Kentucky can be America’s new aluminum frontier, creating clean jobs, prosperity | Opinion

The U.S.—and Kentucky—was once a pioneer of aluminum production and manufacturing jobs, but the industry’s inability to reinvest in facilities and new technologies that can keep facilities open and keep workers employed caused a decline. We’ve seen the impacts of a changing industry right here in Kentucky, where Century Aluminum in Hawesville was forced to idle in 2022 because of high energy prices, laying off 500 steelworkers.

The story of American aluminum manufacturing’s decline isn’t new. And it’s had a terrible impact on thousands of union workers in recent decades. At one point there were 17,100 workers in primary aluminum smelters — meaning aluminum products made from fresh ore and not recycled — in the year 2000. That number went down to 4,367 in 2022.

In addition to Hawsville’s curtailment in 2022, the past two years have seen a smelter restart fail in Washington State, and the Magnitude 7 Metals’ smelter in Missouri curtailed just earlier this year. All have shuttered because of lack of access to affordable energy and all have resulted in job losses for working people. These job losses in the aluminum sector have been devastating for working people and communities. This seemingly unstoppable domino effect of aluminum facilities closing, one after the other, is a tell-tale sign that the aluminum industry is in need of serious help.

In order for Kentucky to support the growth of industrial manufacturing jobs, we need to transform the aluminum industry to ensure we’ve got the capacity to manufacture this material that is used in everything from solar panels to cell phones to military technology to electric and fuel-efficient cars and trucks. The demand for aluminum is going to skyrocket over the next decade and we can’t afford to — and we shouldn’t have to—import aluminum to meet the demand. We should be building a cleaner, more secure future here in Kentucky and around the country.

Last week, the aluminum industry was thrown a lifeline by President Biden.

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy’s $6.3 billion investment to reduce emissions in industrial projects across the country, Century Aluminum is on its way to building the first new smelter in the United States since 1980 that will double domestic primary aluminum production. Century Aluminum is on track to secure $500 million in federal investment to build this new facility to produce low-carbon primary aluminum. It will be operated on 100% carbon-free energy. A new plant like this would be huge for our state. It will create thousands of new, high-paying, family-supporting jobs and a substantial boost to the local economy.

In order for Century Aluminum to bring in the highly anticipated 1,000 permanent jobs with advanced wages—represented by the United Steelworkers—and 5,500 construction jobs, the plant will need an extraordinary amount of clean power to operate. Kentucky has a huge opportunity to build out the clean energy needed to secure this facility and good-paying jobs for Kentuckians, and create even more union construction jobs in the process to do this buildout. This can be a huge step forward in reversing decades of manufacturing job loss in our state.

Energy and electricity have been an issue for aluminum production for decades, yet it is the key to bringing aluminum manufacturing back home and creating more jobs for hard-working Americans. We’re excited at the prospect of a brand new aluminum plant that is going to operate on zero-carbon electricity and produce low-carbon aluminum that we can use to manufacture our clean energy future here at home, creating and securing good-paying jobs for years to come.

Dustin Reinstedler is the President of the Kentucky AFL-CIO and Chad Mills is the State Director of the Kentucky Building and Construction Trades.