Environmental impact laws: new bludgeon for unionists

Nice little power plant you’re planning there, wouldn’t want anything to happen to it: Municipal officials in California are charging that a powerful labor group, California Unions for Reliable Energy, is exploiting environmental protection laws to extract money for its members. The city council of Roseville wanted to press ahead with a $150 million power […]

Nice little power plant you’re planning there, wouldn’t want anything to happen to it: Municipal officials in California are charging that a powerful labor group, California Unions for Reliable Energy, is exploiting environmental protection laws to extract money for its members. The city council of Roseville wanted to press ahead with a $150 million power plant but was told by city managers that unless it signed a “project labor agreement” pledging to employ union workers CURE “would try to delay licensing for the gas-fired plant by raising environmental objections. Snubbing CURE could cost $15 million in extra red tape and other costs and put the project 18 months behind schedule.”

CURE says it is only utilizing its legal rights (which it possesses in common with every other potential objector) to ensure that plants comply with environmental guidelines. But “critics say CURE abandons its green crusades once power-plant developers agree to use union labor,” a charge the group denies. Even a Sierra Club official is critical of the group, while Riverside council member Steve Adams referred to its actions as “borderline extortion or racketeering.” And: “The California Energy Commission, which licenses new plants, has launched an inquiry following a complaint by Assembly Republicans.” (Dale Kasler, “Pressure by labor group alleged”, Sacramento Bee, Sept. 19).

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