USW President Gerard Testifies on Trade Aspects of Climate Change

Appears Before House Trade Subcommittee, Cites Options for Job Security

WASHINGTON, March 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leo W. Gerard, international
president of the United Steelworkers (USW) appeared today before the U.S.
House Trade Subcommittee, saying "the potentially catastrophic issues posed by
climate change is the challenge of our generation, and meeting that challenge
will require the mobilization of everyone in the world behind a common
purpose."

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He told the hearing, "America can and must lead this effort, not only by
taking a bold stand to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but by harnessing this
nation's greatest resource, the ingenuity and creativity of the American
people."

"We must make a national commitment to rebuild America clean and green with
products built here, to develop new forms of clean, renewable energy and
provide incentives to further their deployment," Gerard declared.

"In creating a program to achieve these emissions reductions, we must make the
development of manufacturing a centerpiece of that program. The products made
by our members and millions of other hard-working Americans are quite
literally the building blocks of all these new technologies."

He acknowledged change will not come easily in the transition to a green
economy, "But I am here to tell you today that American workers are ready and
willing to help bear that burden and help lead America into a new, green
future."

Gerard said the most difficult issue for workers and industry is the
phenomenon by which emissions reductions in one country lead to increased
emissions in another. Known as carbon leakage, he explained that the reason
this happens is if one country puts a price on carbon emissions, that
additional cost provides an incentive to the company to move its production -
and therefore its emissions - to a country where additional cost doesn't
exist.

"All policy proposals to address climate change, including cap-and-trade,
arise from the idea that if a price is put on carbon, it will provide an
incentive to emit less carbon," Gerard testified. "This theory is sound, as
long as the cost cannot simply be evaded by companies moving production
overseas or by downstream producers and consumers avoiding the cost by
purchasing imported materials from nations that do not share the U.S.'s
commitment to climate change abatement."

He identified for the committee that the threat of leakage is particularly
acute among manufacturers of energy-intensive primary products like the ones
made by members of the Steelworkers. "In commodity-based industries like
steel, glass, chemicals, rubber and paper, even small differences in
production costs can devastate an industry if they are not managed
effectively."

Gerard said: "Any climate change policy that does not seek to prevent the
unnecessary off-shoring of production from state-of-the-art American
industries to less efficient, more carbon-intensive industries overseas will
both cost American jobs and, perversely, will actually make the problem of
global climate change worse."

In his testimony, Gerard related release of a China steel environmental report
sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, in which the USW is a
partner with several major employers. The study revealed stark findings
showing American steel has become 25 percent less energy intensive over the
past 20 years, while the Chinese steel industry now emits as much carbon as
the rest of the global steel industry combined. "The production of a ton of
steel in China generates more than three times the carbon emissions of a ton
of steel produced in the U.S.," he pointed out.

He presented a series of solutions currently being discussed by environmental
and policy experts on the issue of carbon leakage, citing the USW's view of
each option to the committee. These included allocation schemes, the
international reserve allowance program, a hybrid approach and others.

The USW president joined a panel of witnesses from environmental and business
organizations to focus on what the Subcommittee Chair Sander M. Levin (D-MI)
said would be a discussion on the trade aspects of climate change legislation
including how to minimize carbon leakage between nations and maintaining U.S.
competitiveness of workers and industry.

The USW is one of the first industrial unions to support comprehensive climate
change legislation and is a leader in the labor movement on the environment.
Gerard serves as a commissioner on the National Commission on Energy Policy
and is a founding member of the Blue Green Alliance (BGA). The Alliance
brings together unions and environmental groups to plan a new way forward
through the promotion of policy solutions that spur growth and investment in
green technologies and products produced in America.

Gerard's full testimony is available at: www.usw.org/.

Contact: Gary Hubbard, 202-778-4384; or 202-256-8125

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

Gary Hubbard of USW, +1-202-778-4384 or +1-202-256-8125