By Laura Aka for Working Nation.
Broadcast version by Jonah Chester for Indiana News Service reporting for the Working Nation-Public News Service Collaboration

In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Now, according to the ruling, the EPA must get specific directions from the U.S. Congress on how to regulation those emissions.

Annually, The Hoosier State is among the top ten coal-producing states in the nation and the Indiana attorney general was among the 19 who challenged the EPA's authority.

Environmental leaders in the state say the Supreme Court ruling will not stop their efforts to push the state toward alternate energy sources.

"It will not deter our work to train the next generation of climate leaders here in Indiana," says Danni Schaust, resilience implementation manager at the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. The university runs the McKinney Climate Fellows (MCF) program for undergraduate and graduate students focused on climate, sustainability, and community resilience.

"Our McKinney Climate Fellows will continue to move forward tirelessly with their critical work," says Schaust, "working alongside our valued public and private sector partners, tackling the impacts of a changing climate head-on."

"I think it's too early to tell what, if any, impact the ruling may have," says Ryan Hadley, executive director of the Indiana Office of Energy Development, when asked how the opinion might affect green jobs creation in his state.

He says, "Indiana will continue to see growth in green-related jobs, especially as we consider the transformation of Indiana's electric generation portfolio. Over the last decade, Indiana has grown its wind generation output from virtually zero in 2008 to 6.5% percent in 2020."

Hadley references a 2020 report commissioned by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission as part of a comprehensive energy study. At the time, the report said, "This expected expansion in alternative energy sources will generate new jobs that will partially offset the job losses associated with coal-fired plant closures, although there is some uncertainty surrounding the potential size of these impacts."

The report continued, "The state's investor-owned electricity producers expect that Indiana's combined generation capacity of wind, solar, and natural gas energy will expand by an estimated 5,850 megawatts between 2023 and 2030."

Green Jobs Growth in The Hoosier State

"Workers with green skills are also spreading across a wide range of industries - such as utilities, manufacturing, and professional services - illustrating the increasing need for green skills across Indiana's economy," according to Green Jobs Now: Indiana, a WorkingNation and Lightcast analysis of the green labor market in the state.

Findings estimate there are over 11,678 workers in Indiana's green economy. The report projects in the next five years, employment for green jobs in the state will increase by 29.2%, well above national average of 5.7%.

What's a Green Job?

We look at four different categories when we break down the opportunities in the green jobs ecosystem.

Core jobs have "a primary responsibility associated with the green economy." The data indicates a top core green job in Indiana is a wind turbine technician.

Enabled jobs have "primary responsibilities separate or tangential to the green economy" with building and general maintenance technicians identified as primary jobs.

Not to be confused with enabled jobs, enabling jobs "aren't associated with green tech per se, but they support the green economy."

The report states, "There were 3,586 green jobs openings in the state in 2021."

Green Jobs Now: Indiana finds there are 1,146,364 workers in Indiana who, with new skills, could be green workers. "These workers come from a variety of different occupations and educational backgrounds and reskilling them could build the pipeline of green workers faster than relying on new postsecondary graduates alone."

"However, doing so will require a mix of training program formats that support the reskilling and redeployment of these workers."

The most in-demand skills related to the green economy in Indiana include energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy knowledge.

The report states, "Many of these same green skills offer strong salary boosts across roles, the highest being carbon management which commands an average salary boost of over $24,000 annually."

"Others, such as carbon reduction commanding nearly $2,000 annually. This suggests that investing in training workers in these skills will have strong returns, but Indiana must ensure a green training infrastructure exists to support reskilling workers in these capabilities."

According to the data, the average green jobs salary in Indiana is $60,012.

'Fighting the good fight'

"While Indiana is not thought of by most folks as environmentally forward thinking, I know firsthand the progress that is being made every day by hardworking Hoosiers committed to tackling the climate crisis," says Schaust of the Environmental Resilience Institute.

"My main focus is on the McKinney Climate Fellows program and supporting students, businesses, and nonprofits as they adapt to and address the climate crisis in Indiana and throughout the Midwest," she explains.

Schaust says the program fellows are primarily students from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. But she notes that fellows - who typically range from sophomores to third-year Ph.D. students - have included some studying geography, health care management, and social work.

"We don't limit ourselves to any particular major because we are dealing with a global crisis. We understand and acknowledge that we need everyone in this fight. And we need everyone thinking about 'How can I, in my career, address climate change?'"

The program includes summer internships for the fellows. "They'll work for those communities, those nonprofits, and those businesses for 10 to 12 weeks over the summer," says Schaust.

"Throughout, we provide them mentorship, ongoing professional development, and once they finish the program, we actually continue to keep in touch with our alumni and help them prepare for job interviews, salary negotiation, networking, all of those really important professional skills that they may not be getting in the classroom or may not have time to really focus on in their academic studies."

Schaust says, "Our fellows receive not only professional training, but resources and access to tools that we believe make them more personally resilient to continue 'fighting the good fight.'"

She continues, "We believe that a holistic approach is necessary to training the next generation of climate professionals - trainings such as how to deal with and manage climate emotions have become an integral part of the curriculum in recent years."

"Since this program launched in 2017, we have worked with close to 200 students, getting them trained in climate careers, getting them professional opportunities to apply their skills outside of the classroom. Around 35% to 40% of our graduates now work in climate careers across the United States," says Schaust.

But she points out that many fellows are becoming more locally focused in their career pursuits. "I've seen the conversation change from a federal government pipeline to 'I want to work in a local community. I want to work here in my hometown of Lafayette, Indiana. I want to work with my local government or the nonprofits in the area to make sure we're addressing food insecurity, to make sure that the community is aware of the climate change impacts we are going to see, and that we are prepared as a community to address those.'"

Core Green Jobs and Second Chances

As a professor of political science at University of Notre Dame, Patrick Regan wasn't planning on becoming a small business owner. Life took a turn for Regan after he began teaching a class called Politics of Climate Change at Westville Correctional Facility.

"In the process of teaching in the prison, I learned that we all make mistakes and sometimes, otherwise, good people make colossally stupid mistakes," says Regan.

"In one class we were talking and one guy who's all tattooed up said, 'The problem is, professor, your people won't hire me.' I'm like, 'Well, I bet I could fix that.' I was old enough in the career of academia that I could take the gamble, quit my job, and see whether I could answer the question of whether we could hire them."

Regan knew he had to create an enterprise that had some lasting power. "I had to start a business that had longevity beyond me. I thought about climate change. I thought this is a no-brainer. Long after I'm burned out from this, solar will be instrumental in saving the planet. So, I decided to start Crossroads Solar, a solar panel manufacturing company."

After experimenting by building a solar panel in his own basement, Regan went to China in late 2019 to purchase an assembly line. He had even arranged for engineers from China to travel to Indiana in 2020 to help with the setup. With travel no longer feasible due to the pandemic, Regan recruited four engineering students from Notre Dame to receive virtual instruction from the Chinese engineers.

In the fall of 2021, the company started panel production to scale. Currently, Crossroads Solar has 12 employees.

"Everybody who works for me is a felon and it ranges from murder to bank robbery to drug-related stuff," notes Regan. "It's allowed me to test some things about society and our ability to think about people differently. I always call this an experiment in forgiveness and reconciliation."

Regan, who is the company's president and co-founder, is not only offering second chances to people with histories of incarceration, but his concerns regarding climate change are strong. "Every one of us is going to have to stop burning fossil fuels in a way or in magnitudes that are so great, the only way we're going to replace them is some alternative form energy."

Regan says solar is probably the best candidate for replacing the use of fossil fuels. "Might not be in 10 years. It might not be in five years. But today, it's what we got. And if we don't stop burning fossil fuels today, we're going to be screwed."

However, he is quick to express his frustration over the state's decision to phase down the credits for energy delivered back to the grid that have been previously afforded to people with solar panels. Those credits were reduced for solar systems installed - as of July 1 - by customers of an investor-owned utility. "We often mask the truth in an attempt to not infuriate, intimidate, or offend anybody. And with the climate we've got to offend," says Regan.

Where Does Your Motor Oil Go?

"I would prefer to move people up," says Scott Miller, senior VP of refinery operations, Safety-Kleen in East Chicago, Indiana, about the company's own talent pipeline.

Miller explains the business. "Every time you get your oil changed that oil gets drained out of that vehicle. It goes into a tank somewhere. There's maybe a hundred thousand of these tanks throughout North America. Two things basically happen to it - it's either burned as a fuel or it can be re-refined and made back into lubricants."

"Safety-Kleen is probably the largest collector of used motor oil as part of their collection business. We take that used motor oil - 230-plus million gallons a year - and run it through one of our refineries," he explains.

"You've seen oil come out of the cars [looking] black, right? When we're done with it, it looks almost like water. That product is called a base oil. These base oils are blended with additives to make the motor oils that go in your car or semi-truck, or hydraulic oils, or any number of other types of lubricants in the market. So, that's a recycled product."

"We have a closed loop process that, in theory, if you buy our lubricants and you use our use motor oil collection, it just goes round and round."

Safety-Kleen has eight facilities throughout North America with the largest being the East Chicago site.

Miller says he's seen a change in recent years regarding environmental concern. "When I first started in this business 24 years ago, we tried to make the whole green concept. We tried to market it. We tried to sell our oil based on that. I'll be honest with you. It was very limited in people's interest. I'd say in the last four or five years, there's been a big change, obviously, with carbon awareness now. It's done a complete about face."

Based on a recent third-party study, Safety-Kleen's re-refineries annually "avoid an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases - the equivalent of having 3.7 billion miles driven by gas-powered automobiles."

The study also found that the company's "base oil achieved as much as a 78% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to base oil made via a traditional refining process on a per gallon basis."

Opportunities at Various Levels

Miller says there is a vast array of jobs at Safety-Kleen requiring different skill levels. "We have a lot of entry-level jobs. Typically, someone who comes in here without experience in the industry will come into the shipping and receiving department. They're unloading and loading trucks and rail cars. We also have barges here. They're sampling these trucks when they come in because any container of used oil that comes in has to be sampled to make sure that it's not hazardous waste - that it's lubricant that can be re-refined and meets all our quality specs."

"We have a rather extensive laboratory with quite a few people. We have technicians, chemists, and supervisors in there. A lot of them are degreed, but not all of them. Some of them might have a technology degree to operate the lab equipment."

"We have refinery operations which are the people who actually run the refinery. We try to get people with some experience in running chemical plants or refineries, but often we actually have to train them from the ground up."

Miller says there are also the administrative and managerial positions, as well as independent contractors including electricians, painters, welders, and pipefitters.

He adds it's important that the company allows its workers to grow. "[If] they can prove themselves in receiving, they look like they can show up for work, they're on the ball, they're eager to learn, and they can follow procedures in this environment which is very industrial - we love to move them up through the organization. We love it."

A Passion for Chemistry

When he was in high school, chemistry was not Bernard Liang's favorite subject. Then he attended college at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Liang says, "During college, I wasn't expecting to do chemistry. When I started taking chem classes, it just suddenly made more sense than what I learned in high school. I just kept going with it and was like, 'Yeah, I'm really good at chemistry.' I found more passion."

"I really enjoyed doing the labs and going to lectures. Organic chemistry was a lot of critical thinking because you didn't have much to memorize. You just had to apply as you go."

Now a laboratory supervisor, Liang started at Safety-Kleen eight years ago as a lab chemist. He explains what his duties entailed, "It's learning how to do basic lab techniques. How to do a titration. How to pipette something. The other half is more hands-on learning where you have to learn how to prep a sample, how to calibrate, and how to fix something."

"It became really like fascinating because I had never really had that kind of thought - what we do with our waste engine oils when we get our oil changes. It's good for the environment, because we'll take it, clean it up, and send it back out. I really like that."

Advancement and Retention

Jimmy Bowers is a Safety-Kleen operator II - who began at the company in an entry-level job. "The entry-level position for the operations side is a third operator. They basically start with tank readings, sampling if needed, loading certain rail cars and trailers."

These days, Bowers says, "I oversee the everyday operation of the refinery. I deal with the re-refining of used oil through both processes of distillation and hydrogen."

He appreciates that he has been able to move up in the company. "I have a little bit of college education, but without a full degree. I see a lot of people advancing pretty rapidly throughout the company without having those degrees and they're successful in doing so. That made me want to stick around."

He echoes Miller, saying the company helps people advance. "We do on-the-job training. You are set up with somebody with some experience. They'll walk you through the process of rounds every two hours. That's when you'll collect your numbers, check all your tanks, make sure everything's okay. Then we do some written testing to make sure you know your job. They have packets with a lot of information as far as what job duties are. You'll go through that over several months - finish a little bit of the packet, go to the next thing, finish that part of the packet. It's different sequences as to where you are in your level of training."

Bowers says, at first, he was a bit ignorant about the company's environmental impact. "[The company is] good about letting us know exactly where our product starts, where it goes, how we're green, the steps we're taking to be green, it's safe. Seeing that, not only are we taking environmental impact off the world, but also our customers are also taking environmental impact off the world.

Local Government Addressing Climate Issues

"We have a real focus on helping local governments and communities adapt to the climate crisis," says Indiana University's Schaust.

She says through the Resilience Cohort, launched in 2019, "We're doing our best to help local governments catch up, get their communities involved, and start to get folks preparing for what's coming."

Schaust explains, "We provide, through the Resilience Cohort program, ongoing training on how to do these different skills, how to really crunch this data, look at realistic projections for different climate adaptation strategies, and help them build a plan that they can then carry forward. We provide a lot of support to our local government partners to get that in-house training, but also to help them start to make the case that there is a need to bring in additional staff."

One cohort member is Huntington, located in northeast Indiana. "Being part of the Resilience Cohort has been great for us because you get a chance to see how other cities and other leaders are navigating these things, as well as being introduced to subject matter experts and trainings that you wouldn't have access to otherwise," says Mayor Richard Strick.

He is eager to give credit to some of the fellows from Indiana University. "We've had several that have come through to help with different aspects of this. With a greenhouse gas equivalent emissions survey. Now working on what's known as a climate action plan. Also an intern that's working with us on tree canopy and growth in our tree canopy."

Strick notes, "Here in Indiana, we're anticipating more high heat days and more intense rainfall. Storm water runoff and flooding comes from that. Then the question became, 'Okay, what are additional steps we can take to better position ourselves?'"

"When we talk about what we might call the green sector jobs or adapting to these things with climate resiliency - really, we're talking about just the next stage, the next evolution of the economy," says Strick. "When it comes to thinking about jobs, especially as they relate to this sector, I think the biggest thing is to connect it to what people are already doing."

The city's parks serve as flood plains, not just recreational spaces for residents. Strick says those spaces require planting and arboretum work. He adds the city is looking to switch to electric equipment including leaf blowers, weeders, and mowers.

"None of us like change, right? Some of us adapt to it more readily than others, but change is difficult on all of us. And we're talking about some pretty significant transitions here in the economy and the environment. Part of the challenge is walking people through those changes and transitions and connecting it to what already is here."

Strick cites offers an example with a current project. "We're preparing STEM research for high schoolers and middle schoolers tied into removal of a low head dam from the Little River. The low head dams were invented as economic development. You could run a flour mill or a power plant on a river that didn't have much drop to it. That's obsolete technology now. It can become a threat to safety, but also it prevents you from enjoying the river and having kayaks and canoes go through it."

"Eventually somebody's going to come in and they are going to demolish that dam, remove it, and haul it off. Those are jobs that are very familiar for us. It's helping folks understand that the skills they already have can be brought to bear on these challenges and solutions."

Looking Ahead to the Future

Schaust says she has seen more need in the talent pipeline, but notes, "There's still a little more demand than there is supply of jobs. I've seen huge change in the past six years, but there's still a little more students than there are full-time opportunities. That's something I I'm hoping to see continue to change."

Strick says, "The key for me as an elected official is helping folks to understand why we do the things that we do. We want to make sure that our house is an order. We want to have full transparency with folks and explain the 'why' behind these things. Get it to that level of being able to help them embrace them and value them. And if they don't value them - at least tolerate them and understand why some folks in the community might value them."

Regarding the recent SCOTUS opinion, Strick says his city is not going to lose its momentum in addressing climate issues. "We're making these investments because it's what's right for our community."

Liang says about his job at Safety-Kleen, "It made me more conscious about what I dispose of at home. I've been more careful. Is this bathroom cleaner safe to go down the drain? This cooking oil - do I really want to pour this down the sink? Where is it going to go? It's taught me to be more proactive with recycling."

He adds, "I prefer to work at a company that does take care of the waste that they produce."

Bowers says, "I'm not stuck in one position. I can get from a third [operator] to a second to a first - and maybe even a supervisor. They don't put that roadblock on you for not having a degree. To me, that's important because there are a lot of people without education that are still smart and still have the ability to do things."

Miller says, "Sustainability five years ago, nobody even talked about it. And now, we have sustainability officers in major corporations, right? So, it is a real thing. And I think it's a good thing."

Crossroads Solar has landed a big win with national distributor - Krannich Solar - which will move the panels through a sales network. Regan says, "I am maybe evangelical, but we're either going to do something about the climate or we're going to fry the planet."

Laura Aka wrote this article for Working Nation.
WorkingNation producer Deidra White contributed to the reporting in this article.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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As state budget negotiations continue, groups fighting climate change are asking California lawmakers to cut subsidies for oil and gas companies rather than slash programs designed to slow global warming.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's current proposal would cut oil and gas tax breaks by $22 million this year and $17 million the following year.

Barry Vesser, COO for The Climate Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, would like to see all subsidies eliminated.

"Oil and gas companies are one of the drivers of climate change, so we should not be making their profit margins bigger by providing public subsidies, and making it harder for renewables to compete against them," Vesser argued.

Gov. Newsom has also proposed to cut funding for climate-friendly programs helping lower-income families buy an electric vehicle or switch from gas to electric appliances.

Kevin Slagle, vice president of strategic communications for the Western States Petroleum Association, said in a statement, "California's already tough business climate is pushing companies to the brink. Removing incentives will drive California straight into the arms of more expensive foreign oil, ramping up costs for everyday Californians who can least afford it."

Vesser countered the threat of higher gas prices is a red herring.

"There's a lot that goes into calculating how much the cost of gas is, and this is not even pennies on the dollar," Vesser contended.

The state Senate's early action proposal estimated the budget deficit will be between $38 billion and $53 billion. The governor is expected to release new details on his budget priorities in mid-May. The Legislature must pass a balanced budget by June 15.

The New York HEAT Act might not make the final budget.

The bill reduces the state's reliance on natural gas and cuts ratepayer costs by eliminating certain rules. It was in both legislative chambers' one-house budgets, but last-minute scrambling could remove it.

New York League of Conservation Voters Policy Director Patrick McClellan said, aside from people's preference for natural gas, other challenges have made the bill hard to pass.

"I think that there has also been some irresponsible fear-mongering against this bill from some people who oppose it," said McClellan, "basically telling people this means that their natural gas service is going to be taken away from them tomorrow, or it's going to happen without warning, and that's just not the case."

The bill would not mean gas companies could walk away from providing service to new customers, since its effects occur over a longer period.

Rural lawmakers have been skeptical about relying solely on electricity, since people could lose power in bad storms.

If the bill isn't part of the budget, McClellan said the Public Service Commission can do more to require gas utilities factor climate change into their long-term plans.

It will take more than one bill for New York State to reach its climate goals.

McClellan said developing thermal energy networks is one way to build on what the HEAT Act would do, and provide good ways to decarbonize on a larger scale instead of going house by house.

"You're able to get a larger number of buildings and people all at once," McClellan explained. "The other exciting thing about thermal energy networks is, because you are talking fundamentally about piping systems that are underground, it's an extremely similar skill set for people who already work in the fossil fuel industry."

The bill would also eliminate the Hundred Foot Rule. This requires utilities to connect new customers to a gas line for free based on their distance to an existing main gas line, typically 100 feet.

This rule allowed utilities to shift around $1 billion in costs onto about 170,000 ratepayers.

Virginia's General Assembly will consider budget amendments to reenter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, known as RGGI.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled the state out of RGGI at the end of 2023, and now experts said the holes in the budget left by RGGI funding going away are not being filled. Money from the program was used to fund climate mitigation work.

Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the state saw many benefits when it was part of RGGI.

"We were reducing fossil fuel emissions that were being created here in Virginia," Ford pointed out. "There were some clear reductions as a result of our participation. So, we're improving air quality and we are helping expedite that transition to a clean economy."

Virginia residents mostly favored staying in RGGI, but Youngkin has said the reason for pulling out was in his view, it was a "hidden tax" for ratepayers. Ford estimated homeowners paid around $2 a month from their electric bills for RGGI and argued the trade-offs were worth it.

Between 2021 and 2023, RGGI revenue generated around $828 million for Virginia. Ford thinks not rejoining the initiative could slow down Virginia's ability to reach the Clean Economy Act's climate goals, and warned other effects could be costly to communities.

"On the ground in communities around the state, if we don't get back into RGGI, there's a real potential that the work to prepare the Commonwealth, and prepare our communities for climate impacts, could grind to a halt," Ford contended.

Virginia used RGGI money to help towns and cities fund their climate resilience plans. The state used 25-million RGGI dollars to establish a Climate Resilience Fund. There have been 107 "billion-dollar disasters" since 1980 in Virginia, with long-term costs totaling between $20 billion and $50 billion.