AFL-CIO backs Heinrich affordability and jobs bill for U.S. energy buildout
Labor backing is widening for Senator Martin Heinrich’s American Affordability and Jobs Act as the measure is positioned as a vehicle to expand U.S. energy infrastructure and trim household power costs. The proposal is also tied to an independent projection that it could support up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs through 2040 while accelerating grid connections for new power projects.
Highlights
- AFL-CIO endorsed Heinrich’s Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, expanding union support for energy infrastructure development in the U.S.
- Employ America projects the bill could create up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs by 2040 and shift $55 billion in grid costs to data centers over 10 years.
- Analysts estimate the legislation would save $19 billion in residential energy bills, almost double grid-connected wind and solar capacity, and avoid 1.5 gigatons of CO2 emissions.
Labor coalition expands behind energy bill
As reported by Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, citing the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the AFL-CIO has endorsed Heinrich’s Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, adding the nation’s largest labor federation to a coalition of unions backing the measure.The support list already includes the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Iron Workers, SMART, the Boilermakers, the Teamsters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, LIUNA, North America’s Building Trades Unions, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Pipeliners Local 798 and the New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council. The groups represent skilled workers involved in building, operating and maintaining energy infrastructure across the country.
Heinrich, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is promoting the bill as a bipartisan effort to make it easier to build and maintain new energy assets, including wind, solar, battery storage and transmission projects.
Jobs, power costs and grid implications
Employ America estimates the bill will create up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs through 2040. The analysis also says the measure will require data centers to cover increased grid and energy costs they create, estimated at $55 billion over the next 10 years.Independent analyses cited in support of the legislation also say it will save $19 billion in residential electricity bills over the next 14 years, nearly double the amount of solar and wind that can connect to the grid, and avoid 1.5 gigatons of CO2 emissions. Backers argue those effects would lower energy costs for working families and give infrastructure developers greater certainty as U.S. power demand rises.
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