fossil fuel pipelines, they have found ways to emphasize areas of agreement. Notably, the alliance successfully worked on major provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes rules that grant additional tax credits to projects meeting pay and benefits standards. Jason Walsh, the alliance's executive director, highlighted the need to solve both the climate crisis and income inequality, and how the alliance's push for clean energy investments with strong labor and equity standards has been a unifying force.

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