Fossil Fuel Unions Unhappy with Biden

April 16, 2021

President Biden continues to push his extreme eco-left climate policies, sneaking them into every proposal he can thus far. His recent infrastructure plan being a prime example, with only 25% of the plan’s funding going toward infrastructure. Once again, giving false promises of job creation with no real career alternatives for the high-paying jobs that would be lost. Biden’s messaging continued with his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, promoting it as an opportunity to create union jobs. Union leaders in Pennsylvania are skeptical.

Boilmakers Local 154 is a union in Pittsburg whose members are highly skilled in building and maintain coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. Shawn Steffee, the local’s business agent discusses the work union members provide and how Biden could take it away.

“It’s highly skilled work that can pay well, sometimes six figures — the “pinnacle” of blue-collar craftwork, Steffee said. And it’s exactly the kind of job he worries will disappear if Biden’s climate policies speed up the decline of fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy. If he were to go work in the solar industry, for example, Steffee said he’d be essentially starting over in a new trade, and risk losing some of his pension and other benefits.”

President Biden and his administration have said multiple times that fossil fuel workers can easily transition to jobs in clean energy. But that is not the reality.

And even if fossil fuel workers can find work in renewables, those jobs often don’t pay as much. According to one recent report, jobs in renewables pay a median wage of $24 an hour, while fossil fuel jobs pay around $26 an hour.

Power The Future recently discussed in a blog post the drastic difference in salary oil and gas workers make in comparison to renewable energy jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that solar power technicians make $43,000 and wind turbine technicians earn $53,000 annually. In other words, these new “high-paying jobs” pay $60,000 to $70,000 less than their oil and gas counterparts. This is a significant wage gap to close by any standard.

Blue collar workers are across the country are having to face the reality of a Biden administration. These highly skilled workers who trained for years at their craft will now have to start over. Many of them taking pay cuts and moving their families in the process.

The Biden administration’s messaging to provide alternative jobs to the workers they have displaced through their overreaching orders is a lie. Taking a $60,000 to $70,000 pay cut is not an alternative, it’s a lousy compensation for the havoc this administration has wreaked on the oil and gas industry.