OPINION:
Could a return to Biden-era climate policies in 2028 reverse the trade-job boom in America’s energy sector?
On this episode of Politically Unstable, host Kelly Sadler is joined by Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, to talk about the booming trade-job market in energy — and why Isaac warns that a Democratic White House win could put those gains, and the jobs they’ve created, at risk.
[SADLER] We’re going to be talking about jobs, for those who are graduating from college or high school, within the energy sector. We had a conversation a few days ago with another guest about how four-year colleges are missing their enrollment numbers. People are turning off to the costs of getting $100,000 education and then going into the job market and having dull or dim prospects.
So Jason, tell us about energy sector opportunities there, trade schools, apprenticeships, because this seems to be an area of growth.
[ISAAC] Yeah, it really is. And I think a lot of students are making the market decision. They’re looking at opportunities in other careers that they can have right out of high school. I think the school choice, this education freedom movement, has really exacerbated some of this because students are getting scholarships now while they’re in high school to go to trade school. So that’s creating incredible opportunities for students to be earning 60 to $80,000 at 18 years old. And then in six figures within five years of that. Hopefully this is going to be an incredible reversal of what we’ve seen over the last couple of decades, with the average age of first-time homeowners now at 40 years old, where just decades ago it was 29. Hopefully we’ll see that reverse because students that are choosing trades — these opportunities in HVAC, plumbing, welding, mechanical work that pay a significant amount of money at such a young age and build careers for younger people — that we’ll see that number of first-time homeownership trended down significantly, which would be great for the economy.
[SADLER] Are these jobs needed because of the growth of data centers? What is spurring the growth, especially within the energy and industry?
[ISAAC] I think the realization that what we’ve done over the last couple of decades of misallocating resources into things that are intermittent sources of electric generation, wind, solar, and batteries. And now we’ve come to this realization, the current administration is working tooth and nail to make energy affordable and reliable once again. But what’s happened is we’ve misallocated resources, and those resources are not only capital, but they’re labor. And so I think we’re seeing this reversal. We’re now seeing great strides with the repeal of greenhouse gas emission reporting requirements for power plants. It’s going to make it easier to build new natural gas and coal-fired electric generation. We’re seeing a nuclear renaissance like we haven’t seen in decades. That requires skilled workers, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, welding, mechanical. So really the production of affordable and reliable energy, and the energy that we produce more responsibly than anywhere else on the planet right here in the United States, is driving this incredible growth in these jobs.
You look at electrical jobs, there’s about a 9% increase in the people that are in the industry right now, and we need new electricians coming in. And the current ones are aging out. So we have retirement becoming a big issue as that workforce gets older. So there’s just a lot of incredible opportunities. I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I’ve got the number here. There’s 72,700 electrical jobs that are needed in the United States, and that number will only grow. That’s actually per year. So there’s just incredible growth opportunities.
[SADLER] In terms of a Republican holding the White House versus a Democrat, do you expect this trend to continue? Because we know that during the Biden administration, they were not very friendly towards the energy sector. You have the reverse with President Trump, as you just pointed out. But let’s say the White House flips back in control to the Democrats in 2028. And perhaps if Democrats take control of the House and the Senate this year during the midterm elections, is this trend sustainable?
[ISAAC] I think it certainly points out the importance of Congress acting. Congress needs to act on this climate lawsuit abuse. Harriet Hageman has a great piece sponsored with Ted Cruz in the Senate that pushes back on some of the climate nuisance lawsuits. Those need to stop. I mean, you’ve got over 30 different lawsuits that are happening now.
The Supreme Court will hear Suncor v. Boulder on October 5th, opening arguments, or the opening will happen for that particular case. If that case goes the wrong direction, you could have 90,000 governments in the United States suing energy companies for everything. That’s not affordable and reliable. Congressman Craig Goldman of Texas has the Stop the EU Overreach Act, that needs to work its way through Congress. That’s what’s so important, that we need to get these laws passed in Congress so they’re on the books, and that what the White House does hopefully makes as little impact to consumers. But if it does flip back to a Democrat administration in two years, it will be catastrophic. It’ll be what we’ve seen in the Biden and Obama years, where they’re attacking reliable, affordable energy from coal and natural gas and then making us dependent on a Chinese supply chain that produces wind and solar components.
And now these batteries — batteries that have surveillance technology and communications technology built into them. This is absolutely appalling from a national security standpoint.
Watch the video for the full conversation.
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