City and union leaders present creative workarounds to federal challenges on climate justice
This article originally appeared in the Austin Monitor on September 24, 2025.
Despite recent federal setbacks to the climate justice movement, Austin has a pathway to reduce its carbon footprint, create hundreds of jobs and save nearly $3 million per year in energy costs, according to the Texas Climate Jobs Project (TCJP). The coalition launched its new report, “Powering Public Progress: Decarbonizing Austin’s Municipal Buildings for a Resilient Future,” at a press conference last week alongside city leaders. The report outlines pathways to bolster Austin’s sustainability initiatives while creating union-supported work.
About the Texas Climate Jobs Project
Labor unions across the state partnered to create the TCJP in 2021. The coalition explores policies to strengthen climate resilience while addressing income inequality and creating jobs.
“We founded the Texas Climate Jobs Project because working people deserve to be at the center of our state’s clean energy future,” said Jeremy Hendricks, secretary treasurer of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 1095.
“Texas is the energy capital of the country — but it’s also the most dangerous state for workers, with the highest rates of workplace fatalities, injuries, wage theft and misclassification,” he added. “Texas has the potential to lead the nation in climate action and job creation. But that only happens if labor is at the table — not as an afterthought, but as a driving force. That’s why we launched this project: to make sure climate solutions are also economic justice solutions, rooted in the dignity, safety and strength of Texas workers.”
Ryan Pollock, executive director of the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council and an organizer with the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), told the Austin Monitor the TCJP was intended to stand in the gap between the labor force and environmentalists.
“Texas being the energy state, we really needed to be on the front line of this,” he noted.
Coordination with existing city projects
The report’s recommendations fall into three categories: installing rooftop solar panels across city-owned buildings, retrofitting city facilities with climate-resilient infrastructure and creating high-quality union jobs to accomplish this work efficiently. These goals align with the city’s recent climate initiatives.
“I think there’s a lot of synergy between what the report asks for and what we’re doing already,” said Council Member Mike Siegel. Earlier this year, Siegel co-sponsored Council Member Ryan Alter’s resolution directing city staff to identify city properties with the greatest potential for solar generation.
“I was really happy to see the Office of Climate Action and Resilience is taking immediate action to implement this policy,” Siegel said. “Their urgency is driven in part by the federal administration basically canceling solar panel tax credits beginning in about a year. And so we are moving … to start the process of building these solar panels on city land so we can take advantage of the federal tax cuts that are still in existence.”
“Staff are now prioritizing the most viable sites and developing a procurement strategy,” Alter said of the initiative. “Once finalized, the city will issue a multi-site Request for Proposals for a portfolio of solar projects.”
Because Austin’s electrical utility is municipally owned, there is more flexibility to implement union-backed labor practices when expanding the city’s solar network.
“At this moment in history when the federal government is cutting their support for Austin, when the state government continues to be hostile to the goals of our community, it’s really important that we have strategies that are sustainable and realizable using our own resources,” Siegel told the Monitor. He emphasized that the TCJP report will further empower the city to make sure workers are taken care of throughout this initiative. “It’s not enough to say ‘We want solar,’” he said. “We want solar built by well-paid workers at safe work sites who have the right to join a union … all of these things go together.”
City leaders also indicated their support for the TCJP’s second recommendation: retrofitting city facilities for climate efficiency.
“Buildings generate nearly half of Austin’s emissions, so improving their efficiency is critical to reaching our 2040 net-zero goal,” Alter said. “While upgrades come with upfront costs, improved efficiency saves money over time — a win for taxpayers, a win for our environment, and a win for our future,” he added.
In fact, Siegel and Alter partnered during the recent budget cycle to create a climate revolving fund that could support this work. Inspired by similar initiatives in San Antonio and Harris County, the fund will support energy-efficiency projects around the city and will re-invest the savings generated by increased efficiency into additional improvements.
The report also bolsters an existing city priority of establishing local pipelines for green careers. The Austin Infrastructure Academy, a joint effort between the city and several workforce development partners, launched earlier this year. It trains Austinites for success in union and trade careers. Hendricks also pointed to the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps (ACCC), a green jobs program created by former Council Member Alison Alter during the pandemic.
“Austin has room — and real need — for all workforce programs that lift up trainees and workers,” Hendricks said. “There’s definitely potential for overlap and collaboration—especially when it comes to connecting ACCC participants to longer-term union careers in infrastructure, electrification or building retrofits.”
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Siegel told the Monitor he is interested in the potential to bring solar panel manufacturing to Austin, and to create more pathways for high schoolers to pursue union apprenticeships to help install them.
“By creating a goal of adding these additional hundreds of megawatts of solar panels, our electric utility has essentially created a new market of work,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re thinking about the supply chain aspect of this: Can we attract manufacturing to build the renewable energy infrastructure we need? And then also there’s a workforce part of this where we want to make sure we’re training up young Austin workers so that they can get the skills and experience to take advantage of these high-income job opportunities.”
City and union leaders agree that including workers in the transition away from fossil fuels is the only way to ensure an equitable climate future — especially in the face of ongoing pushback from the federal administration.
“Having a strong environmental message … is not enough. We need to build real power to demand and enforce that message, and that’s where the labor movement comes in,” Siegel noted.
“If we’re serious about building a clean energy future in Texas, then unions have to be at the center of it. Climate jobs should be good jobs — safe, skilled and union-backed. We need family-supporting careers with real benefits, so workers can afford to live in Austin and build a life here,” Hendricks said. “That’s how we ensure working people, especially those from communities historically left behind, aren’t just surviving the transition — they’re leading it.”