Shawn Steffee is a sales representative at Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh and worries that moving to clean energy could pay him and hurt his retirement age. Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front hide caption
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Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front
Shawn Steffee is a sales representative at Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh and worries that moving to clean energy could pay him and hurt his retirement age.
Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front
President Biden is selling the climate-friendly aspects of his $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan to create well-paying union jobs. However, at a branch of one of the country’s oldest unions, doubts that dealing with climate change will be good for workers here in the oil and gas state of Pennsylvania.
Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh builds and maintains coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. During a training session, a handful of members practice welding behind a thick blue safety curtain, part of preparing for the repair, and Reconstruction of the boiler in a coal-fired power station.
“”That cauldron is 100 feet tall, “explains Shawn Steffee, Local 154’s sales representative.” And they climb up into this cauldron. “
It’s highly qualified work that pays off well, sometimes in the six-figure range – the “high point” of the job, says Steffee. And the very kind of work he fears will go away if Biden’s climate policies accelerate the decline in fossil fuels in favor of renewable energies.
For example, if he were to work in the solar industry, Steffee would essentially start over in a new business and risk losing part of his pension and other benefits.
“I’m going to throw everything away to go here and maybe start working as an electrician?” he says. “I don’t know anything about electrics. I know how to weld. I know how to build power plants.”
In Pennsylvania and other states, coal jobs have been disappearing for a decade as utility companies switched to cheaper natural gas. Now, some in these states fear that ambitious climate targets – and cheaper wind and solar power – mean oil and gas jobs will be next.
What to do against fossil fuel workers in moving to a low carbon economy is a serious question that is grappling with policymakers and experts.
“Transitions are inherently difficult and complicated, and always lead to winners and losers,” said Devashree Saha, a clean energy analyst at the nonprofit World Resources Institute.
She says Biden’s plans to ramp up clean energy could create jobs in areas like electrical work and utilities. However, these jobs won’t necessarily apply to those currently working on fossil fuels.
“There will always be a geography mismatch. There will be a skill mismatch. There will also be a timing mismatch (for) fossil fuel workers,” says Saha.
Members of Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh practice welding behind a safety curtain in the union training hall. Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front hide caption
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Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front
Members of Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh practice welding behind a safety curtain in the union training hall.
Reid Frazier / The Allegheny Front
The Biden government is committed to helping with what some call a “just transition.” This could mean tax breaks and grants to diversify the economies of the fossil fuel-dependent countries.
However, it is unclear how effective these programs would be.
Even when fossil fuel workers find work in renewable energy, they often don’t pay that much. Many are with small or new businesses and their workers are not unionized. And once solar and wind parks are built, they don’t need a lot of workers.
“It’s nothing more than maintaining a coal-fired power plant,” said Rick Bloomingdale, president of the AFL-CIO in Pennsylvania. “It takes a lot of men and women to maintain a coal-fired power station.”
Bloomingdale is still on Biden’s infrastructure plans, but he wants a long lead time to convert the country to clean energy.
Biden has pledged to make the U.S. electricity sector carbon neutral by 2035 and then the entire economy carbon neutral by 2050. Scientists say this type of massive reduction in heat scavenger gases is necessary to prevent the worst effects of climate change. But they are a serious challenge, and given the current divided Congress and Conservative Courts, Biden could face challenges to achieve them.
Renewable energies currently provide around 20 percent of US electricity. Steffee, the local boiler maker sales rep, doubts that they will completely replace Americans’ thirst for cheap fossil fuels anytime soon.
“If this technology comes in the future, I probably won’t have a job,” he says. “But right now I just don’t see it.”
It is unclear what all of this will mean for young boiler makers like Caleb Marshall. He is 29 and joined the union to follow in his father’s footsteps. Being in retail has given him meaning, he says, and skills that he can use no matter what happens in the industry.
“That’s what I love about trading. I’m learning a skill that I can take anywhere, and you will learn it forever,” he says.
Biden’s climate and infrastructure proposal has one thing that fossil fuel unions advocated.
It would invest more in carbon capture, which would allow coal and gas plants to continue running without the carbon footprint. Some green groups oppose such spending. But it could attract some reluctant union members and keep them working longer.
This story was a collaboration with StateImpact Pennsylvania.
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