ACORE Partners with the National Urban League to Publish Inaugural Climate and Clean Energy Section of the 2023 State of Black America Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Working in collaboration to help illustrate the path toward a just and equitable clean energy future, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has partnered with the National Urban League on the release of its 2023 State of Black America® report, “Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat Within.” For the first time, the report includes a special section focused on clean energy and climate, A Climate in Crisis: Solving the Challenge and Addressing Historic Inequities. This section helps chronicle the history of environmental justice in the United States; highlights current reforms underway nationally; and summarizes the clean energy workforce, economic investment, and restorative climate justice opportunities enabled under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for Black and Brown communities.

“The wind, solar, and battery storage industries already employ more than 500,000 Americans across all 50 states, and these sectors are expected to create between 800,000 and 1.3 million new jobs by 2030,” ACORE President and CEO Gregory Wetstone and National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial jointly wrote. “But simply acknowledging the growing economic opportunity through the renewable energy transition is not enough. We must ensure that Black, Brown, and underserved communities can fully participate.”

Over the next two decades, American companies plan to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in new wind, solar, and battery storage projects to replace aging, expensive, and heavily polluting fossil fuel plants and provide power for an increasingly electrified economy with a growing fleet of electric vehicles. Deploying more renewable energy will lead to better air and water quality, lower electricity bills, and new career opportunities. The IRA, enacted last August, includes key provisions that can help ensure the economic benefits of the clean energy transition are equitably shared.

In the new climate and clean energy section of the State of Black America® report, the nation’s foremost experts on environmental justice, energy policy, renewable energy, and civil rights highlight necessary steps to realize a more just and equitable transition to a clean energy economy.

The section features contributions from:

  • Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy
  • The Honorable Shalanda H. Baker, author of Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition and our nation’s first Deputy Director for Energy Justice
  • Robert Bullard, “Father of Environmental Justice,” Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy and Founding Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University
  • Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League
  • Gregory Wetstone, President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy

To access the full report, click here. There will be a launch event tomorrow, April 18, at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. A livestream will be available starting at 10:00 a.m. ET at StateOfBlackAmerica.org.

##

About ACORE:
For more than 20 years, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has been the nation’s premier pan-renewable nonprofit organization. ACORE unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. For more information, please visit www.acore.org.

About National Urban League:

The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 92 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 3 million people annually nationwide. Visit www.nul.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.

Media Contacts:

Alex Hobson
Sr. Vice President, Communications
American Council on Renewable Energy
hobson@acore.org | 202.777.7584 (o) | 202.594.0706 (c)

Dylan Helms
Associate, Communications
American Council on Renewable Energy
helms@acore.org | 202.891.7868 (o) | 727.290.8804 (c)