2023-07-05 01:55:00
We haven’t seen this kind of federal investment in the economy since the days of FDR
I recently traveled from Baltimore, where my mother grew up, to Portland, Maine, where my father grew up. It’s easy for many people to see the differences between one of the blackest cities in America and one of the whitest states in the country.
What always strikes me is what unites the two places: the pain they felt as a result of the decline of American industry in the 50 years of my life.
My father’s family used to operate woolen mills in New England. Those factories no longer exist, as do 63,000 other factories across America that have closed since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) three decades ago.
As a result, millions of American families of all colors have been locked in a downward spiral of economic mobility for too long, driven by the greed of multinational corporations and facilitated for decades by government policies like NAFTA.
Partly because of the pandemic and partly because of the tight cushion that remains before our climate is beyond repair, we are at a time when we can turn the tide. Over the past three years, we have committed as a nation to unprecedented private and public investment in clean energy and infrastructure in a way that promises to reverse the destructive trajectory of dreams.
We are at a time when we can finally move from an economy defined by consumption to one defined by workers who make and use things they can be proud of once more, from electric school buses to solar panels.
You would think that this opportunity would be welcomed by all. But self-interested corporations like Big Oil and Big Gas are hoarding billions in historic profits, and the politicians they back are doing all they can to backtrack on commitments made since 2021. They even stifled the recent debate over a US default on its loans to advance their opposition.
It’s a strange political game. A CBS News poll released in April found that more than half of Americans want the climate crisis solved now, and more than two-thirds want it solved within a few years.
This includes 44% of Republicans. Given that every Republican in Congress voted once morest the clean energy package last year, this large plurality is significant. It’s also a sign that many GOP leaders in Washington are increasingly out of step with their own constituents and districts.
When the Climate Power group looked at the nearly 200 clean energy projects launched since Congress and the president approved the federal spending package last summer, nearly six in 10 of them are in districts. represented by Republicans who voted once morest the package. These projects mean at least 77,000 new jobs for electricians, mechanics, technicians, support staff and others.
Not since the days of FDR have we seen this kind of national investment. At the time, building American industry was essential to winning a war once morest genocide across Europe. Today, our investment in diverting our economy from destruction and into good jobs in a cleaner economy that sustains our planet is a fight to protect all humanity.
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#Good #jobs #cleaner #economy
