Union Leaders Push Clean Energy Jobs Agenda in Pennsylvania
October 6, 2025
For generations, union members have mined Pennsylvania’s coal, run its power plants, and built its energy infrastructure, helping make the state a top fossil fuel producer and electricity exporter. Now, renewable energy offers the promise of growth, but questions remain about the long-term jobs it will provide.
In 2024, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Building and Construction Trades Council formed Union Energy, with support from the Climate Jobs National Resource Center. The coalition was launched to leverage the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure new clean energy investment creates good-paying union jobs and broad community benefits.
But with federal funding now being pulled back, state policy is now central. In Pennsylvania, where clean energy targets haven’t been updated in two decades, Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed a “Lightning Plan” with new standards, a cap-and-invest program, and streamlined permitting. Union Energy wants to help shape what comes next.
On the podcast, Union Energy’s leaders—Angela Ferritto, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, and Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania Building Trades—discuss the impact of recent policy shifts on their members, policies to expand clean energy with strong labor standards, and their vision for Pennsylvania’s energy future.
Angela Ferritto
President, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
Angela Ferritto is the first female president of Pennsylvania’s AFL-CIO. A passion for the labor movement and a desire to share that passion with others has guided her career, earning her numerous accolades along the way. In 2022, Angela was named the #1 most powerful labor leader in Pennsylvania.
Robert Blair
President, Pennsylvania Building Trades
Robert S. Bair is the president of the Pennsylvania State Building Trades, an organization comprised of 14 regional councils and more than 115 local unions from 15 International Building Trades Unions that represent over 130,000 working people across the Commonwealth.
host
Andy Stone
Energy Policy Now Host and Producer
Andy Stone is producer and host of Energy Policy Now, the Kleinman Center’s podcast series. He previously worked in business planning with PJM Interconnection and was a senior energy reporter at Forbes Magazine.
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