Bipartisan legislation introduced on Sept. 18 by U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) aims to spur the buildout of America’s energy workforce.
Sen. McSally cosponsored the Promoting American Energy Jobs Act of 2019, S. 2508, with bill sponsor U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). The legislation would require the U.S. Secretary of Energy to establish a jobs council to conduct a survey and analysis of the employment figures and demographics across specific energy-related sectors in the United States.
“Our bill would require the Department of Energy to report the number of jobs the industry sustains each year so we can understand the full economic implications of any potential energy policy,” Sen. McSally said on Friday.
If enacted, S. 2508 would establish an Energy Jobs Council that would be tasked with publishing the annual report, to be entitled the “‘U.S. Energy and Employment Report,” which would provide employment figures and demographic data for the energy sector of the economy of the United States, including the electric power generation and fuels sector; the transmission, storage and distribution sector; the energy efficiency sector; and the motor vehicle sector, according to the text of the bill.
The Energy Jobs Council authorized under S. 2508 also would be required to create guidelines for the report’s methodology and to ensure the annual report and the data collected are available to the public on the U.S. Department of Energy’s website.
Numerous energy and environmental organizations support the bill, including the Alliance to Save Energy, Clean Energy Trust, the Energy Storage Association, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the National Association of State Energy Officials, and the Nuclear Energy Institute.
“When it comes to energy, I believe in an all-of-the-above approach,” said Sen. McSally. “That means we need to know just how many Americans are employed by the wide-ranging energy sector.”