The Green Opportunity Gap: Expanding Black Access for Economic Mobility

The clean energy transition represents a significant economic opportunity, projected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and a $23 trillion market by 2030. Yet Black Americans remain significantly underrepresented. Despite making up over 13 percent of the U.S. population, Black workers account for only eight percent of the clean energy workforce, and Black-owned businesses constitute less than one percent of companies in this booming sector. At the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ convening, The Wealth Agenda: Seizing the Moment for Black Economic Advancement, the “The Green Opportunity Gap: Expanding Access for Black Economic Mobility” panel exposed systemic barriers preventing Black participation — chief among them, the expectation of unpaid training. Clean energy industry leaders acknowledged that there is a workforce crisis. On our panel, Jason Grumet, president of the American Clean Power Association noted “We need to hire 500,000 people in the next decade … We are struggling to find talent.” @media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 400px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 640px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}} Yet unpaid training locks out Black workers who cannot afford to forgo wages for career advancement. Carla Walker-Miller, CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services, put it...