Michigan Congressman Andy Levin, representing Michigan’s 9th District, joined hundreds of State Energy Officials around the country at NASEO’s 2021 Energy Policy Outlook Conference to discuss the prospects for energy and climate action in the 117th Congress.
In a “Virtual Fireside Chat” with Robert Jackson, Director of the Energy Office within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, Congressman Levin underscored the critical nexus among clean energy, the U.S. workforce, and equitable economic development and opportunity. “We have four major crises that we have to address immediately and simultaneously,” began Congressman Levin, noting the intersecting challenges of public health, systemic racism, economic inequality, and the climate crisis facing the United States today.
One potential remedy, according to the Congressman, is “building green and turbocharging the transition from fossil fuels in a way that puts the most-affected workers at the center of the table [along with] frontline communities: black and brown and indigenous communities that face environmental racism….States will have a big role to play,” requiring continued investments in the U.S. State Energy Program and other efforts to build states’ capacity to advance bold and comprehensive policy.
Congressman Levin has several Committee and Subcommittee assignments within the U.S. House of Representatives, including as Vice Chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, and serves as a member of over two dozen caucuses.
To view the session recording, please click here.