America is married to jobs – not coal

People aren’t married to coal, or oil or gas.

They’re married to their jobs, their families and their community.

They are married to being able to put food on the table and pay the bills without having to worry.

The Inflation Reduction Act is the US’ best shot at easing the pain that current sky-high gas prices are inflicting on American Mums and Dads.

It’s also the US’ best shot at creating tens of thousands of new green jobs, in the States where new industries are urgently needed.

Five states – Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois and North Dakota – account for 71 per cent of total US coal production.

They’re sitting on a gold mine. I am not talking about their coal, but their infrastructure.

The US can transform its vast network of coal-fired power stations – with their existing connections to transmission lines and electricity capacity – and repurpose them as equally industrial and far more profitable green energy and green hydrogen plants.

I know this because Fortescue Future Industries, my green hydrogen business, is already doing it.

In May, we announced plans to explore converting Washington’s Centralia coal mine – slated for closure in 2025 – into a green hydrogen production facility.

Here in Australia, where two-thirds of coal plants are scheduled to close before 2040, we are taking the same approach to two major facilities in New South Wales, which together account for 40 per cent of the State’s emissions.

Why do I have faith in what I am saying?

Because I am an industrialist. I built my career by developing some of the largest iron ore mining infrastructure in the world. I also built it on never giving up and putting ten values at the core of everything we do.

Frugality, integrity, safety, humility, courage and determination, enthusiasm, family, generating ideas.

Fortescue emits as much greenhouse gas as the entire country of France. We are no shrinking violet when you factor in our steel-making customers, our armada of iron ore carriers and the diesel trucks we use to haul red Pilbara dirt across our mine sites.

But we see the writing on the wall.

We know that climate change is real and that if we don’t change, our customers will go elsewhere.

When I talked to leaders in the coal industry in the US last week about the green jobs I want to bring to America – seriously tough, rusted on men and women with seriously tough values – they looked at me as one of them.

They understand that we need this Act.

They understand that green jobs give America a Plan B, to go with its Plan A – not instead of it. They understand that the Act will create an America that is not only a fossil fuels superpower, but also a green energy superpower.

They understand that the Inflation Reduction Act will give everyday Mums and Dads – not just the coal workers, but teachers, electricians, small business owners, financial analysts, hairdressers, butchers, mechanics, construction workers – a way out.

They understand that companies like Fortescue Future Industries are desperate to invest in America, but will be forced to go elsewhere without the Act’s support for green industry. Globally, 43 million green jobs will exist by 2050 if we get the policy settings right now. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, for every job lost in the energy transition, four green jobs will be created.

The choice before US politicians could not be clearer – make America the greenest energy investment-friendly capital in the world, or don’t, and send those jobs to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

We also need this Act so that the US can play its part in halting global warming. That’s the altruistic thing to do and it’s also the self-preserving thing to do.

Barely a day goes by without an unprecedented weather event wreaking havoc. Deadly floods and bushfires are becoming more common in Australia and the US.

I visited West Virginia earlier this year at the invitation of Senator Joe Manchin.

I saw for myself the difficulty people in these areas are going through, as coal facilities are decommissioned and their futures become uncertain.

If America doesn’t back this Act, two things will happen. One: America will cement itself into a finite, polluting future. Two: it will get left behind by the rest of the world.

For Americans worried about their futures, worried about paying the bills, worried about putting food on the table, I would say: we can save their job and create more green jobs.

Back the Inflation Reduction Act – and we are halfway there.