Sierra Club: Clean Manufacturing Jobs Must Be Protected

$6B in public investment spurred commitment of $20B under just one bipartisan program
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Ada Recinos at ada.recinos@sierraclub.org (Pacific Time)

WASHINGTON, DC – In 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law became the largest infrastructure bill in generations. In 2022, the largest climate jobs and manufacturing bill ever – the Inflation Reduction Act – ensured that we could supply the materials for new infrastructure and spurred a clean manufacturing boom in red and blue states across the country. President-elect Trump and the incoming Congress must not sell out the working-class American people by slashing investments in cutting-edge domestic manufacturing. 

Many companies are already matching this public funding with private investments to transform infrastructure and 21st-century innovations, increasing energy efficiency, lowering operating costs, and reducing air and water pollution in urban and rural communities alike. 

Specifically, it would be economically foolish for the Trump Administration and incoming Congress to attempt to claw back money from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program already on the way to increasing the US industrial output by slashing waste and pollution. This would not only seriously undermine the ability of a resurging domestic industrial sector to remain competitive in the global marketplace, but also hurt our chances of mitigating the worst economic impacts of climate change. 

The Sierra Club will fight tooth and nail against any effort to repeal the clean manufacturing investments funded by the IRA and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We urge communities, workers, states, and companies to join us in demanding that Congress not interfere with high-tech manufacturing projects putting steel in the ground. According to Climate Power, 330,000 good-paying clean energy jobs, many of which don’t require a college degree, have been added since the climate laws were enacted and can continue to grow.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.