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By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

The previous two Strike! commentaries described how Greentech technologies that protect and improve the environment are revolutionizing energy production and consumption worldwide. The Greentech revolution has also been under way in the US, but it has been severely retarded by the power of the fossil fuel industry and its allies and the policies they promulgated.

Plant Bowen, coal-fired power station in Bartow County, Georgia, 2012. Photo credit: Sam Nash, Wikipedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

What we today call renewable energy was once America’s only energy. From the start of European settlement of America to the late 19th century, firewood and waterpower were the predominant sources of energy. The work of animals, workers, and slaves likewise embodied “renewable energy.” Coal surpassed wood around 1885. Petroleum surpassed coal in 1950. Natural gas surpassed coal in 1958. Fossil fuels—coal, petroleum, and natural gas—dominated US energy for more than a century and a half, accounting for nearly 83% of total U.S. energy consumption in 2023. Renewable and nuclear energy supplied most of the remaining 17%.

Fossil fuels radically increased the amount of energy available for all purposes. Fossil fuel energy became entwined with every aspect of American life, from homes to transportation to manufacturing to agriculture. Indeed, it was largely the basis for the “American way of life.” Fossil fuels also largely shaped America’s relations with the rest of the world, as the US exported massive quantities of coal, oil, and gas, dominated much of the world’s fossil fuel markets, and fought wars in fossil fuel-rich regions of the world that led to further control of global fossil fuel resources. Fossil fuel industries, and businesses, workers, and communities dependent on them, became a powerful force in shaping American politics, society, and daily life.

In the second half of the 20th century, new forms of renewable energy began to emerge in the margins. The earliest roots of the “Greentech revolution” in the US could be traced to the

first practical silicon photovoltaic cells in the 1950s; the first rechargeable lithium-metal batteries in the 1970s; and the world’s first wind farm around the same time. Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House in 1979. But the power of the fossil fuel industry and its allies blocked attempts to develop fossil free alternatives. The 2001 Cheney report projected that renewable energy other than waterpower would account for less than 3% percent of total electricity generation by 2020. (The actual proportion by 2020 was six times higher.) On the consumption side, energy conservation was largely the realm of hobbyists; gas guzzlers remained the order of the day.

Doubling Down on Fossil Fuels

An automobile dealership in Orland, California which closed after General Motors cut ties with it and several hundred other dealers as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring efforts in 2009. Photo credit: John Martinez Pavliga from Berkeley, USA – Contemporary American Auto Dealer, Wikipedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Starting with the 1970s energy crisis, the US spent billions of dollars to promote domestic fossil fuel energy supply chains, mostly for natural gas. In 1976 it established the Gas Research Institute (GRI), a public–private partnership with an annual budget of $200 million. The GRI followed a “whole supply chain” approach. It funded research on enhanced oil recovery, gas transportation, household appliances, and building systems. It also directly funded “drilling experiments, the development of household appliances, and marketing campaigns.”

It was not only the government that invested in fossil rather than renewable energy. While Chinese industrial policy was focusing on electric vehicle production, US auto companies expanded their investments in high-emission trucks and SUVs. They opposed higher standards for fuel economy and carbon emissions. Until 1996 the Big Three did not produce a single commercial electric vehicle – allowing Tesla to corner the market for EVs.

In 2008, rising gas prices and the Great Recession devasted the Big Three’s carefully cultivated market for gas guzzlers. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy, and an $81 billion bailout left the US government as the majority owner of GM and the UAW and Fiat as the principal owners of Chrysler.

Under the Obama administration’s rescue plan, the auto companies were supposed to “green” their products. But in fact they continued to oppose climate protection policies and to promote high-pollution, low-mileage trucks and SUVs. Indeed, as recently as July 2023 the auto industry’s largest lobbying organization came out against the Biden administration’s proposed rule to ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032.

Biden’s Industrial Policy

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks about the Green New Deal in February 2019. Photo credit: Senate Democrats, Wikipedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Late in 2018 the youth climate Sunrise Movement occupied the office of likely Democratic House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi; newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined them to propose a resolution for a Green New Deal. It called for “a new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II and the New Deal.” The Green New Deal would produce jobs and strengthen America’s economy by accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. It would generate 100% of the nation’s electricity from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years; upgrade the nation’s energy grid, buildings, and transportation infrastructure; increase energy efficiency; invest in green technology research and development; and provide training for jobs in the new green economy. A poll shortly after found that 40% of registered voters “strongly support” and 41% “somewhat support” the concepts behind a Green New Deal.

Faced with the overwhelming support for the Green New Deal, the presidential campaign of Joe Biden proposed a “Build Back Better” program that initially incorporated much of the program of the Green New Deal. It explicitly eschewed the principles of neoliberalism and advocated instead the long-disparaged idea of “industrial policy” – essentially, government selection of economic sectors to encourage with subsidies and technical support. While its programs were touted as means of climate protection, when it was implemented some of the sectors most heavily subsidized, such as carbon capture, hydrogen production, and nuclear energy, are questionable to say the least as means to protect the climate.

Biden’s three major economic bills, the American Rescue, Bipartisan Infrastructure, and Inflation Reduction Acts, proposed to provide trillions of dollars over a decade to incentivize domestic production in targeted industries, notably the auto industry. Rather than restructuring the industry like the Obama program, these plans were largely limited to providing subsidies to auto companies to expand EV production. They were justified in part as stimulus to the creation of a “green” economy that would reduce GHG pollution, but in large part as a means of containing the challenge of Chinese Greentech advances.

US auto companies were happy to accept these federal subsidies, but they were also happy to evade their carbon-reduction purposes. Auto companies gave surface compliance to federal pressure to reduce carbon pollution, but in reality they continued to promote highly profitable but high-carbon SUVs and light trucks and drag their feet on shifting to EVs. The Biden administration policies stimulated an expansion of EV and battery production in the US. But the new plants and infrastructure were not primarily created by US companies but were rather the product of joint ventures with foreign (mostly Asian) companies with far superior technology.

The Greentech Cold War

US-owned factories still import the bulk of their solar cells from Chinese-owned factories in Southeast Asia. Photo credit: American Public Power Association on Unsplash

Many of these Greentech investments and joint ventures were in fact Chinese. Indeed, according to a 2025 database, the US had more than $14 billion in Chinese pledged overseas green manufacturing investment, the fourth highest country in the world. Many of China’s leading solar manufacturers set up assembly factories in the United States. In 2024, for example, Illuminate USA – a joint venture between China’s LONGi and Invenergy, the largest private renewables developer in the United States – began assembling panels at its 5GW factory in Ohio. On one count, Chinese-owned factories would have 20GW of capacity in 2025 – enough to meet about half of annual US demand. Battery manufacturing also attracted sizeable Chinese investments. For example, a joint venture called Amplify Cell Technologies featuring EVE Energy, China’s third-largest battery maker, broke ground on a US$2–3 billion factory for electric truck batteries in Mississippi.

The Biden administration tried to halt the “threats” of Chinese advances in solar and EV technology. In May 2024, it announced tariffs specifically targeting green products, including lithium-ion batteries, critical minerals, and solar cells. It quadrupled duties on electric vehicles to 100%. It also released a “Foreign Entity of Concern” ruling preventing vehicle manufacturers from getting IRA tax credits if any company in their battery supply chain has 25 percent or more of its equity, voting rights, or board seats owned by a Chinese government-linked company.

This was no simple trade war between two countries, however. As an article on “The Great Green Wall” in Phenomenal World put it, “the business model of the entire industry is shifting.” Firms are “no longer competing for dominance on the level of vehicle technology,” but for “the entire ecosystem.” As a result of globalization, these “ecosystems” are normally transnational. So rather than classic economic nationalist protection of national industries, this “trade war” became an attempt by both sides to control fragmented global economic networks. As “The Great Green Wall” put it,

“Biden’s intention is to stave off the Chinese and stimulate a domestic and friendshored buildout of the EV supply chain, stretching from mines to the factory floor. Side deals with friendly governments have been made; Canada and Australia have both been deemed eligible for Defense Production Act support for their battery metals. After their howls of outrage, Europeans, Japanese, and Koreans received a leased vehicle exemption meaning that the “made in America” rules don’t apply to them, and their firms’ vehicles could still qualify for subsidies if they were leased rather than bought.”

After the exemption was finalized in December 2022, EV imports from Korea, Japan, and Germany surged.

US EV and battery production have been based on acquiring non-US technology through joint ventures, most of them in the US South. Foreign direct investment included Hyundai and Rivian in Georgia, Toyota in North Carolina, Tesla in Texas, BMW in South Carolina, and Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. Indeed, US automakers were even licensing superior EV technology from Chinese firms like BYD and CATL.

“Ford (in Michigan) and Tesla (in Nevada) are partnering with CATL to make batteries. CATL says that it has structured its licensing deal with Ford so that it is compliant with “foreign entity of concern” rules. For its part, Tesla already uses BYD cells in Germany; Ford and GM use BYD batteries.”

Just as the impact of climate change was becoming devastating and ubiquitous, climate policy was being turned into a weapon of geopolitical struggle. This was made clear in an interview with John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy. Podesta praised the huge expansion of US oil and gas production: “The US is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas, and that’s a good thing.” He thereupon added, “The science is clear, we’ve got to transition away and begin to replace those resources with both zero carbon electricity and renewable resources.” If George Orwell came back to earth, he might say, “Fossil fuels are climate protection.”

Podesta also illustrated the way production of “green goods” was being redefined as an issue of national security. The US had recently slapped a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and other “green” products from China. After accusing China of deliberately overproducing green goods, Podesta said:

“The economic security of the US and [its commitments to cut emissions] rely on the need to have an economy that is not overly dependent on a single source of supply, for critical minerals, for batteries, for other upstream green technologies. We need to diversify that supply. We’re witnessing a renaissance of manufacturing in the US in the green technology space and will resist unfair trade practices that are going to undermine that investment.”

Above all, the Biden administration eschewed anything that would reduce the overall production and consumption of fossil fuels. Despite lip service to climate protection, they regarded it as a “good thing” that the US was “the number one producer of oil and gas in the world” and “the number one exporter of natural gas.”

The Greentech Revolution Infiltrates America

President Biden Signs Executive Actions, January 2021. Photo credit: The White House, Public Domain

Biden’s industrial policies had contradictory effects on the rise of Greentech in the US. On the one hand, the IRA and other economic legislation significantly increased production of fossil free energy, EVs, and other GHG-reducing technologies. But the Biden administration oversaw a historic growth in fossil fuel extraction and strove to protect the US and its supply chains from foreign and especially Chinese Greentech.

Nonetheless, by the end of the Biden years the global Greentech Revolution was well on its way to transforming US energy production and consumption, threatening to leave fossil fuel industries as “stranded assets.” In early 2025, just as the Trump administration was coming into office, the US hit a new record low for fossil fuels in the electricity mix as solar and wind reached a record high. In March 2025, for the first time ever, fossil fuels accounted for less than half of electricity generated in the US. The impact on climate-destroying GHG emissions was clear: Since coal generation peaked in 2007, there had been a 68% fall in coal emissions and a 32% reduction in total power sector emissions.

In the one year between March 2024 and March 2025, US solar power increased a “staggering” 37%. Wind power increased by 12%. Over that year fossil fuel generation fell by 2.5%.

The impending transformation was clear in consumption as well as production. In 2024, electrified vehicles made up 20% of all new car sales, with fully electric vehicles comprising 9%. Heat pumps rose to 57% of new space heating installations.

The Greentech Revolution opened the possibility for a “Greentech New Deal.” It made climate-protecting production and consumption far cheaper than continued fossil fuel use. It made possible the rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and thereby the significant slowing down of climate change. It opened the way to good green jobs for all. And it undermined the wealth and power of fossil fuel companies and countries, shifting the balance of power worldwide toward democratic governance.

Enter Donald Trump.

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The post The US and the Greentech Revolution first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

The event marks three decades of the movement’s constant struggle to protect nature and uphold the dignity of rural communities.

The post Brazil: MPA Begins Fourth National Meeting in Brasília appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The Irish state has encouraged a heavily capitalised, resource and energy intensive farming model, pushing farmers into a system tied to the weakest and most unstable links in the fossil fuel economy.

The post Talamh Beo: Ireland has a governance crisis, not a fuel crisis appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

On April 17 and 18, 2026, we commemorated the International Day of Peasant Struggles with a festival of resistance: meetings, protests against the EU-Mercosur agreement, film screenings and discussions, tributes, festive moments, etc.

The post Belgium: A look back at the 2026 Peasant Struggles appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Perla Álvarez, from CLOC–La Via Campesina, and Raya Radwan, from the World March of Women Palestine, speak about the struggle for land and food sovereignty

The post Feminist Agrarian Reform: Transforming Society and Relations for All Humanity appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

During the month of April, La Via Campesina once again strongly raised the memory, resistance, and hope of peasants within the framework of the International Day of Peasant Struggles, commemorated every April 17. This year, we marked 30 years since the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre.

The post 2026 | April News Wrap: Updates from LVC members worldwide appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Right to repair legislation is currently being presented in the Manitoba Legislature, and though the bill is Manitoba-specific, it carries significance for farmers across the country.

The post Canada: How Manitoba’s new right to repair legislation could work for farmers appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

This article is provides a critical analysis of the Río Indio Dam and peasant resistance.

The post Panama: Río Indio, an eviction carried out under the banner of neoliberalism appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

On the occasion of Earth Day, five women and men farmers from all continents speak to L’Humanité about the ocean of challenges they face and the call for globalising the struggle against all forms of predation.

The post 17 April | The Peasant Internationalist Sows the Seeds of the Future appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Morgan Ody, a small-scale farmer and the general coordinator of La Via Campesina, a global organisation of food and land workers and small farmers, said the lives of working people were increasingly at risk.

The post World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

Radical, unanticipated developments in electrification, storage, distribution, and other technologies are transforming not only the way energy is produced but also the way it is used. Like the transformation in energy production, these advances in energy consumption are transforming economies and creating new opportunities to protect the climate and improve our lives.

Nissan LEAF charging at the Freedom Station in Houston, TX. This is an eVgo Network station with both Level 2 and DC fast chargers. Photo credit: evgonetwork (eVgo Network). Original image was trimmed and retouched (lighting and color tones) by User:Mariordo, Wikemedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

In the previous commentary we examined the impact of the Greentech revolution on the production of energy. But energy production is only one side of the Greentech revolution. The other is providing that energy where it is needed when it is needed, shifting energy consumption from fossil fuels to electricity, and using that energy more efficiently so less of it is required. As the FT wrote in “The Reshaping of Energy Consumption,” “Just as important as the development of new wind and solar farms to generate electricity without carbon dioxide emissions” is “the overhauling of vehicles, heating systems, and factories.”

Energy Storage

After energy has been produced it often must be stored until it is needed. Enter the Greentech revolution in energy storage. Over the past 15 years the cost of energy storage has dropped 95%. In 2025, Chinese batteries appeared headed for a further 30% decline. In 2025, the world was expected to add eighty gigawatts of grid-scale storage, eight times as much as in 2021.

More change is at hand. For example, sodium-ion batteries are safer than lithium batteries and do not require destructive extraction of materials like lithium, cobalt, phosphorus, and copper. Materials for sodium batteries are far cheaper those for lithium batteries. BYD opened a sodium-ion battery factory in 2024, and is producing a large sodium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) called MC Cube-T. Sodium-ion storage is likely to make it possible to replace fossil fuels with electricity in such until-now intractable areas as heavy trucks and long-distance shipping.

This is only one of several impending battery breakthroughs. For example, long duration energy storage is increasing today’s typical storage time of about 4 hours to many times as long. Google recently announced investment in long duration energy storage (LDES). “Through a new long-term partnership with Energy Dome, we plan to support multiple commercial projects globally to deploy their LDES technology.” Toyota has developed an all-solid-state battery that provides EVs with smaller, more durable batteries that charge in minutes and deliver longer ranges between charges.

Energy Distribution

Construction workers build the frame for a one-megawatt solar microgrid project at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Dec. 22, 2011. Photo credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District Licensing, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

After energy has been produced it needs to get to where it is needed. Led by China, there is a revolution in long-distance power transmission. One ultrahigh-voltage Chinese power line stretches more than 2,000 miles from the sparsely populated far northwest to the populous, industrialized southeast — the equivalent of sending electricity from Idaho to New York City. This is one of 42 long-distance power lines, each able to carry more electricity than any utility transmission line in the United States. China’s transmission technology is far more efficient than others. And China plans systematically; it is now building the world’s first nationwide grid of ultrahigh-voltage power transmission lines. By 2050, China plans to have three times more ultrahigh-voltage routes in operation.

At the opposite end of the scale, microgrids are providing new ways of distributing energy locally. According to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a microgrid is a group of “interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid.” It can connect and disconnect from the grid to operate in grid-connected or island mode. It can therefore keep a local grid running even when the wider grid fails. Microgrids allow coordination and synergism among small-scale, local energy infrastructure like generators, renewables, and batteries. That allows them to save costs, reduce the need for energy, and make money by selling excess electricity.

Microgrids are now being used in hospitals, universities, neighborhoods, and many other venues. In Petaluma, CA for example, the newly constructed 131-unit Meridian at Petaluma North Station affordable apartment complex includes a solar and energy storage microgrid. The net-zero project will generate and manage all its energy onsite. Its microgrid includes a 1-MW solar array consisting of rooftop-mounted panels and solar canopies in the parking lot. A 4.3 MWh battery is designed to support the complex for three to four days during a power outage. Parking spaces with bidirectional EV chargers directly wired into the microgrid will allow EVs to charge from the solar array — and provide electricity back to the building when needed.

Transportation

The largest shift so far from fossil fuel burning to electricity is the replacement of gas guzzlers with electric vehicles (EVs). Not only do EVs use electrons rather than gasoline; they use 2-4 times less energy than their fossil fuel counterparts. Sales of EVs have been rapidly growing globally, increasing by over 33 times, from 0.5 million (1% of all car sales) in 2015 to over 17 million (more than 20% of all car sales) in 2024. EVs now account for almost half of all car sales in China, 20% in Europe, and more than 10% in the USA. EV sales in Asia and Latin America increased by over 60% in 2024 to almost 600,000. Electric vehicles made up 80% of Norway’s new car sales last year. Electric car sales in 2025 were expected to exceed 20 million worldwide, more than a quarter of all cars sold.

EVs are only part of the Greentech transformation of transportation. Electrification and system reorganization have the potential to transform rail transportation: In the English town of Aldershot, solar collectors are directly delivering electricity to drive trains; the developer says, “If you are a railway, this is the cheapest electricity you can buy.” In China, 30,000 miles of high-speed rail lines run on electricity. Buses, subways, light rail, and other public transit can now be provided at far less than the cost of auto transportation due to electrification and technological improvements. Due to emerging battery technologies, ships and planes may be electrified at competitive cost. At the other end of the scale, electric bikes providing “micromobility” are already a rapidly expanding transportation niche. One recent example is a four-wheeled bike for individual and commercial cargo haulers.

Agriculture

Solar is growing in Alaska, ACEP is helping the industry and communities. Video credit: Alaska Center for Energy and Power | UAF

Agricultural techniques are turning farms from producers to reducers of greenhouse gases. For example, regenerative agriculture provides farming and grazing practices that withdraw carbon from the atmosphere by restoring degraded soil biodiversity. New technologies are allowing farmers to grow crops underneath solar panels. The New York Times recently featured an “agrivoltaics” installation in Houston, Alaska, adapted to the farm’s extreme northern location. “The rows of panels on the 45-acre site are set 50 feet apart, much wider than at lower latitudes, and they collect solar power on both front and back in order to capture the maximum amount of summer sunlight as the sun dances across the horizon all day and all night.” The electricity produced from such agrivoltaics can run farm equipment and be sold to provide an extra source of income for farmers; the food produced can help meet local food shortages.

As in so much Greentech, China is creating radical advances in agrivoltaics. For example, the Chinese company GCL says it has combined four new agrivoltaic technologies: Bifacial solar panels harvest sunlight from both sides, enabling them to assume a space-saving vertical position when needed. Tunable solar panels that enable more or less light to pass onto crops can be adjusted to a range of 15-40% light pass-through. Elevated racks can be raised to 9 feet with tracking capability to optimize the sun-collecting angle. Advanced system management integrates meteorological data, crop growth sensors, inverter analytics, and AI algorithms to optimize module tilt and irrigation schedules.

Greentech Unlimited

There are thousands of Greentech goods, services, and systems that have been introduced or are in development around the world that will increase efficiency and reduce GHG emissions – far too numerous and diverse to review here. For a knowledgeable review, see Mark Jacobson’s Still No Miracles Needed. A few of the most important additional sectors of Greentech advance:

• Climate-safe factories are now being built around the world. For example, Ford has opened a carbon neutral assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to produce EVs for the European market. According to Ford, the plant uses “digital advancements that connect machines, vehicles and workers” including “self-learning machines, autonomous transport systems, and big data management.” New technologies are even reducing the carbon released in steelmaking, one of the most intense greenhouse gas producers on earth.
• Circular reuse and recycling include the upcycling of waste materials into new products, promoting a cycle of continuous use, and GHG-reducing waste management practices like composting. It can include air and water filtration systems, waste-to-energy technologies, and methods for safely disposing of or repurposing industrial waste.
• Public transit may well be the most cost-effective single way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Green construction is substituting low-carbon materials like hempcrete and recycled steel for more climate-destructive materials.
• Greentech building decarbonization is creating carbon-neutral buildings.It includes insulation, electrification, and on-site renewable energy. Improved heat pumps can produce three or more units of heat for every unit of electricity they use.
• Protecting and restoring ecosystems can rebuild degraded lands, preserve endangered species, and support sustainable agriculture practices.

These are only a few of the many examples of Greentech transformations of consumption. More are being implemented every day.

Infographic: Who has pledged an INDC so far, and what percentage of the world’s emissions are covered. Credit: Rosamund Pearce, Carbon Brief, based on EU data. Only UN parties have been included in the emissions total. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, not covered by the EU’s INDC. It is not a UN party. Taiwan is also not a UN party. Source: Carbonbrief.org

Reducing energy consumption can make an important contribution to the transition to climate-safe energy. For example, the IEA’s modelling of a world on track to meet the Paris agreement targets for GHG reduction shows final energy consumption falling by as much as 15 percent compared with current levels by 2035, even as GDP continues to grow. That’s because of electrification and other energy efficiency measures such as better insulation.

As shown in this and the previous commentary, Greentech production and consumption are now far more efficient and therefore far less costly and more competitive than fossil fuel-based systems. This Greentech revolution will have profound effects on the future of the US as well as the rest of the world.

Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are determined to reverse the Greentech revolution. Their success would mean catastrophe for the US economy and the American people. Conversely, the Greentech revolution has enormous potential benefits for the US economy and for the American people. Subsequent commentaries in this series will explore what the Greentech revolution means for the American people – and how we can take advantage of it.

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The post Greentech Revolution: Energy Consumption first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

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Carlos Torrealba currently is the Network and Formations Manager at Taproot Earth, where he’s helping build the Gulf South to Appalachia Formation, a powerful 17-state network of over 100 frontline organizations.

For the past decade, Carlos has been building the new while fighting the bad; from creating community-led disaster response systems to deepening and building labor and climate justice solidarity across local, regional, and national movements. His work leans heavily on not only building local alternatives but also linking them to regional, national and international movements of decolonization, anti-neoliberalism, and anti-imperialism. His political roots were shaped in undergrad while engaged in pipeline fights and Palestinian Solidarity work in Vermont. Carlos is also deeply engaged in Latin American solidarity and food sovereignty efforts. Outside movement work, Carlos enjoys travelling, early French Modernist Literature, and vinyl collecting.

The post May LNS Spotlight: Carlos Torrealba first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

What does a Black climate activist say when interviewed by someone who describes themselves as a “Redneck Gone Green”? Here’s how LNS executive director started his rap:

“I appreciate as a black Southerner the idea of starting with joy. In my old church tradition they’ll say, “Out of all the things I’ve been through, I still have joy.” And I think that joy and love are still the key attributes of what is to be done. This radical notion of love, love that calls you to a responsibility of taking care of yourself and the ones around you. The responsibility of this moment, of this political moment, this socioeconomic moment, this rise of authoritarianism. And if we don’t start practicing that love and moving our boots and moving our asses, then we just may be in the dystopian future that we fear.”

Watch Joshua’s “Same Boss, Same Enemy” interview on “Redneck Gone Green” here.

The post Same Boss, Same Enemy first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo credit:Yasmin Gabriel, LNS Development Manager

My kids are climate justice leaders in our household, always looking for ways of reducing our carbon footprints. They see themselves as stewards of the planet and I am aware that it is crucial for us to alleviate disproportionate energy burdens and reduce exposure to environmental hazards. According to ScienceDirect.com, Black families emit 20% less CO2 than average households but we suffer higher energy costs and poorer health outcomes, making sustainable action a key strategy for health and financial equity.

As a family, we chose a solution that would reduce our financial obligations and carbon footprint. Over the winter break, I researched how to safely get around with two kids. We settled on a cargo bike, allowing me to transport multiple kids, pets, and plants, all at the same time. According to the Guardian, bike riding reduces your carbon emissions by 90%, compared with electric vans that reduce by one-third. We are able to demonstrate to our community what reducing a family’s carbon footprint actually could look like – choosing to ride a bike around town instead of driving.

I know the cargo bike saved us money, but what about the impact it has on our family joy? Our bike recently broke, devastating to me, but my 4-year-old daughter offered to ride her bike to school and my 8-year-old son offered to walk the 2 miles to school, so we could continue to spend time with each other and do our part for the planet. The impact on our family’s quality of life is immeasurable, and yet so clear! If you are interested in talking or learning more about cargo bike journeys, feel free to reach out to me via email at yasmin@labor4sustainability.org.

Happy working to ensure everyone has a livable wage on a livable planet,

The Gabriel Family

The post Stewards of the Planet first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

LNS invites you to a national webinar on May 5 at 4 PM ET, co-hosted by Taproot Earth and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council (HTC), in partnership with U.S. Climate Action Network, Labor Network for Sustainability, and Just Transition Alliance.

As Climate Week NYC approaches, we’re deepening solidarity between the climate justice and labor movements. With the NYC hotel workers’ union contract set to expire this summer, this moment offers a powerful opportunity to align our values and actions. This session is designed for decision-makers and operations leads at climate organizations participating in Climate Week NYC. We’ll explore how to show up in solidarity and support workers in their fight for a fair contract.

Click here to register.

The post Solidarity in Action: Mobilizing Labor & Climate Justice at NYC Climate Week and Beyond first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

LNS and our partners were happy to have had a successful Transit Equity Week 2026. We are excited to continue growing our transit equity work and organizing riders and workers everywhere towards a just and sustainable future.

For a brief video report on Transit Equity Week 2026: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWpBnPQiOA4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D.

The post Transit Equity Rolls On first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

The Labor Network for Sustainability has joined many other organizations around the country to support the campaign to close the county-owned HERC (Hennepin Energy Recovery Center) incinerator in Minneapolis. Shutting down the incinerator, which burns toxic trash in the center of a Black and working-class community, has been the goal of a long-running local campaign. Shutting the incinerator was one of the demands of the first union-authorized strike on climate issues in the US by janitor members of Service Employees International Union Local 26.

In 2023, Hennepin County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to create a closure plan — but it does not actually require HERC to close. The Zero Burn Coalition, an alliance of environmental and labor groups, wants the board to hold a public vote this year to close the HERC by 2028. Local environmental justice advocates held a hunger strike calling on Hennepin County Commissioners to close their incinerator; at press time they had fasted for nearly two weeks.

Local labor organizations that are part of the campaign include:

• MAPE – Minnesota Association of Professional Employees
• MNA – Minnesota Nurses Association
• MFE – Minneapolis Federation of teachers
• SPFE – Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
• AFSCME – Local 2822
• AFSCME – Hennepin Healthcare Local 2474
• CTUL – Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha

The post Hungering for Environmental Justice first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

More than 8 million people joined more than 3,300 organized events across the country on March 28 for No Kings Day to protest the Trump administration’s growing authoritarianism, attacks on immigrants, and war in the Middle East. It was the largest single-day protest in American history.

Major unions with millions of members including SEIU, AFT, and NEA supported the day of action, and local unions around the country played a major role in organizing local events. Endorsing the mobilization, Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, said:

Since Inauguration Day, the radical pages of Project 2025 and the fever dreams of America’s corporate billionaires have come to life with a relentless assault on America’s workers. The Trump administration has committed the single biggest act of union-busting in history, attacked good jobs across the country, launched a brutal assault on immigrants, ripped health care from millions, jeopardized the essential services that working families rely on and threatened our fundamental freedoms. But America’s labor unions have been leading in our courts, on Capitol Hill, and in our streets to fight back– and our movement will be there on No Kings Day to peacefully and powerfully say that our government doesn’t answer to a king. It answers to working people.

The post 8 Million People—And Labor—Say “NO KINGS” first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.