A Role for State Attorneys General in a Just Transition
Bethany Davis Noll (Executive Director) / Terri Gerstein (Director, State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program) / Tiernaur Anderson (Digital Media Manager) / Launched December 1, 2022 / September 21, 2023
This report was published December 1, 2022. The resources on this page were last updated September 21, 2023.
A new report by the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at NYU School of Law and the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program considers how state attorneys general (AGs) can help ensure that the shift to renewable energy supports communities and leads to good climate jobs. The report provides insight into the role of AGs, highlights recent AG enforcement of workers’ rights and environmental protection, and offers additional ideas for what state attorneys general can do in relation to a just transition.
The Latest
Check here for the latest developments in the just transition space, including efforts by AGs to protect workers and ensure that the shift to renewable energy supports communities and leads to good climate jobs.
Just Transition in the Media

Biden uses executive power to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps
AP • Matthew Daly
September 20, 2023

Minnesota program helps manufacturers train their teams for an all-electric future
Energy News Network • Frank Jossi
September 5, 2023
See Older Items
- With labor in the national spotlight, state AGs are increasingly standing up for workers’ rights | ACS: Expert Forum • Terri Gerstein • 8/31/23
- Q&A: From Coal to Prisons in Eastern Kentucky, and the Struggle for a ‘Just Transition’ | Inside Climate News • James Bruggers • 9/2/23
- Energy Credit Labor Regs Aim To Encourage Pre-Hire Pacts | Law 360 • Kat Lucero • 8/29/23
- Nevada shows states how to build workforce for solar energy boom | Grist • Kaleb Roedel, Elizabeth Miller • 8/6/23
- Labor and Environmental Groups Have Learned to Get Along. Here’s the Organization in the Middle | Inside Climate News • Dan Gearino • 8/3/23
- Opinion: Employ vulnerable communities to build New York’s clean energy transition | City & State New York • Davon Lomax • 7/19/23
- Bill aims to shield Nevada workers from heat-related illnesses | Safety + Health • Lee Harris • 4/12/23
- Here’s what we mean by prevailing wages, and why it’s so important | Minnesota Reformer • Jake Schwitzer • 2/24/23
- To get off fossil fuels, America is going to need a lot more electricians | Grist • Emily Pontecorvo • 1/11/23
- Workers on Solar’s Front Lines | The American Prospect • Lee Harris • 12/7/22
- BCG’s New Frontier: Autoworkers & the Environmental Movement | Non-Profit Quarterly • Ramón Cruz, Cindy Estrada • 10/5/22
- Industrial Policy Without Industrial Unions | The American Prospect • Lee Harris • 9/28/22
From Attorneys General
See Older Items
- New York AG Recovers $300,000 in Unpaid Wages for New York City Nail Salon Workers | August 16, 2023
- Six AGs Send Comments Supporting EPA’s Efforts to Protect Farmworkers, Communities from Pesticide Exposure | May 12, 2023
- Eighteen AGs Submit Comments Supporting FTC Rule to Eliminate Non-Compete Clauses | April 19, 2023
- Massachusetts AG Cites Lifeguard Company for Misclassifying Employees As Independent Contractors and Violating Other Wage and Hour Laws | February 10, 2023
- Seven AGs Petition OSHA To Strengthen Worker Protections In Extreme Heat | February 9, 2023
- Nineteen AGs File Amicus Brief Defending OSHA’s Ability to Establish & Enforce Federal Workplace Safety Protections | January 31, 2023
- Twelve AGs Submitted Comments Advising Treasury Department to Implement IRA Promptly and to Consider EJ and State & Local Perspectives | December 1, 2022
- Minnesota Attorney General Ellison Sues Company for Misclassifying Employees as Independent Contractors | October 27, 2022
- New York Attorney General James Recovers $90,000 in Stolen Wages for Queens Laundry Workers | October 18, 2022
- Massachusetts AG Healey Announced that Construction Company Will Pay Over $540,000 for Failing to Pay Prevailing Wages to Workers | December 20, 2021
- Attorney General James Applauds Buffalo Starbucks Employees’ for Forming Company’s First Union in the Nation | December 10, 2021
- New York AG James and NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Recover Up to $18.8 Million in Unpaid Wages for 12,000 Home Health Aides | November 16, 2021

From Federal Agencies

Tools & Resources
Organizations
This is a list of some organizations specializing at least in part on the impact of the clean energy transition on workers, organized alphabetically. In some instances, we have included examples of the organizations’ work. This is not a comprehensive list of all organizations doing important work in this space.
See organizations
ALIGN
ALIGN “is a longstanding alliance of labor and community organizations united for a just and sustainable New York.”
Appalachian Voices
Appalachian Voices “brings people together to protect the land, air and water of Central and Southern Appalachia and advance a just transition to a generative and equitable clean energy economy.”
BlueGreen Alliance
The BlueGreenAlliance, a member organization comprised of a number of larger national environmental organizations and labor unions, recently published a statepolicytoolkitreport on “crafting state policy that rebuilds a cleaner, safer, more equitable economy.” This organization also released an “Energy Transition Policy Framework” that recommends policies for both workers and communities that will have both “immediate and long-term benefits.” In 2021, the California Teamsters and California state policy office of the BlueGreen Alliance together pushed for the passage of a statute that aims to reduce truck emissions through incentives that are also tied to compliance with workplace standards.
The Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations
The Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (formerly the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at Cornell ILR’s Worker Institute) is “guiding New York and the nation’s transition to a strong, equitable, and resilient clean energy economy that tackles the climate crisis, creates high-quality jobs, confronts race and gender inequality, and builds a diverse and inclusive workforce.” The Institute “help[s] policy makers and labor, environmental and industry leaders navigate this historic transition through cutting-edge applied research, deep relationships with on-the-ground partners, and innovative training and education programs.”
Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC)
Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC) is a labor-focused organization working to “combat climate change, create good union jobs, and reverse racial and economic inequality by building a worker-centered renewable economy.” CJNRC works collaboratively with the Labor Leading On Climate Initiative at the Worker Institute of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Through this collaboration, CJNRC has helped to form state-level coalitions of labor unions in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas. Most have produced reports outlining state- and city-specific policy recommendations for building a just transition. These reports can lead to unions signing onto recommendations for reducing emissions in the state.
Climate Justice Alliance
The Climate Justice Alliance is a member alliance of 84 urban and rural frontline communities, organizations, and supporting networks in the climate justice movement. The Alliance focuses on uniting frontline communities and organizations in order to push “a just transition away from extractive systems of production, consumption and political oppression, and towards resilient, regenerative and equitable economies.”
Front & Centered
Front & Centered is a coalition of community groups in Washington State that are led by people of color and that have committed themselves to working towards a just transition. During the 2022 legislative session, this coalition advocated for bills that included 5 billion dollars for public transportation and other transportation solutions such as more bike paths.
Green Workers Alliance
The Green Workers Alliance focuses on bringing together “current and future workers” in the clean energy industries, with a specific focus on organized labor at utility-scale solar and wind projects.
Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition
Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition brings together “environmental advocacy organizations, businesses, community leaders, consumer advocates, environmental justice groups, and faith-based and student organizations” to work on policies affecting public health, the environment, consumer rights, and workers in Illinois.
Just Transition Alliance
Just Transition Alliance unites frontline workers (specifically workers in the service, energy, farmworker, and chemical industries), and fenceline communities (people of color, Indigenous Peoples and low-income communities) to shift towards a more sustainable economy. The Alliance pushes for “strategies that embody the priorities of workers and communities hit hardest by climate change.”
Just Transition Centre
The Just Transition Centre, established by the International Trade Union Confederation, is an international organization that facilitates conversations, trainings, and initiatives to “ensure that [labor] has a seat at the table when planning for a Just Transition to a low-carbon world.”
Just Transition Fund
Just Transition Fund provides investments and assistance to communities most impacted by the transition away from coal with the goal of advancing “economic solutions that are equitable, inclusive, and low carbon.”
Labor Energy Partnership (LEP)
The Labor Energy Partnership (LEP), a collaboration of the AFL-CIO and Energy Futures Initiative, seeks to integrate the labor and climate fields and produce “timely research that provides actionable recommendations for clean energy policy.”
Labor Network for Sustainability
Labor Network for Sustainability works with unions and labor groups to address the climate crisis and builds partnerships between labor interests and the climate movement.
Resilience Force
Resilience Force is a national organization that advocates for solutions and better policies for people who work on responding to disasters.
NY Renews
NY Renews is a coalition of over 300 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups focused on implementing the New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The organization explains: “We fight for good jobs and climate justice, and we’re not finished yet.”
UC Berkeley Labor Center
The UC Berkeley Labor Center has a green economy program that researches “job creation, quality, access, and training in the emergent green economy” and assists “state agencies, labor, and other stakeholders” that are developing climate policy that intersects with labor interests.
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
WE ACT for Environmental Justice is an environmental justice oriented community-based organization in West Harlem. Together with the Environmental Leadership Forum (a national coalition of 54 environmental justice organizations), they issued a Green Jobs Report offering policy solutions for “closing the diversity gap within the Green Jobs and renewable energy sectors.”
The Worker Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations
The Worker Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations “engages in research and education on contemporary labor issues, to generate innovative thinking and solutions to problems related to work, economy and society.” The group “brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to confront growing economic and social inequalities, in the interests of working people and their families.” As noted above, Cornell ILR also has a Climate Jobs Institute.
Reports, Publications, Events
The following list includes reports, articles, and other further reading that may be useful to those interested in the intersection of labor and climate. Some of these resources are used and cited in our report, and others were published after our report was released.
See reports, publications, and events
REPORT: Localities Take Action to Protect Workers: A Report for Labor Day 2023
To mark a year’s worth of transformative local labor policies from Labor Day 2022 to Labor Day 2023, the Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Labor & A Just Economy, and the Local Progress Impact Lab released a Localities Take Action to Protect Workers, a Labor Day 2023 Workers’ Rights Report. This Labor Day Report catalogs many key developments and categorizes them based on the policy lever the local government used. The report does not contain all relevant activities at the local level, but it provides a sense of the breadth and substance of pro-worker action by local government entities during the past year. We want to note that abusive state preemption often limits what localities can do to advance workers’ rights (i.e. the Texas “Death Star” Bill HB2127), but we hope this report provides inspiration by showcasing both what localities can do when they aren’t preempted and also the creative things they can do even when they are preempted.
EVENT & REPORT: Fossil Fuel Layoff: When a Bay Area refinery closes
Join the UC Berkeley Labor Center on Wednesday, June 14 from 12:00-1:00pm (PT) for a conversation about their Fossil Fuel Layoff report, which documents the difficult post-layoff situation of California fossil fuel workers in the aftermath of the 2020 closure of the Marathon Martinez oil refinery in Contra Costa County. It provides a first-of-its-kind case study of the perils and needs of workers in the state’s changing energy landscape. The webinar will discuss the lessons from the report on how to support workers and communities as we transition away from fossil fuels into a greener economy.
EVENT: Building a Clean Energy Economy: The IRA & Workforce Development
On January 11, 2023, Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations hosted a virtual discussion that drew on the expertise of labor leaders, policy makers, and workforce development professionals to examine opportunities presented by the IRA and offer guidance on how to use these investments to build a diverse and equitable clean energy economy. Watch the recording of Building A Clean Energy Economy: The Inflation Reduction Act and Workforce Development
REPORT: Building Back Better or building back worse?
This report from Dr. Gordon Lafer, a professor at University of Oregon’s Labor Education & Research Center, outlines legal and illegal means that have been used to stop auto workers from exercising their right to collective bargaining, and looks at steps that can taken to protect that right and ensure that highly profitable sector provides family-wage jobs. Read Building Back Better or building back worse? The challenge of building a high-road EV industry with anti-union employers.


The Report
Executive Summary
Climate change is already causing massive harms, in the form of more intense storms, flooding, heat waves, and drought. Unchecked, it has the potential to cause even greater damage and destabilize countries worldwide. As economic, regulatory, and security needs push the United States towards cleaner technologies and away from fossil fuels, important questions arise about this transition’s impact on workers. If the new sector does not promise good family-sustaining jobs and worker protections are not enforced, the shift to clean energy could exacerbate already harmful economic trends that will undermine environmental goals, as well as the economy overall.


Academic Article in Pace Environmental Law Review
Report authors Terri Gerstein and Bethany Davis Noll wrote an article in Pace Environmental Law Review’s “Labor and the Environment – Envisioning a Green New Deal” issue in 2023. They presented the article at PELR’s corresponding symposium in 2022.

Examining the Role of AGs in a Just Transition
This article reviews many of the policies and tools that can be and are being harnessed to bring about a “just transition,” ensuring that the emerging clean energy sector provides high quality jobs and that needs of current fossil fuel workers are also adequately addressed. These policies exist at the intersection of workers’ rights and environmental policy.
“A Role for State Attorneys General in a Just Transition” In the Press

State AGs Could Play Key Role
December 15, 2022 • Governing • Carl Smith
“A new report from experts at NYU and Harvard law schools outlines the ways state attorneys general can protect communities and workers as the country builds a clean energy economy.”

News & Commentary: December 2, 2022
December 2, 2022 • OnLabor • Tascha Shahriari-Parsa
“In today’s news and commentary...a new report details the role of state attorneys general in a just transition.”

Authors
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Peter Morgan, senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, for sharing his expertise on bankruptcy law and providing feedback on an earlier draft. The authors also benefitted greatly from comments and from discussing this topic with Sharon Block, Vonda Brunsting, Karen Cacace, Mariah Dignan, Dana Johnson, Zoe Lipman, Walter (Terry) Meginniss, Jonathan Munro-Hernandez, Manveer Sandhu, Dr. Lara Skinner, and Dr. Carol Zabin. We are grateful for the excellent research assistance of Tess Cobrinik, Fatima Ibrahiem, Mohamed Oday, and Colin Parts. All errors are the authors’ own.