The Labor Center’s Green Economy Program provides research and technical assistance on the workforce strategies needed to grow an equitable clean energy economy. We examine economic and labor market changes related to the energy transition, and we assess policy approaches that can ensure access to quality jobs and an adequate supply of skilled workers. Our work supports policymakers, businesses, unions, and community stakeholders who are engaged in the design and implementation of high-road policies and projects.
March 13, 2025
Technical Assistance for a High-Road Economy
October 22, 2025
California High-Road Public Funding Resources Guide
April 10, 2025
States can still build from Biden’s wins on clean energy and jobs
March 25, 2024
Factsheet: Workforce Standards for an Equitable Economy
January 14, 2025
Refining Transition: A Just Transition Economic Development Framework For Contra Costa County, California
July 2, 2025
In its rush to shutter oil and gas refineries, California risks abandoning workers and local communities
April 26, 2023
Fossil fuel layoff: The economic and employment effects of a refinery closure on workers in the Bay Area
April 26, 2023
The Green Revolution Will Not Be Painless
September 20, 2023
California’s Climate Investments and High Road Workforce Standards: Gaps and Opportunities for Advancing Workforce Equity
This guide provides an overview of economic and workforce development public funding resources in California. It is designed to support potential applicants in two key areas: identifying relevant funding and integrating “high-road” strategies that prioritize community and worker benefits.
We welcome two new senior researchers, Betony Jones and Josh Sonnenfeld.
States can act to preserve and advance President Biden’s most important accomplishment: a set of policies aimed at growing jobs in strategic clean energy sectors across the U.S. while supporting fair wages and equal access to employment.
In this report, we discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Contra Costa as it prepares for the cascading effects of an energy transition that is already unfolding. We propose a just transition framework to guide an economic development strategy capable of addressing the specific challenges facing Contra Costa and setting the county on a path toward a more resilient, healthy, and equitable local economy.
The California Green Economy Public Funding Tracker provides information on open funding opportunities from California state agencies related to climate, clean energy, and the workforce. It includes programs supported or administered by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), California Energy Commission (CEC), California Climate Investments, Strategic Growth Council, California Workforce Development Board (CWDB), and more.
September 3, 2020
Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030
April 13, 2021
High-Road Jobs and Climate Action: Lessons from California for the Nation
March 17, 2011
California Workforce Education & Training Needs Assessment for Energy Efficiency, Distributed Generation, and Demand Response
May 8, 2014
Workforce Issues and Energy Efficiency Programs: A Plan for California’s Utilities
In a 2023 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, UC Irvine professor Virginia Parks helped survey those who had been laid off by the Marathon oil refinery in Contra Costa County in 2020. She found that roughly a quarter were unemployed or no longer looking for work over a year after losing their jobs.
As the state navigates the energy transition, it needs a clear and comprehensive plan to provide real support for refinery workers and communities affected by closures.
“I have a lot of concerns about what will happen to the workers at Valero if it shuts down, based on the experiences of workers at Marathon Martinez, and the fact that the permanent workforce at Valero is not represented by a union,” Hammerling says.
An unlikely alliance of labor and environmental-justice groups is working to ensure the region is prepared for a future without big oil.
Last month, officials with Valero Energy announced they would be closing the company’s 170,000 barrels-per-day oil refinery in Benicia, California—a city of 25,000 residents, east of San Francisco. The plant, spread across 900 acres, employs over 400 workers, and is scheduled to close in April 2026.
Francisco Arzú
Co-Director, Green Economy Program
Jessie HF Hammerling
Co-Director, Green Economy Program
Betony Jones
Senior Researcher
Josh Sonnenfeld
Senior Researcher
Will Toaspern
Senior Researcher
Carol Zabin
Senior Advisor on the Green Economy
