Clean energy is what's next-and now

By Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy

I’m super thrilled to be here with so many champions of workforce development in this country—where the rubber meets the road.

So happy to be with a crowd that is always asking:

“What’s next? What’s next? What’s next?”

And I have an answer for you, which is: clean energy!

Clean energy is here now. And it is next. And it’s going be next for a good while— like maybe the next 25 years.

So, I want everybody to realize that we are at this inflection point right now.

Because we have this opportunity, right now, to not only make significant inroads in addressing the climate crisis, but in doing so, to really rebuild our economy from the bottom up, as the President likes to say, and the middle out. And to give the students who are here and the ones who you serve—give them a great entry into the middle class and above.

The Biden administration wants us all to seize on that opportunity. And it’s why the President signed the most significant clean energy laws in our nation’s history—potentially, on the planet—because of the incentives that have been put into place to attract jobs to America.

It is all about jobs, jobs, jobs—and it’s got to be about the workforce, the workforce, the workforce.

We’re going to need—just as one example—a million new electricians by 2030. That’s just electricians. We’re going to need operators for new battery factories. We’re going to need people who are turbine technicians...folks on EV factory lines...we need energy auditors...we need heat pump installers...we need system operators...we need scientists...we need engineers...and so much more.

And that’s why you all have the keys to this future.

So, I have three calls to action for you. One is: first, for those of you who haven’t, install clean energy on your campuses!

The administrators in the room here know all too well how expensive it is to power your schools. Clean energy is this affordable, sustainable alternative. Solar is the cheapest form of energy right now.

Thanks to this provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, you guys—community colleges, and in fact, nonprofits—get a 30 percent payback, cash back, on projects. Off the top! You get cash back. 30 percent! You’re tax-free, so it’s not a tax deduction—it is money back, to you, to install clean energy on your campus.

And not only do you save up front, but you keep saving over time and then reaping the benefits of what you’ve installed.

The second call to action is really to focus on workforce training programs related to clean energy. I just want to give you this bit of information. You may not know, but the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law so far, since they were signed, have caused 400 factories to either expand or open up in the United States.

Four hundred factories, all across the United States, in every pocket of the country.

Amazing, right? All of these factories are going to need thousands and thousands of workers. And all of the folks who are running those factories are saying to us, “We just got to make sure we have a pipeline of talent.” And the community college is the place where this can happen.

And finally, our third call to action. There are students in the room, right?

I am just telling you: You all should be considering a career in clean energy!

This market, I’m just saying, it’s going to hit—according to Bloomberg—$23 trillion by 2030.

You can get a great job and you can save the planet. It is a win-win! So, stake your claim! Shoot your shot! Join the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are working in clean energy today.

Together we are building a safer, more equitable future where everybody has a chance to get ahead. What does that look like?

In 2050, if we’ve met our goals, we are drinking cleaner water.

We’re breathing cleaner air.

We’ve begun to repair our shared home, our planet.

We’re powering our cars and buildings and entire communities with sun and wind and other renewables.

We’re outcompeting the world.

We’re investing in our workers.

We’re inventing energy saving tools beyond our wildest imaginations.

In 2050, we are on a roll.

And after a wildly successful 25 years of focusing on energy, I am confident that community colleges will be able to ask the question: “What’s next?”

For the Record is an edited version of a speech by U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm at the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C. in February 2024.

Q3 2024