There’s no guarantee new green-energy jobs will be unionized, and that’s something the striking auto workers hope to address with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. But the Biden green-energy laws also contain added incentives for domestic projects that pay union-level wages. Trump gave his Michigan speech at a non-union automotive plant, and Republicans in general don’t support unions. So if it sounds like they’re bashing green energy to show solidarity with the union cause, don’t buy it.
First, the whole developed world is moving away from carbon and developing new green-energy technologies. This is a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity and everybody is not going to participate equally. First-movers will lock in vast amounts of wealth, innovation, employment, and other benefits, as they always do. The race is still on. Biden’s green-energy plan is a counterbalance to government incentives in China, Europe, and elsewhere aimed at keeping the spoils there.
Second, private-sector firms are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy development in the United States, in part because of the lucrative incentives Biden has signed into law. Would a Republican president really cancel all those incentives and tell green-energy firms to fire their workers and mothball their plants because we’re going back to fossil fuels? That’s basically what Republicans are promising to do.