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Climate Jobs Justice

No matter where you’re located in Pittsburgh, Mckees Rocks to Blawnox, we all deserve to have clean air and water. Together, we can create a green future while creating union jobs in Pittsburgh.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the Biden/Harris administration, has created many opportunities for projects that promote climate, jobs, and justice in Allegheny County. Under this law, school districts, cities and towns, and counties can access federal funds for renewable energy projects that were previously only available to private companies.

We have a vision of using these federal funds to make the places we live and work – our homes, schools, and government buildings – converted to 100% renewable energy while using 100% union labor to get the work done. This work would include installing heat pumps, fully electrifying all appliances, repairing and insulating walls and windows, and installing rooftop solar on buildings across Allegheny County. We’ve made strides to improve our “Smokey City” legacy before, and it’s time we clean our air and water for good by going green.

What going green means for Allegheny County:

    • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions 

    • Cleaning up our air

    • Creating thousands of new union jobs

    • Creating new pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship pathways to ensure women and people of color have access to these new jobs

Creating green jobs will preserve the unions that built Pittsburgh while respecting our traditions, acknowledging our legacy, and envisioning a world beyond fossil fuels.

 

Shifting the buildings we live and work into 100% renewable energy will clean the air we breathe and reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. The combustion of methane gas in homes, whether for cooking, water heating, or space heating, produces a range of pollutants that can lead to asthma and other respiratory diseases. With all electric appliances and heat pumps, we can remove all of these pollutants from our homes while also removing them from the environment.

 

The work to repair and upgrade these buildings, including weatherization, solar installation, and interior repairs, has the potential to shape a new green economy in Allegheny County. And we have the opportunity to shape these jobs from the beginning, including worker protections to make sure they are all good-paying, union jobs, and local hire requirements to ensure that women and people of color, who have been left out of the building trades for too long, have access to these union jobs.

 

We are currently working to identify the specific projects and federal funds to launch this vision. Check out the videos below for more information!

The coalition organized around this decarbonization work is a diverse network of climate, environmental, housing, and labor advocates committed to ensuring sustainable community solutions for Western PA. Coalition members include Pittsburgh United, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades – IUPAT District Council 57, Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council, UrbanKind Institute, Black Environmental Collective, Black Equity Coalition, Southwestern PA Municipal Project Hub, Partner4Work, Pittsburgh Gateways, Energy Innovation Center, BlueGreen Alliance, Pennsylvania  Utility Law Project (PULP), Southwestern PA Municipal Project Hub, Solar United Neighbors ,Ohio River Valley Institute, Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance, Master Builders’ Association of Western PA, Women for  Healthy Environment, Sustainable Pittsburgh, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Hill District Consensus Group, Pittsburgh Black Worker Center.