AI and the Clean Energy Economy
By Chris Warland, CJC Director of Policy & Advocacy
This is the first in a series of blogs exploring the potential impacts of AI on jobseekers, workers, and workforce development providers, and documenting the development of Chicago Jobs Council's AI policy platform.
Chicago Jobs Council has been an active partner and advocate in Illinois’ transition to a clean energy economy, in particular by working to ensure that individuals and communities that have experienced economic exclusion and environmental injustice have access to the good jobs created by that transition. CJC advocated for the passage of the Climate Equitable Jobs Act, and is now supporting CEJA workforce grantees in Illinois as a convener providing technical assistance in order to help ensure this landmark legislation is implemented in a way that fulfills its promise.
As CJC works, along with our partners, to develop a comprehensive, pro-worker policy platform in response to the proliferation of artificial intelligence, it is becoming clear that there are frictions between our commitment to environmental justice and our desire to see the economic benefits of AI shared equitably among the workers and communities who have been left behind by previous waves of technological change. On one hand, well-regulated AI could serve as an economic engine with the potential to generate increased productivity and broadly shared prosperity. On the other hand, AI’s ravenous consumption of energy and water has the potential to cause environmental and economic harm concentrated in marginalized communities already suffering from unaffordable energy costs and disproportionate pollution.
Is it possible to harness AI-driven economic growth to improve the wellbeing of marginalized workers? And, is it possible to do so while mitigating the environmental damage being done by power- and water-hungry data centers?
Right now, many workforce development professionals are trying to figure out the first part – developing training programs and mapping out pathways to better jobs that require the skills and knowledge to effectively use AI. Regarding the second question, the environmental impact of AI has not really been addressed by the workforce development field –it remains a problem for a different set of advocates.
There remains a great deal of uncertainty about how AI will impact jobseekers, workers, and the workforce development field. However the impacts of AI energy usage are already showing up on household utility bills, and are almost certainly accelerating climate change.
In Illinois, we have a head start on addressing the friction between economic and environmental imperatives.Through policies like CEJA, the transition to 100% clean energy generation has the power to mitigate the worst environmental effects of AI, while providing additional pathways to family-sustaining jobs.
It’s far from a complete solution, but it's a start.
What do you think? Should workforce advocates concern themselves with the environmental implications of growth sectors? Or just prepare people for good jobs and let the environmentalists worry about the environment? What thoughts do you have about navigating this issue?
Important Resources:
Take the CJC/Origami Works Foundation AI Survey
Calculate how much energy, carbon and water your AI usage actually consumes