Interview: U.S. Rep. Schauer

by Chris Savage

In 2008, Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer was elected to be the Representative for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, replacing Republican Tim Walberg. The 7th District, which spans a large swath of south-central Michigan, is notoriously fickle and, two years later, Walberg beat Schauer and regained his House seat.

Since 2010, Schauer has stayed involved in politics and has worked with the BlueGreen Alliance, a consortium of environmental and labor groups working toward creating jobs in the “green economy”. With Congress seemingly deadlocked with Republicans refusing to pass a jobs bill or to work on a national energy policy, the BlueGreen Alliance is working outside of the Washington beltway to formulate strategies and programs that will stimulate job growth, help to jump start a new clean energy revolution and reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

A new campaign called Jobs21! is a grassroots effort being coordinated by the BlueGreen Alliance that is specifically geared toward the creation of new jobs in the green economy. Schauer has signed on as one of its National Co-Chairs. It’s a certainly a daunting challenge given today’s political climate. With Republicans rejecting anything that doesn’t involve tax cuts or deregulation, new programs like the one proposed by the BlueGreen Alliance seem destined for failure. However, Schauer remains optimistic and, with his Congressional experience, he may have a shot at navigating through the partisan swamp of Congress and help to accomplish some of the BlueGreen Alliance’s goals. I spent some time talking to him about his new job and what he and his organization hope to accomplish with the Jobs21! campaign.

A2Politico: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Mark. Let’s start out by asking what you’ve been doing since you lost your Congressional seat to Tim Walberg in 2010.

Mark Schauer: I’ve pursued a passion of mine—growing clean energy jobs in Michigan and in America to put hard-working men and women to work in jobs that protect the environment and make us more energy independent. I was honored to join the BlueGreen Alliance as National Co-Chair of the Jobs 21! campaign. I’m also doing exciting work with the Construction Laborers’ union and their contractors, with a specific focus on building wind farms in Michigan. Bottom line, my work is focused on jobs, jobs, jobs—that support families and sustain our communities.

A2P: To what do you attribute the nearly “clean sweep” by Republicans in 2010? Do you think it was overstepping by Democrats or something else?

Schauer: It’s jobs. The economy. Quite simply, America was in a deep ditch and we haven’t climbed out of it yet. I think this renewed focus on the economy — after the manufactured debt ceiling crisis — is important and it’s resonating with people because it’s what they’re focused on in daily lives. In 2010 voters were angry and anxious about jobs and their economic security. In 2012 voters will realize who has a real jobs plan for America and who doesn’t, and who’s willing to privatize Medicare and Social Security and tax pensions in order to protect arcane tax loopholes for corporations.

A2P: Tell us about the BlueGreen Alliance and, more specifically, the Jobs 21! campaign.

Schauer: The BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) is a partnership of 10 unions and four environmental groups that is dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. Together we represent 14 million members and supporters, and the number is growing. BGA works on a variety of issues, from green chemistry and workers’ rights to energy and climate. We really run the gamut.

I’m the National Co-Chair of the Jobs 21! campaign at BGA, and I’m really excited to be leading this effort with Tarryl Clark, the former state Senate Assistant Majority Leader from Minnesota.

Jobs 21! is our campaign to keep and create good jobs by focusing on 21st century industries, like renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, manufacturing, broadband Internet, a smarter electrical grid, green chemistry and recycling. You should check out www.bluegreenalliance.org/jobs21 to see the whole plan. All told, we’re looking at creating and keeping millions of American jobs with this campaign.

A2P: Unions and environmentalists working together?! That’s nearly unheard of. It’s difficult to get two unions or two environmental groups to agree to anything much less 14. How does the BlueGreen Alliance make decisions and come to agreements? I’m imagining endless discussions and arguments making the process long and arduous. Is that the case?

Schauer: It’s both harder and easier than you would think. For some things, where we know there won’t be an agreement, we agree to disagree. For other things, each of the organizations helps open the others’ eyes as to why they have the point of view they have and the benefits of their vision. We then work to find consensus and end up in a place where all the organizations — who may not have been comfortable at the start but after learning more about it — are comfortable now. When the United Steelworkers Union and Sierra Club formed the BlueGreen Alliance it was to reject the premise that it’s either jobs or the environment. They correctly concluded that it’s either both or neither. We’re on the side of BOTH.

A2P: When Van Jones came to Ann Arbor to speak just after the election in 2010, he said, “I think it’s important that you be able to remind people that this push for green jobs and green work and green chemistry is asking questions that progressives like but have answers that conservatives like.” However, when I look at the members of the BlueGreen Alliance, it’s pretty much a Who’s Who of Democratic-party supporting groups and your “About” webpage doesn’t make any mention of being “non-partisan”. To what extent is the BlueGreen Alliance reaching out to Republicans since, as Jones said, you “have answers that conservatives like”?

Schauer: We are a non-partisan organization. We’re certainly progressive, but we’re willing to work with anyone — regardless of their political party — to move America forward to a clean energy economy that creates good jobs, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and leaves a better planet for future generations. There are a lot of issues that progressives and conservatives can find consensus on, especially when dealing with energy.

A2P: Your “Blueprint to Solve the Jobs Crisis” talks about five broad categories: Growing clean energy, revitalizing the manufacturing sector, improvements to the energy grid & broadband access, rebuilding roads & making more efficient vehicles, and ensuring safe workplaces & protecting the environment. Let’s start with clean energy. How does what the BlueGreen Alliance propose differ from the parts of President Obama’s stimulus package that directed money into this sector?

Schauer: We’re proposing to build on the successes of the Recovery Act and take the policies and investments that worked and implement new ones as well. For example, we’re supporting a Green Manufacturing Loan Program that would help manufacturers retool to be more energy efficient. That program would create 680,000 manufacturing jobs and almost 2 million additional jobs from local spending over a five-year period.

We also support policy changes, like a nationwide Renewable Electricity Standard of 25 percent by 2025, meaning we’d provide the market incentives to boost America’s renewable energy generation and give the market surety they would have a solid foundation to build on. That alone would create over 850,000 manufacturing jobs in existing manufacturers that would retool to create components to harness wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy. We’re seeing these jobs being created here in Michigan as a result of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that I helped put in place when I was in the state Senate. The wind farms that laborers and others are building here are a direct result of that. And some of the wind turbine components are already being manufactured in Michigan, with more on the way.

And, of course, in Michigan we know the jobs and progress that have been made in the automotive sector, with more great innovation—and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks—on the way.

A2P: Given Republican pushback against the stimulus and their claims that it hasn’t created a single job, is it realistic to think they will vote for MORE stimulus-type investments?

Schauer: At some point, you would hope that politicians would move past this self-destructive cycle they are in where everything is about the next election and simply do the right thing for the American people. No wonder that Congress’ approval rating is so low and will continue to drop unless both parties focus on working together on a real jobs plan.

I think there’s common ground that can be found. Those claims about the stimulus are wrong, by the way. We put out a report on the anniversary of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that showed the green investments in it created or save almost a million green jobs.

A2P: One of the things that you propose is a National Energy Efficiency Resource Standard to encourage “more efficient generation, transmission, and use of electricity and natural gas”. That sounds like regulation to me. What hope do you have of getting more regulations passed in the current political climate?

Schauer: We waste a lot of energy in this country, and efforts to make us more energy efficient are going to be vital to leaning our businesses so they can compete globally against China, Germany, India and the rest of the world. We can’t just go about things business as usual, otherwise you risk falling behind and losing America’s leadership in the global economy.

Private sector businesses and trained workers are retrofitting businesses, apartment buildings, homes, and public buildings—including government building, hospitals, schools, and colleges. Good local jobs are being created and are being paid for by the very energy savings that result from their work.

The bottom line is that the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard will create a lot of jobs and save a bunch more by making sure our businesses can compete globally. It will benefit consumers and business owners by saving us $170 billion a year in wasted energy.

Call it what you want, but I call it a good idea. A no-brainer, actually.

A2P: With regard to revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector, does the BlueGreen Alliance support President Obama’s American Jobs Act? Are their any things in it you’d like to see changed or anything you feel is missing from it?

Schauer: We do. We’re certainly glad that the President included modernizing schools and investments in transportation and other infrastructure in there. But, yes, we feel like there’s more we can do to get Americans back to work.

The President’s plan is a great start. We hope that Congress will start focusing on the need to create good jobs and take up some of our ideas that will put millions of Americans back to work in jobs that are good for our energy independence and our environment. And they need to stop attacking things like the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loans that have put thousands of Michiganders back to work building state-of-the-art fuel-efficient cars in trucks.

A2P: What types of things can the federal government do to help our manufacturing base become more competitive and successful?

Schauer: We talked about the Green Manufacturing Loan Program earlier, and that will certainly be a big help for them. Basically, we need to rebuild our country’s manufacturing base and make the manufacturing we have left more efficient to compete globally. Things like combined heat and power — where facilities generate power onsite then collect the heat to be used to save energy — are vital. That takes investments, but it also pays big dividends, both in terms of energy saving and in terms of employment security.

A2P: With regard to transportation, it’s clear the BlueGreen Alliance is big on investing in mass transit and high-speed rail infrastructure development. However, Republicans in Congress and in the states seem hell-bent on sabotaging anything related to this effort. How do you get them to stop chanting “Cut spending! Less government!” long enough to bring them on board with these types of investments?

Schauer: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently joined with the AFL-CIO to call for renewed transportation infrastructure investments. So, we’re part of the way there by getting businesses on board to help put pressure on them to do the right thing and get millions of Americans back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and making our transportation system efficient again.

Our generation inherited a great system of railroads, roads and bridges. We fell down on the job keeping them up. It’d be a huge disserve to our children and their children if we don’t give them the same kind of strong transportation infrastructure we inherited simply because we were too worried about giving tax cuts to millionaires to do the right thing.

A2P: Part of your plan is called “Make it in America” which advocates, in part, for standards on domestic content for manufacturers receiving federal help. In 1933, Congress passed the “Buy American Act” which required the federal government to give preference to American-made products in its procurement process. However, international trade agreements seem to have pushed that aside. What is the BlueGreen Alliance’s position on international trade agreements and should the federal government go back to rigid enforcement of the “Buy American Act”?

Schauer: The BlueGreen Alliance believes we need to enforce “Buy America” provisions whenever they are feasible. I worked hard on this as a member of Congress. We also support strong enforcement of existing trade agreements to make sure that American jobs stay here.

A2P: It’s clear a great deal of effort and thought has gone into preparing your Blueprint. However, in the current political climate in America, it’s difficult to get anything passed through Congress that doesn’t give tax breaks to wealthy people or gas & oil companies or that doesn’t slash spending on anything the helps the underprivileged. What are your next steps? How do you hope to get the elements in your comprehensive plan passed through such a recalcitrant Congress?

Schauer: It is difficult, and it is frustrating. But I can tell you that the BlueGreen Alliance will embrace common-sense ideas that create jobs and grow the green economy. For example, we were pleased to see my former colleagues Representatives Doyle and Inslee just introduce the American Energy, Infrastructure, and Manufacturing (AIM) Jobs Act. This is a good start, and I hope it will receive bi-partisan support. My work as co-chair of the Jobs 21! campaign is to take it to the streets, to wage a grassroots campaign to send a message that the American people want a jobs plan—a plan that creates jobs that support families, are safe for workers and communities, and make us more energy independent and secure. My message is that the BlueGreen Alliance’s jobs plan does these things, and we’re asking rank-and-file people to sign on as supporters of our jobs plan and send this message.

A2P: Last question: What’s next for Mark Schauer? Any plans to run for office again? Maybe a Michigan gubernatorial run in 2014 as some have predicted?

Schauer: I decided a couple of months that I wouldn’t be running for Congress in 2012. I don’t know about the future. What I do know is that the work I’m a part of is vital to three very special people to me—my grandsons Theo, Henry, and Isaac. I want to make sure the Michigan and America they grow up in is as great as the one I inherited from my parents and grandparents.

For more of Chris Savage’s writing, visit Eclectablog.