WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, joined the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets to discuss workforce development opportunities in the clean energy transition. Senator Welch highlighted the advantages of investing in reskilling the current fossil fuel workforce in communities reliant on the industry and discussed the potential for creative public-private partnerships to create more pathways to jobs. The event was part of the Center on Regulation and Markets’ series on Reimagining Modern-day Markets and Regulations. 

“We have a real challenge, not just in Vermont but everywhere. If you are going to be installing solar panels, if you are going to be doing EV batteries—and we’ve got companies in Vermont doing that—if you are a company like Beta Technologies, which is a great new Vermont company that is building these small, electrically-powered small planes…then you’ve got to get the workforce,” said Senator Welch.  

“Just an example: in Vermont, we’ve someone who was a petroleum engineer and moved into the EV space. And it’s obviously a person who’s got significant skills that are transferrable but require some training,” Senator Welch continued. “So, that has to be a major focus of public policy; having practical programs that work that do require, by definition, a partnership with industry that is taking advantage of the incentives. But in order to then actually build the products, distribute the projects they have to have the workforce that can do it.” 

“The heart of this is…a major decision any society has to make is: are you going to ignore the problems you face or are you going to lean in and solve them, and in the course of solving them make your society, make your economy, stronger. And there’s absolutely no question now that if we are committed in various ways to address the challenge of reducing carbon emissions and having a cleaner energy economy, that’s going to create thousands and thousands of jobs,” said Senator Welch. “So, whatever the next challenges we face, workforce development is really a major one that we have to take on with energy and determination.” 

Watch the Senator’s full remarks below: 

Watch a livestream of the event. 

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