Report: Cities and counties must prioritize workforce development to meet clean energy infrastructure goals

The Biden Administration’s historic investment in clean energy over the last few years poses an incredible opportunity for local governments to revolutionize their energy grids. But it’s not just physical projects the legislation aims to jumpstart. Beyond the actual construction of infrastructure, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act funding is intended to support workforce development and address a lack of skilled tradespeople by creating training programs, fostering collaborations, and launching recruitment and retention norms that continue long after the money dries up.

In a new analysis, Brookings Institute researchers combed through the recently passed legislation and asked, “What programs mentioned workers? What programs mentioned training?” said Joe Kane, a research fellow at Brookings Metro and co-author of the report “Why green jobs plans matter and where U.S. cities stand in implementing them.” Kane and fellow researcher Adie Tomer found “There is quite a bit of flexibility” that incentivizes administrators to invest portions of their allotment into career pathways and workforce development. 

But while the funding might be available, there’s a disconnect that needs to be overcome. While the funding is temporary, administratively, the workforce challenge is a long-term and complex problem. Some cities understand it better than others.

“The problem is there’s a lot of confusion at the local level. That’s what our team here has been doing, to bridge those gaps,” he said. To that end, the report specifically investigates “the willingness and capacity of cities, and local governments” to lead workforce development by analyzing the climate action plans of 50 large cities.

The report highlights that, currently, skilled laborers specializing in electrical and other relevant professions are in short supply. There won’t be enough people to construct, operate and maintain a clean energy grid. This is especially problematic when considering the talent pipeline for some highly specialized professions spans decades. Infrastructure investments, on the other hand, are typically one-time, and few and far between.

“Transportation departments, water utilities, and other employers are struggling to retain talent, let alone find the millions of new workers needed in the skilled trades and other related positions in the coming years,” the report says. “Preparing a climate-ready workforce requires an all-hands-on-deck approach among public and private leaders across the country—including federal policymakers, state community college systems, and individual employers—but these capacity-related gaps often come to ground in U.S. cities and regions.”

Some, such as Portland, Ore., Denver, Colo., and Seattle, Wash., have already created comprehensive climate action plans that include a blueprint for workforce development, according to Kane. Elsewhere, a program in Los Angeles, Calif. spells out needed occupations and creates measurable benchmarks, marking the number of workers that will need to be trained on a linear calendar graph. Cincinnati, Ohio has partnered with local schools to bring more youth into the trades. And in Detroit, Mich., administrators have outlined specific educational pathways that can bring more workers into needed professions.

“Someone doesn’t just become an electrician tomorrow. They’re going to need transportation to the job site and potentially child care,” Kane said. “That shift in mindset is probably what needs to happen. And some places are executing that shift, while other places look at it as either-or: ‘If I do workforce development, I’ll take away from the project.’ It’s a balance that you need to strike.”

To entice buy-in of a comprehensive workforce vision, many of the competitive grant programs will prioritize projects that include labor development. And while many cities are prepared to capitalize on the grant opportunities, others aren’t.

“We found that many of them [climate action plans] are mentioning green jobs—paying lip service to them—but they’re not providing much detail on how to train workers in this space and create durable,” Kane said, noting there’s a danger that local governments do the bare minimum to obtain funding and then use it to exclusively create one-off projects. “Broadly speaking, they’re playing catch up. They’ve only recently launched their climate action plans.”

Specifically, while most of the cities (40 of 50) emphasized energy projects, less than half (24) emphasized building-related workforce needs. Only 19 included in their action plans information about collaborating with institutional and organizational partners for workforce development. Only 11 documented funding needs for workforce development, and nine included specific date and benchmarks.

Within town hall, Kane stressed a need for administrators to break down historic walls between infrastructure-related departments and workforce development. 

“There needs to be a bridging of that gap, between infrastructure leaders and workforce leaders so they are communicating and working together,” he said. “There’s a huge federal carrot for local governments to do more planning and action around green workforce issues.”

The report concludes that local leaders must articulate workforce priorities and consider the training and funding timelines to meet goals. Comparatively, researchers found that many local leaders aren’t prepared to take advantage of funding opportunities. In all of this, public organizations must include workforce development when considering infrastructure needs.

While the infrastructure investments might be distributed “over the next 5 years, the ripple effects will extend far from that,” Kane said.