Climate 411

This was originally posted on Huffington Post. 

America is finally on the cusp of enacting a federal law to cap global warming pollution and the focus on how it will affect our economy has never been greater. When President Obama last week called on Congress to send him such a bill, he underscored the economic necessity of creating new jobs by reinventing our energy supply. Not surprisingly, longtime opponents of taking action argued that a cap will hurt business and consumers.

But the most important piece of this debate has largely been overlooked. Right now, tens of thousands of workers in hundreds of communities are poised to benefit from a nationwide cap on carbon emissions — and they’re right in our backyards.

When America caps its carbon emissions, manufacturing companies from coal country to the rust belt and beyond will see a surge of customers looking to cut pollution, reduce energy use and expand their use of renewables like wind and solar.

These are real companies with real employees in real American communities. And it’s time for their stories to be heard.

Take Dwayne Esterline of Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Dwayne spent 15 years manufacturing auto parts for everyone from General Motors to Daimler Chrysler. In June 2008, with the auto industry struggling, he took a chance and joined Dowding Industries. Dowding has been in Michigan for over 40 years, and they’d recently begun manufacturing large-scale machine parts for wind turbines.

Dwayne’s manufacturing background was a perfect fit, and he sees his story as a model for workers across the country.

“I look at the future of the wind industry, and this is a positive place to be,” he says. “It’s nice to be a part of something that’s growing and creating jobs. I think people in communities like mine need to reinvent themselves and apply their skills to the green energy revolution.”

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On Friday, we released a set of interactive maps showing 1,200 companies that are poised to benefit from a national cap on carbon pollution.

Jackie Roberts, our director of sustainable technologies, put it this way: “These maps tell the story of companies across the manufacturing heartland that will get new customers and create jobs with a cap on carbon.”

The maps were presented at the kick-off meeting of Vice President Joe Biden’s Middle Class Task Force. (Here’s a liveblog of the event from the White House web site.)

Reactions are coming in. Politico gives an overview of the political context, Care2 features a video interview of Jackie explaining where the map idea came from and how to use the maps. The folks over at Environmental Leader and Climate Biz weighed in, too.

If you have any comments on the maps, please post them here.