By Jacob Klein
Months after the Marathon Refinery in Martinez idled due to the pandemic, production has now come to a permanent stop. While in many ways this may seem like a victory to us environmentalists (one less refinery polluting the local air) we must also take into consideration the impact on workers. Hundreds of people are now out of work — workers whose livelihoods depended on the jobs this refinery provided.
Soon after, the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo announced that they plan to switch to renewable biodiesel production and stop petroleum refining by 2024. Rebranded as “Renewed Rodeo,” much still remains to be seen about impacts on workers and the adjacent communities.
Just as the refineries give only lip service to caring for the environment and environmental justice, so too is their commitment to their workers insincere. As shareholders continue to rake in money, the workers lose their jobs and receive no support. Perhaps there will be other jobs. Maybe another fossil fuel company will take over the Marathon refinery and re-employ many of the former workers. However, between now and then, many families and communities will suffer from lack of income.
This is why we need Just Transitions. We know that the fossil fuel industry will not support labor once the profits are gone. Therefore it’s up to us to work together and find ways to support the economic well-being of others. We know that despite their desperate attempts to hold on, fossil fuels will be depleted and the companies profiteering off their use will close up. Before that happens, we need a plan to make sure the workers are able to find other good-paying, union jobs and are adequately supported until that happens.
Just Transitions include things like supplemental benefits (making up the pay that was lost with the job, for the time it realistically takes to find another job or to be retrained), job retraining, supporting labor and union power and reach, and switching over to an economy based on non-polluting energy sources.
It can seem big and scary. How do we make this happen? How much will this cost? Where will that money come from? Fortunately, we have examples and support in envisioning this. Colorado passed a Just Transitions bill last year with the joint advocacy of leading environmental and labor groups. They are in the process of setting up their plan and have already set up an office dedicated to Just Transitions. Helpful to launching this, Robert Pollin wrote a report on what it could look like in Colorado.
Fortuitously enough, Pollin has published A Fair and Sustainable Economic Recovery Program for California and is currently developing a more in-depth version. At the same time, there are leaders locally and across the state working on similar projects. A Bay Area Green New Deal document is in the works. Assemblymember Rob Bonta led the charge on a California Green New Deal legislation that wasn’t able to move forward this year, but has begun an important conversation. Many activists and leaders are starting to sit down and have these conversations. What can this look like? What do people need? How can we make this happen? How can we work together?
We as environmentalists must make sure to protect the Earth, yes, but we must remember the people impacted too. We have to center labor, whose livelihoods will be on the line. And we have to center Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities who already experience the brunt of the climate crisis. Only then will the transition be truly just.
Jacob Klein is the regional coal organizer for the Sierra Club's SF Bay, Redwood, and Mother Lode Chapters.