On March 6, LNS president Joe Uehlein testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources:
Climate change is a job killer, and a budget killer. You’ve heard it said, and I don’t mind repeating it, that this is the only planet we have, and the voices of the future are calling back to us and asking that we see beyond our own time.
The impacts of unchecked global warming and climate change will decimate our economy and ecology. Whether you work on the ports, or in the agricultural fields, or in a warehouse, or in transportation, manufacturing, health care ~ even nurses and public employees will all suffer job loss due to unchecked global warming and climate change.
Renewable energy is a big part of the solution, for the climate and for working people. Geothermal energy is an essential part of the overall renewable energy mix, and provides clean, reliable, baseload power, with minimal carbon emissions. This will help reduce our reliance on polluting and climate destroying fossil fuels. And the beauty of geothermal is that the job skills are readily transferable. Pipefitters in an oil refinery or nuclear power plant, or pipefitters that build big pipelines like I did, can do geothermal work.
But it’s more than pipefitters. To do this work we need operating engineers, truck drivers, laborers, and carpenters, depending on how deep the hole is, like for the fracking process of enhanced geothermal, which allows for more efficient extraction of geothermal heat found deep in the ground. We need drillers, excavators, indoor plumbers, and workers who do HVAC work. Conventional geothermal taps heat sources closer to the earth’s surface. For both methods, the skills needed are all transferable.
For Joe’s full testimony: https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/testimony-of-joseph-uehlein-on-h-r-7422-geothermal-cost-recovery-authority-act-of-2024/