U.S. Labor and renewable energy: green growth versus the Green New Deal

Abstract

In this article, I examine findings from an NSF-funded project on U.S. labor unions’ stance on renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power, which is neither simple nor well understood. The discourse on energy issues of 11 national-level U.S. unions posted to union websites from 2012 to 2020 was examined and coded using NVivo. While almost all unions in this study were enthusiastic supporters of renewable energy, the reasons for their support were very different, with different implications for the goal of low-carbon energy transition. Unions disagree on issues of ‘just transition,’ and exhibit lines of conflict on four issues: who should lead the energy transition; whether jobs in renewable energy are or could be as good as fossil fuel jobs; whether fossil fuels should be phased out; and whether a just transition necessarily includes transformation of unjust social relations. Union strategies regarding renewable and fossil fuel energy were characterized as ‘Green Growth,’ versus Green New Deal. Examining these contrasting strategies through the lens of theoretical perspectives including ecological modernization, feminist theory, Treadmill of Production theory, and the theoretical perspectives of Gramsci and Polanyi allows labor’s role in energy transition to be better understood while refining sociological theory.