President Trump’s executive order to revoke federal support for low- and no-emission vehicle manufacturing would strand more than $145 billion in new investments and lead to nearly half a million fewer clean energy trucks and buses produced domestically through 2032, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute and BlueGreen Alliance.
U.S. truck and bus producers already face intensifying competition from low-wage countries, subsidized imports, and corporate offshoring. A policy retreat from supporting a clean vehicle transition would cost more than 35,000 job-years (a measure that calculates one person’s work over one year) in truck assembly and parts manufacturing work. It would also place downward pressure on wages and standards in the jobs that remain and jeopardize a key manufacturing industry—on top of a failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation economy.
“President Trump’s actions to undermine a clean vehicle transition threaten the motor vehicle manufacturing sector, its workers, and the U.S. economy,” said Adam S. Hersh, EPI senior economist and co-author of the report. “Pulling the rug from under this transition risks exacerbating the current trends that see companies moving production offshore or to U.S. states embracing anti-worker policies, jeopardizing the security of the good jobs that remain.”
Instead, as the report explains, policymakers should focus on ensuring that the transition benefits working people, especially in motor vehicle manufacturing. This could be done by bolstering domestic clean vehicle manufacturing with high-quality union jobs, as well as providing financial support for low- and no-emissions vehicle industries tied to those goals. Widespread unionization with policies to expand clean truck and bus manufacturing domestically would increase output and wages by $85.9 billion and $28.8 billion, respectively, and employment by 172,000 job-years throughout the domestic supply chains. Most of these jobs (79%) would not require a college degree, and with union representation, these workers can earn middle-class wages and comprehensive benefits.
“Manufacturing clean and efficient heavy-duty vehicles can be a win-win for the United States, if we pair it with the right policies. This growing sector has the potential to create and maintain good-paying, union jobs coast to coast—most of which would be accessible to workers without a college degree, opening pathways to the middle class,” said Jason Walsh, Executive Director at BlueGreen Alliance. “Reversing progress toward a stronger clean vehicle manufacturing sector will only serve to hurt workers, the environment, and our nation’s ability to compete in increasingly competitive global markets.”
###
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality, low wages, and weak benefits for working people, slower economic growth, unacceptable employment conditions, and a widening racial wage gap.
The BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) unifies labor unions and environmental organizations into a powerful force to fight climate change, protect the health of people and the environment, stand against economic and racial inequality, and create and maintain good-paying, union jobs in communities across the country.