The UAW Has a Vision for Green Industrial Policy in California
A recent report from UAW Region 6 outlines a bold vision for how to expand clean energy industries in California using union labor. It’s an example of how unions can get serious about industrial policy and assert themselves in the “abundance” debate.
California has enough lithium for 375 million EV batteries and massive offshore wind potential. The UAW wants to harness these resources to create a pro-worker clean energy manufacturing boom. (Jeff Kowalsky / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A consensus is emerging across the political spectrum around the need for industrial policy. Whether in the form of the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act under Joe Biden in 2022 or the haphazard tariff policy of Donald Trump implemented earlier this year, political leaders on both sides of the aisle are clearly searching for answers regarding how to revive the United States’s flagging manufacturing base.
While the Trump administration places a lot of rhetorical emphasis on bringing back industrial jobs, its policies so far have displayed a profound lack of seriousness or coherence. Trump’s tariffs have not been focused on strategic industries or paired with the investment and planning required to make jobs actually materialize. Attacks on agencies like the Department of Energy will make it difficult to build out even those energy sources that Trump claims to favor, like nuclear.
At the same time, the “abundance” debate, kicked off by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book of the same name, has drawn additional attention to the need for increased state capacity to make things and deliver improvements for ordinary people. This, the book’s authors argue, is the way to revive both the American economy and the Democratic Party. The discussion, fraught and flawed as it is, has captured the attention and imagination of liberals who don’t usually make a habit of thinking about industrial policy.
But there’s one constituency whose voice is missing and sorely needed in that debate: industrial workers and their unions. A new report from the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 6 titled “Organize, Industrialize, Decarbonize: A Pro-Worker, Green Industrial Policy for California” takes up the challenge, providing a compelling example of how labor can weigh in on the reindustrialization conversation.
The report presents a vision for how the state can deploy a range of industrial policy tools to expand clean energy industries like offshore wind, electric vehicle batteries, and heat pumps. The same strategies would ensure that jobs created in this build-out become high-quality union careers. It’s precisely the kind of forward-thinking approach labor needs to take on industrial policy.
Trump’s return to office has effectively killed the momentum behind pro-labor clean energy investment that built up under Biden. Even while the current administration has expressed support for nuclear and geothermal development, its lack of appetite for competent state capacity throws serious doubt on its ability to follow through on a build-out.
In this bleak federal context, states can partner with trade unions to lead on industrial policies that show how a clean energy transition can create good jobs. The more progress is made on forming these coalitions now, the better positioned they’ll be when a more favorable national political climate emerges.
The Industrial Policy Tool Kit
The UAW Region 6 report begins by outlining the dilemmas that presently make carrying out a clean energy transition so challenging, especially if left up to private industry and markets. While working-class families are already reeling from inflation, private utilities are paying for climate investments by raising rates for consumers. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry remains a rare source of good blue-collar union jobs, and workers are rightfully concerned about their disappearance.
But the UAW believes that California’s rich research ecosystem and advanced manufacturing experience puts it in a strong position to be able to build out clean energy technologies. The report helpfully breaks down a range of industrial policy tools, from public procurement to enabling institutions, that the state can employ to favor union labor.
California already uses many of these tools successfully in different contexts. For example, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority has a public procurement provision that gives preference to bidders who create jobs within the county. The PowerForward ZEV Battery Manufacturing grant program incentivizes grant recipients to enter a card check neutrality agreement, have a collective bargaining agreement, and offer comprehensive benefits to their workers.
Enabling institutions, a designation that refers to government entities that carry out research and coordination between public and private institutions, are on the more ambitious side of the policy menu. These represent the building of actual state capacity instead of mere regulation. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is an example of such an enabling institution and played a crucial role in crafting Japan’s postwar economic boom.
UAW Region 6 is focusing its legislative campaigning on Senate Bill 787, which would create a state-level enabling institution in California to facilitate the growth of zero-emission vehicles and batteries (ZEVs), offshore wind, and heat pump manufacturing. It would require state agencies to coordinate funding in line with the goals of supply chain development and energy affordability.
A Pro-Worker Abundance
California contains the natural wealth to make this vision possible. The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has estimated that up to eighteen million metric tons of lithium exist in the state’s Salton Sea Region in the Imperial Valley. This is enough to build 375 million EV batteries. The report advocates expanding EV battery recycling capacity in order to create a fully self-sufficient supply chain.
Two hundred gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential exists off California’s coast, and the state already has the highest density of non-aircraft turbine manufacturing in the country. Just last year, voters approved a bond measure that earmarked $475 million for offshore wind port infrastructure. The UAW believes these conditions make the industry ripe for expansion in the state with the right level of planning. The report recommends that California seek to round out the supply chain by also producing component parts like generators, cells, and power converters.
With the Trump administration launching an all-out attack on offshore wind, it’s even more important for states like California to develop their own capacities to build out the industry and integrate the supply chain. Public projects can be financed over a longer term and better withstand the volatility of national energy policy than strictly private alternatives. For example, Golden State Wind is a joint venture between Ocean Winds and Reventus Power, which is owned by the national public pension plan in Canada. They plan to deploy 2 GW of wind capacity in the state.
Heat pumps are HVAC systems that use electricity instead of gas to heat and cool buildings. They get less attention as a clean energy technology, but they will play a vital role in reducing building emissions. Demand for heat pumps is projected to grow, and California has set a goal of six million installations over the next five years. UAW Region 6 argues that this is a perfect opportunity to use public procurement to create local, unionized employment.
Overall, this UAW report is an all-too-rare example of a union getting serious about a vision for industrial policy and putting real legislation on the table. While other important clean energy sources like nuclear power and geothermal are left out, the policy proposals play to California’s natural strengths and build on already existing successful initiatives.
Many on the Left have wholly dismissed the abundance concept as repackaged neoliberalism. But others have begun to thoughtfully argue that a chief concern of the Left should be increased state capacity to create good jobs and deliver improved lives. If we don’t offer a compelling vision for how to do this, others will.
The authors of the UAW report conclude by stating that they “wholeheartedly agree with authors Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein” on the need for “increased state capacity, empowered public authorities, and investments in innovation.” The UAW’s fight for SB 707 could be an important first step towards a pro-union abundance agenda.