The mission of the Blue Green Alliance (BGA), formed by the United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club in 2006, is to create good jobs, a clean environment, and a green economy. Since its inception, three other unions have joined the alliance: the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), as well as the environmental group, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). All told, the BGA has over six million members.
Last week the BGA endorsed the 600-page Waxman-Markey House bill, which covers several large-scale issues, including the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions through cap-and-trade legislation. The bill's goal is to cut U.S. emissions by 83% of 2005 levels by 2050 and to achieve shorter-term target reductions of 20% by 2020 and 42% by 2040. The BGA believes that this bill will help create millions of American jobs as part of the new Green Economy. Of course, another important aspect of the bill is the effect it can have on the environment.
There is no doubt that much spirited debate will precede the final draft of the bill and its arrival on the president's desk for signing. The bigger news is that an organization such as BGA exists at all and that it is so aggressive in its support of such a bill. Unions and environmental groups haven't always come together in support of their mutual interests. Now the world has changed dramatically--not only in terms of employer/employee relations, but from an environmental point of view. So dramatically, in fact, that once-adversarial factions have joined together in order to create jobs through new technologies and help the environment.
It will probably be months before we know the outcome of the Waxman-Markey bill; in the meantime, it appears that more alliances of strange bedfellows will emerge as we all realize that we can create a much better world by working together.
That's America.
Jonathan A. Schein is the publisher of MetroGreenBusiness.com and GreenBusinessCareers.com