Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm Remarks as Delivered on America’s Plan to Bring Back Union Jobs

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Thank you so much, President McGarvey. Thank you so much to the Building Trades. Thanks to Secretary-Treasurer Bishop.

What a great time to be in the building trades!

Every week these days, I know I'm in a new part of the country seeing new factory floors, new manufacturing lines, new control rooms, new job sites…

Every day, it seems, the Department of Energy is announcing new investments in grid projects, in hydrogen projects, in battery projects…

Every day, the private sector is announcing new solar projects, wind projects, nuclear…

In the energy space alone, since President Biden took office-this is just in my column, and in many of your columns-private companies have announced nearly-more than, actually!-[plans for] 600 new or expanded factories for clean energy technologies, in every pocket of the country.

600 factories, so far.

Companies have doubled their investments in manufacturing structures. It's now at its highest level on record.

Construction employment, as you know, is now at its highest level on record. 848,000 construction jobs-that we've all been able to count-over the last three years.

All right!

[Applause]

848,000!

And more broadly…more than 15 million jobs created since President Biden took office. More jobs than under any term of any president in United States history.

[Applause]

More people employed today than at any time in United States history.

Unemployment under 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years.

The best economy of any industrialized nation.

[Applause]

I'm telling you!

Why is this happening? Why is this happening?

It is not coincidence. It is not luck.

This is-these jobs are the result of a focused, strategic plan.

A new industrial revolution is taking shape. It is President Biden's industrial strategy.

The Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, The CHIPS and Science Act-all the Investing in America agenda.

It is historic. And your labor unions had a hand in shaping this strategy every step of the way.

These wins belong to you. This industrial strategy belongs to you.

[Applause]

The President's listening. The President's a teammate!

And this strategy-in my world, in the energy space-it stems from a recognition of two facts:

First is that clean energy, zero-carbon-emitting energy, is the future.

Like Wayne Gretzky said in that famous quote: you don't skate to where the puck is, but where the puck is going.

Every country on the planet is committed to a clean energy future.

Somebody's got to build the factories to make those wind turbines and solar panels, those small modular reactors. Somebody's got to be doing that, right?

[Applause]

And there's a second thing that it stems from: a recognition that our past economic policies have failed us. In many cases, tragically.

I was the governor of Michigan. I saw hundreds of factories, big and small, shut down in the 1990s, the 2000s.

You all are from towns across America. You saw this too: people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

60,000 factories across the country shut down during that time. Moved overseas.

These industrial cathedrals of brick and plaster and concrete and steel. The pride of their communities, in every pocket of the nation-hollowed out. Abandoned.

Why?

Because CEOs and economic elites and leaders were bowing to the altar of so-called "free trade" and laissez-faire economics. Moving factories to places where they could pay rock-bottom wages. You know this, it's called "labor arbitrage."

You know, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, said once famously that he would put his factories on barges and move them to wherever costs were the cheapest if he could.

[Boos]

I know!

Our policies effectively encouraged manufacturers to build their projects abroad. Factories that had anchored entire communities were ripped from their moorings and took millions of jobs with them.

Is it any wonder that I and a lot of politicians like me used to campaign on the chant: "NAFTA and CAFTA have given us the SHAFTA!"

[Laughs]

As we watched our states' jobs disappear, governors like me, we would ask ourselves: how can we possibly as a state compete with the industrial policies of China, or the low wages of Mexico, when we have no federal partner? No federal strategy?

State policies versus the might of China? It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

After I was governor, I actually went to China to see what they were doing. To see how they were-what their industrial strategy was like to bring jobs there, particularly in the energy sector.

I was at a big demonstration by a number of Chinese officials, including a bunch of mayors. And they were bragging about how they had been able to get all this investment.

I was standing next to one of the mayors at the back of the demonstration. And he leans over to me and he says, "So, tell me: when do you think the United States is going to get a national industrial strategy for clean energy?"

And I was like, "Mm…uhh…Congress, divided…I'm just not sure."

And he gets this big grin on his face. And he says, "Take your time."

Take your time.

Because they saw our passivity as their opportunity!

But…enter Joe Biden! Joe from Scranton, PA. Amtrak Joe.

He saw-he felt-what was happening across the country. He tasked his Cabinet and allies [gestures to audience] with developing a strategy to bring businesses and jobs back home to America.

A strategy-you know this!-to rebuild the middle class, by building our economy-you know it!-from the middle-out and the bottom-up.

And it flips the script on these failed policies from the past. Because now, we have actually made it irresistible for manufacturers and developers to invest in America.

We've made billions of dollars available in grants, and tax credits, and loans for companies to build our clean energy economy here, soup to nuts.

All those new factories: who's building them? You are!

[Applause]

You're the ones.

You're pouring the concrete for new factory floors. You're finishing the drywall. You're installing the plumbing and the HVAC. You're fitting the roof.

You're wiring the solar arrays. You're operating the cranes. You're assembling the hulls for the offshore wind vessels. You're maintaining the nuclear reactors.

You're doing all the painting and welding and glazing and pipefitting.

You are bringing this industrial revolution to life!

[Applause]

That's you!

[Standing ovation]

Of course, these are overwhelmingly union jobs, right?

Because President Biden knew that if we wanted to do this work, and we do this work well, we've gotta give developers every incentive to hire highly skilled workers.

So, with your help, with your voice, with your muscle, he wove his agenda with the strongest labor standards that we have seen in a century.

For example: all federally contracted projects now have to have PLAs [project labor agreements].

[Standing ovation]

I know!

We're pushing for PLAs on the grants and the loans, too.

Actually, we don't just encourage PLAs. At the Department of Energy, we have to rate the applicants. And the folks who have PLAs, who include commitments to negotiate them, we're giving them higher scores, so that those are the ones that get preference.

We also have, by the way, the first labor standards attached to tax credits.

So employers that pay prevailing wages and use registered apprentices, they get five times the incentives.

Five times-that is huge! That's huge!

[Applause]

It's embedded-it's embedded-in the strategy!

Now, people are always coming to us asking, "Well, how are we going to meet these requirements? How do we find skilled workers? How do we do registered apprenticeships? How do we involve the local community?"

And every time, we tell them: talk to your local building trades, folks!

Because in the past, the contractors have had all the power. President Biden is changing that. You got the power!

[Applause]

So-don't underestimate Joe Biden, folks! The man with a plan.

And the success that we are seeing, especially in clean energy-it's just gonna keep growing.

Because the majority of these incentives and tax credits are embedded in the law and on offer for the next ten years, at least.

And for the building trades unions, obviously that means better jobs. It means safer jobs. It means stable growth, predictable growth.

But here's the thing. And I know you know this.

We need you to help us connect your members to these jobs, and the reason why these jobs are happening. We need you to help us spread the word about this generational opportunity and how it's working.

People sometimes don't connect, "Hey, I got this job because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law," or the Inflation Reduction Act, or the CHIPS and Science Act.

Your members trust you to guide them, to educate them, to shoot 'em straight.

So any chance you get, we're asking-at your job sites, at your local meetings, in your newsletters, your watering holes-let them know that America has a plan to bring union jobs back, and to make them stay.

And thanks to that plan, America has begun the industrial revolution of our lifetimes.

A transformation that's got us building again.

A transformation powered by American energy, with technologies stamped "Made in America."

Built, installed, maintained by American workers, in proud American communities.

[Applause and whistles]

Yes! It's a transformation in which innovation is inevitable…investment in America is irresistible…and no American feels invisible.

This is our America. It's our time to soar.

God, I love this country.

Thank you.

[Standing ovation]