Delgado Hosts Roundtable with Environmental Stakeholders to Announce New Proposal to Combat Climate Change

Press Release

Yesterday, Representative Antonio Delgado (NY-19) convened a roundtable at Columbia-Greene Community College with local environmental leaders and stakeholders from across New York's 19th Congressional District. Delgado's roundtable followed the release of his new legislation, the Green Jobs and Opportunity Act, to combat climate change and provide a roadmap for transitioning the clean energy workforce. The conversations focused on implementation of this legislation and the future of clean energy and green jobs in Upstate New York.

Rep. Delgado kicked off the conversation with an introduction into his legislation, "Today I am very excited to join you all to announce legislation we have all been talking about for a long time that will help us create a roadmap to a clean energy workforce, which we so desperately need. In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report stating that to avoid the most severe impacts of a changing climate, there must be net-zero global emissions by 2050. This finding by the IPCC is the foundation of my proposal."

"The IPCC's report gave us a destination and a timeline, but not a roadmap. So I teamed up with my colleague, Representative Mark Pocan, who has championed workers' rights since coming to Congress, to introduce this bill. The Green Jobs and Opportunity Act requires the U.S. Departments of Labor and Energy to start from the assumption of achieving the IPCC's goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050 and then work backward to project current and future workforce needs and shortages in the energy sector specifically." His remarks also described how this legislation makes significant investments to develop a green workforce that can capitalize on the millions of jobs created in the U.S. and in the Upstate region. "This funding will empower our local communities to invest in targeted programs, including pre-apprenticeship programs, that are crucial to ensuring that the U.S. has a workforce prepared to meet the energy needs of tomorrow. This legislation is about bringing folks together, just like we are doing today, to steer our green workforce."

The conversation then focused on the need to address climate change and implementation of the Green Jobs and Opportunity Act. The group discussed how funding included in this legislation would be available to organizations across NY-19 including community colleges, labor unions, high schools, and green employers to come together to shape workforce development and pre-apprenticeship programs to meet the needs of the transitioning economy. The group also discussed the importance of ensuring small business eligibility and including local business development measures.

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