UD convenes leaders on climate, jobs, energy grid challenges

NEWARK — Former U.S. Senator Tom Carper says more conversations around the evolving topics of climate, jobs and energy are needed and he’s making sure it starts with him and his alma mater, the University of Delaware.

He led the inaugural Carper Collaborative on Climate and Jobs conference Monday alongside the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) at the university’s STAR Campus with hopes of bringing together voices across sectors to explore topics relating to climate, jobs, energy and more. Balancing that growth with reliability seemed to be the question of the day.

DENIN is a UD initiative connecting experts and students to interdisciplinary environmental research, education and policy solutions. Speakers for the day emphasized those needs, adding that the conversation is no longer about choosing between environmental protection and economic growth, but how to advance both simultaneously.

“We don’t need to choose between a strong economy and a clean environment – we can do both and we must do both,” Carper told attendees, emphasizing the importance of collaborative work in the field.

He called the STAR Campus the spiritual home of the collaborative effort. It was once the home of Delaware’s Chrysler plant with approximately 9,000 employees at its peak in the 1970s.

Its closure was tough on the First State, but Carper said the site’s transformation into the STAR Campus has brought more jobs to area than the plant at its peak, citing dozens of modern-day businesses such as Bloom Energy and Chemours, along with start-ups and innovators, that have brought good paying jobs to the campus.

He added that the collaborative spirit that brought success to the now thriving-again location is the same spirit he hopes to bring to the climate, energy and jobs conversation through the new initiative.

Throughout the day, panelists pointed to production costs and job challenges facing the sector. Energy, specifically, has seen substantial growth in recent years and those seeking to hire are now facing stiff competition from the construction industry, according to panelist and Business Council for Sustainable Energy President Lisa Jacobson.

“They can’t move fast enough because they don’t have the workforce,” she said. “I think this is something that the private sector has known for a long time… We are in a pivot moment and the lightbulb is going off – the energy sector is a place where we’re telling our kids to go into.”

Panelist and Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp echoed the concern stating that, on average, thousands of new electricians are needed every year.

“We need to figure out ways to scale those up,” he added. “There is a way that we can deliver climate and well-paying jobs… It’s there, but it’s not going to happen automatically.”

He stressed need for coordinated training pipelines, from community colleges to union-led programs, to meet demand for skilled labor with some of the most successful programs including the promise of a job at the end.

Affordability was also a central concern for panelists with several citing political tensions policymakers face as consumers grapple with rising energy costs even as cleaner technologies become more competitive.

They also focused on infrastructure as a bottleneck in energy, innovation and climate needs stating that building projects quick enough is a problem for the industry.

Andrew Cottone of Aternium stated that fixing permitting issues would positively impact the sector and lauded Gov. Matt Meyer’s recent executive order doing just that by creating a permitting accelerator for Delaware.

The discussion on Monday also highlighted the complexity of scaling energy systems and the importance of maintaining a diverse energy mix to ensure reliability as demand surges, including natural gas, renewables and emerging technologies.

In Delaware, that challenge is particularly pronounced. Roughly 83% of the state’s power generation currently comes from natural gas, underscoring both the reliance on traditional fuels and the scale of transition required.

The conference underscored a common theme – the need for more conversations around climate, energy and workforce development to better serve the First State.

“Delaware is uniquely positioned to lead because of our capacity to collaborate and because of what Sen. Carper has mentioned – we are the lowest lying state in the nation,” U.S. Representative Sarah McBride said during the event. “When we harness the legacy of environmental leadership that our state leaders for decades have shown with our economic legacy, we can do big things even in a small state.”