by wp_sysadmin | Feb 26, 2021 | General, News
“UAF is now operating the newest coal power plant in the U.S. It’s also one of the most environmentally advanced coal plants yet built, achieving enormous reductions in emissions.”
We need innovation and reliable energy
Joe Usibelli Jr., Anchorage Daily News, February 25, 2021
Anchorage IBEW business manager Dave Reaves recently declared that because of climate change, Alaska needs to move away from using many traditional energy resources that it has relied on for decades.
Interestingly, Reaves said little about the economic devastation this would cause in Alaska and throughout the nation. President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline has snuffed out thousands of jobs in the Lower 48, many of them good-paying union jobs. Meanwhile, Biden’s decision to shut down further oil and gas leasing on federal lands is estimated to wipe out around 3,500 jobs in Alaska, also including many union jobs. The IBEW endorsed Biden for president. Reaves seems to be practicing damage control as the pain of Mr. Biden’s job-killing policies becomes real for working families everywhere.
Reaves zeroed in on the Fairbanks region, arguing that it must “move away” from coal, diesel, and wood, and instead use liquefied natural gas and renewables. The oft-repeated narrative that coal will be replaced by renewables or natural gas is seldom questioned. But how realistic is that? Fairbanks and the surrounding communities rely on coal for roughly 30% of their energy needs, and there is no readily available alternative.
Natural gas is not available on such a large scale, and if it were, it would be exorbitantly more expensive than coal. Coal is Interior Alaska’s lowest-cost source of energy and switching to other fuels would increase regional energy costs by at least $140 million annually.
Recently, when the University of Alaska Fairbanks had to decide on replacing a half-century-old coal power plant on campus, they examined every conceivable alternative: natural gas, oil, even nuclear power. The university’s analysis concluded that coal would meet their heating and power needs at a small fraction of the cost of other fuel sources. As a result, UAF is now operating the newest coal power plant in the U.S. It’s also one of the most environmentally advanced coal plants yet built, achieving enormous reductions in emissions.
Of greatest offense is Reaves’ false assertion that coal is responsible for Fairbanks failing to meet air quality standards, and that this “threatens military bases in the area.” Numerous air quality monitoring studies have disproved that claim. The coal power plants in Fairbanks do not have a significant impact on the particulate matter levels that undermine air quality.
Coal has provided energy security to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright Army post for decades. Switching to alternative fuels would burden the military with massive cost increases — the same price hikes that UAF foresaw and successfully avoided by sticking with coal. Military spending supports about one-third of the Fairbanks economy. Any large increases in energy costs could potentially risk the sustainability of the military’s current presence in Interior Alaska and threaten the Fairbanks economy.
There is widespread agreement among environmental regulators that the best way to improve air quality in Fairbanks is for homeowners relying on wood for heating to burn dry firewood instead of wet firewood. The Usibelli family recently made a major investment, through Aurora Energy Solutions, to secure the first wood-drying kiln in the Fairbanks area. This will greatly reduce the emissions from firewood burning. This is an example of how technological innovation can help us utilize an affordable, traditional fuel source in a way that greatly reduces emissions, while avoiding the massive expense of switching to alternative energies that are not economically viable.
With every coal plant that closes because of government intervention, the risk to human health and welfare increases as the capacity of utilities to provide affordable energy is crippled. Those who are most hurt by rising energy costs are low-income families that can least afford it.
What we need is investment in technological innovation to help reduce emissions from fossil fuels. Advanced coal generation technologies have a significant role to play in meeting our national security, economic, energy and environmental objectives. These technologies include carbon capture, utilization and storage, high efficiency-low emissions technologies, and transformational technologies with potential to achieve near-zero carbon emissions.
It is not necessary to radically abandon our existing energy sector in order to meet an unrealistic, unsustainable, fantastical goal of zero emissions by 2035.
Joe Usibelli Jr. is the current president and CEO of Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. in Healy. Joe Jr. is a member of the third generation of the Usibelli family to run the mine, which is still family-owned and operated.
by wp_sysadmin | Feb 25, 2021 | News
OIL:
ConocoPhillips requests July decision on Willow suit
Elwood Brehmer, Alaska Journal of Commerce, February 24, 2021
ConocoPhillips is asking the federal judge overseeing both of the lawsuits seeking to stop one of the largest North Slope oil developments in decades to determine the near-term fate of the project by the summer.
Attorneys for the Houston-based major that has grown its presence on the Slope in recent years proposed to U.S. District Court of Alaska Judge Sharon Gleason that she rule by July 1 on the merits of the nearly identical lawsuits challenging the federal permits for its Willow oil project. A midsummer decision would hopefully allow ConocoPhillips and Interior agencies time to remedy any issues ahead of the 2021-22 winter construction season, they wrote in motions filed Feb. 22.
Separately, the Bureau of Land Management and the coalition of national conservation groups suing the agency over its approval of ConocoPhillips’ development plan for Willow jointly submitted a motion Feb. 22 in one of the suits laying out an agreed-upon schedule that would have the last briefs filed by June 1, ahead of a ruling by Gleason.
GAS:
Cheniere to tag LNG cargoes with emissions data to aid buyers’ environmental goals
Harry Weber, S & P Global Platts, February 24, 2021
Cheniere will give its LNG customers emissions data associated with each cargo it produces at its two US export terminals, in a bid to make its environmental footprint more transparent at a time of increasing pressure on buyers to reduce their shale consumption.
As the biggest US LNG exporter, Cheniere is a major buyer of physical gas that it uses in the liquefaction process. Much of the gas is drilled in shale basins stretching from the US Gulf Coast to the Northeast to Western Canada.
Amid the energy transition to greater use of renewables and cleaner burning fuels, France’s Engie said in November 2020 that it had halted talks with NextDecade about a supply deal tied to the developer’s proposed Rio Grande LNG facility in Texas. With strict carbon emissions goals, European utilities are being pressured to shy away from signing new deals for importing US shale gas.
MINING:
Biden Administration Recognizes that Supply Chain Security Starts with Minerals Security
National Mining Association, February 24, 2021
The National Mining Association (NMA) today applauded President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains, which the President will sign later today and reportedly contains directives that are specific to our domestic minerals supply chains and recognize the key role that minerals play in securing the availability of critical and essential goods and materials.
“We can’t import our way to economic and national security; we have to establish that security literally from the ground up by using American-mined materials produced by American workers under world-leading environmental standards,” said Rich Nolan, NMA President and CEO. “The President clearly recognizes the threat and is acting to protect against the exposure that exists in our energy, national security, manufacturing and medical supply chains given our overreliance on imports for the building blocks of these key industries.”
POLITICS:
Talking Points on Wind Production Tax Credit
Alex Epstein, Real Clear Politics, February 25, 2021
The Wind Production Tax Credit is a perverse policy that pays utilities to slow down or shut down reliable power plants whenever the wind blows. It is driving reliable power plants out of business, leading to higher costs and lower reliability.
Quick summary
- Wind turbines cannot provide the reliable energy that our amazing electrical grid requires 24/7. That’s why every place in the world that uses unreliable wind energy depends 24/7 on massive amounts of reliable energy from coal, gas, hydro, or nuclear plants.
- Because wind turbines are unreliable, they can’t replace our reliable power plants, only duplicate, or supplement them at tremendous cost. That’s why the more wind a grid uses the more expensive its electricity tends to be.1
- The only reason utilities buy unnecessary, wasteful wind turbines is government policies that force them to do so or reward them for doing so. “We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them,” says Warren Buffett.2
- One of the worst wind favoritism policies is the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), which pays utilities to shut down or slow down reliable gas, coal, and nuclear power plants whenever the wind blows, driving many out of operation and threatening the grid’s future.3
- The perverse incentives of the wind PTC and other wind favoritism are not only making electricity more expensive but less reliable. That’s why grids around the US are already blacking out industrial customers, and Texas and the Northeast are warning of residential blackouts.4
- Congress needs to let the 28-year-old wind PTC expire, end all forms of energy favoritism, and let technologies compete on reliability and cost. That will reduce electricity prices, increase reliability, and increase innovation.
In the U.S. northeast, grid operator ISO-NE warned, the grid is likely to be at risk of fuel shortages and rolling blackouts thanks to limited natural gas pipeline capacity. “In the coming years as more oil, coal, and nuclear leave the system, keeping the lights on in New England will become an even more tenuous proposition.” -ISO New England, 2018 Regional Electricity Outlook.
CLIMATE CHANGE:
SEC to push companies to disclose more about climate risks
Ben Geman, Axios, February 25, 2021
The Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to push companies to disclose more info about risks that climate change poses to their business — and signaled that tougher policies could be in the offing.
Driving the news: Allison Herren Lee, the regulator’s acting chair, said Wednesday that the SEC would bolster its focus on how companies are responding to its 2010 guidance on the topic.
- She said it’s important to provide investors with “access to material information when planning for their financial future.”
The big picture: It’s the latest sign of increased climate focus from the SEC and other financial agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
- Earlier this month the SEC said attorney Satyam Khanna would serve in the newly created role of senior policy adviser for climate and ESG.
What we’re watching: The SEC’s potential move toward creating formal, mandatory disclosure rules on climate specifically, as opposed to just looser guidance.
- Lee said ensuring compliance with the existing guidance is an immediate step “on the path to developing a more comprehensive framework that produces consistent, comparable, and reliable climate-related disclosures.”
by wp_sysadmin | Feb 24, 2021 | News
OIL:
Whispers of $100 Oil Return as Crude Shakes Off Covid’s Clasp
Ben Sharples, Bloomberg, February 23, 2021
While oil’s dizzying collapse is still fresh for many traders, rumblings are starting to emerge that by the end of next year prices could once again top $100 a barrel.
Azerbaijan’s Socar Trading SA predicts global benchmark Brent could hit triple digits in the next 18 to 24 months, and Bank of America sees potential spikes above $100 over the next few years on improving fundamentals and global stimulus. Speculators are also getting in on the action, increasing bets in the options market that oil will reach the vaunted level by December 2022.
The views are ultra-bullish, but they highlight increased confidence in the oil market after Brent rallied more than 200% after hitting an 18-year low during the pandemic. Demand has bounced back in key Asian markets, while OPEC+ is withholding barrels and a lack of investment is keeping shale supplies at bay. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. this week lifted its third-quarter forecast by $10 to $75 a barrel.
Option bets on oil prices rising above $100 for the December 2022 Brent contract have jumped in recent days, with open interest on the calls rising from 500 to 3,950 in the past week.
The $100 mark occupies a special place in the mind of many traders, as oil hovered around that level for several years in the early part of last decade as strong demand from emerging markets enticed drillers into ever more expensive locales, from deep ocean beds to Canada’s remote tar sands.
Related: Oil prices to reach $72 by summer: Goldman Sachs
GAS:
Keystone XL’s Death Sparks Rush to Ship Oil-Sands Crude by Rail
Robert Tuttle, Yahoo! Finance, February 24, 2021
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline is sparking renewed interest in shipping Canadian oil-sands crude by rail, and that comes with its own environmental risks.
Cenovus Energy Inc. and Imperial Oil Ltd. have increasingly turned to trains to move their crude, with oil exports by rail from Canada more than tripling since July. Now, Gibson Energy Inc. — an oil shipping company that signed a 10-year contract with ConocoPhillips to process oil-sands crude before loading it at its train terminal — expects other producers to follow suit.
Without Keystone XL, which was scheduled to enter service in 2023, rail is poised to become a more important way for Canadian oil to reach U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which need the heavy crude to replace declining supplies from Mexico and Venezuela. That means the risk of derailments may also rise.
“Those U.S. refineries need that heavy crude oil produced by Canada,” Sean Brown, Calgary-based Gibson’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call Tuesday. “Discussions continue to heat up.”
Gibson expects that by the third or fourth quarter it will start a 50,000-barrel-a-day facility that will maximize the crude content in rail shipments by removing diluent used to move the crude through pipelines to its terminal in Hardisty, Alberta.
Plans for other diluent recovery units, or DRUs, are also emerging.
MINING:
Water slows 2020 Red Dog zinc production
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, February 19, 2021
Teck Resources Ltd. Feb. 18 reported that the Red Dog Mine produced 490,700 metric tons (1.08 billion pounds) of zinc during 2020, a roughly 11% drop from the 552,400 metric tons (1.22 billion lb) of the galvanizing metal produced in 2019.
Lead production at the Northwest Alaska operation was also down slightly from the 102,800 metric tons (226.6 million lb) produced in 2019 to the 97,500 metric tons (214.9 million lb) produced last year.
Teck says climate related water management issues is a primary reason for the lower metals production at Red Dog last year.
“Climate change is affecting conditions in the receiving environment, which limited our ability to discharge treated water in 2020, leading to increased water in the storage facilities,” Teck penned in its fourth quarter 2020 report. “Throughout 2020, we completed several projects to increase storage capacity and implemented a breakthrough RACE21 project that significantly increased water treatment capability. In addition, a new water treatment plant was installed to increase the water discharge capacity when permit limitations allow. These projects removed the temporary restrictions from the mine plan put in place to manage water levels in 2020.”
The lifting of these restrictions could be seen in the improved production toward the end of the year.
POLITICS:
Despite disagreements with Interior secretary nominee, Alaska Rep. Don Young tells senators ‘she will listen to you’
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News, February 23, 2021
Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young on Tuesday urged senators to support Interior secretary nominee Deb Haaland during a hearing before a Senate committee, calling her a friend who will listen to Republican concerns, even though he disagrees with her on oil and gas development.
Young told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he believes Democratic President Joe Biden has the right to choose his “crew.” Young said he’s “quite proud” that Rep. Debra Haaland, D-N.M., is an American Indian, a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico.
“I would suggest respectfully you’ll find out that she will listen to you,” Young told the 20-member committee. “She may not change, like she and I do not agree on carbon fuels, you know that we’ve said this before. But it’s my job to try and convince her that she’s not all right, and her job to convince me I’m not all right.”
If appointed by the full Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American presidential cabinet member. That’s been a “long time overdue,” Young said.
CLIMATE CHANGE:
How Biden’s clean-energy jobs transition could work in fossil fuel hubs
Ben Geman, Axios, February 24, 2021
A new analysis shows lots of potential for regions with a high share of fossil fuel jobs to benefit from wind and solar development — with the right policies in place.
Why it matters: The idea of a “just transition” in the energy sector is discussed a lot in climate policy plans, including President Biden’s recent executive order.
- An aggressive shift to low-carbon energy to fight global warming creates risks for places where employment and the wider economy benefit from fossil fuel industries.
- Enter the Brookings Institution analysis of counties with dense concentrations of oil, gas and coal-related employment that also have high renewables potential.
The big picture: The paper finds “impressive overlap between where fossil fuel jobs are now and where renewable energy generation could be.”
- “A quarter of the counties in the U.S. with the greatest potential for both wind and solar electricity generation are also fossil fuel hubs.”
- It also concludes that targeted policies to make that happen could lower political barriers to emissions-cutting policies.
How it works: Brookings analyzed county-level employment to construct a map of these “fossil fuel hubs.”
- Those are places in the top 20% job density in a suite of sectors like oil-and-gas extraction, fossil power generation, coal mining, oil-and-gas pipelines, and distribution and more.
- They overlaid that with University of Texas data on regions with high potential for wind and solar development and the most competitive costs for doing it.
- That data relies on a metric called the levelized cost of electricity, which basically means the costs of building and then running, supplying, and maintaining power facilities over time.
The intrigue: They find that of the 155 congressional districts with high potential in at least one of the renewable technologies, 91 are represented by GOP lawmakers.
But, but, but: The right policies are needed for successful transitions, the paper argues, and it’s clear-eyed about the opportunities but also the challenges.
- It calls for steps like targeted job training efforts in “Goldilocks” communities — places reliant on fossil industries that also have strong renewables potential.
- More broadly, transition efforts should involve partnerships between government, schools, labor, community groups and other stakeholders.
by wp_sysadmin | Feb 23, 2021 | News
OIL:
Dunleavy joins other governors asking Biden to withdraw executive order
Gilbert Cordova, KFYR-TV, February 22, 2021
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is joining 16 other governors who signed a letter asking President Joe Biden to withdraw an executive order that bans new oil and gas development on federal land and in offshore waters.
The order was one of many Biden signed in January as part of his campaign against climate change and targets fossil fuels. In Alaska, members of the energy industry are already feeling the impact.
RELATED: Alaska’s oil industry faces uncertainty as Biden targets climate change through emergency orders
In the letter, which was sent on Monday, the governors say the executive order has ”a negative economic effect upon western states with large tracts of federal land and upon Gulf Coast states.”
GAS:
Munich Re Stops Insuring Nord Stream 2 Amid Sanctions Threat
Pipeline & Gas Journal, February 23, 2021
A subsidiary of Germany’s Munich Re will no longer insure the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Europe amid the fear of sanctions by the U.S. government.
The U.S. has been threatening sanctions against European companies that support construction of the $11 billion gas pipeline, and Zurich Insurance Group dropped out last month.
“Munich Re Syndicate has issued the notice of termination to Nord Stream 2,” a spokesman said in an emailed statement on Tuesday, referring to the company’s subsidiary.
Munich Re declined to provide further details.
The pipeline is more than 90% complete and Russia’s state energy company, Gazprom, and its Western partners are hoping to finish it this year. Much of the remaining work is difficult and in deep waters off Denmark.
Nord Stream 2 declined to comment on Munich Re’s decision but said it was up to European governments and the European Commission to protect European companies from sanctions that “they have described as contrary to international law and an interference in energy policy sovereignty.”
Court rejects latest effort to stop Mountain Valley Pipeline
MINING:
Nevada is the world’s new top mining destination
Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 23, 2021
he US state of Nevada is the new most attractive region for mining investors, replacing iron ore-rich Western Australia in the 2020 survey of resource and exploration companies released Tuesday by the Fraser Institute.
The new version of the think-tank’s popular ranking is based on answers from 276 participants, which provided sufficient data to evaluate the overall investment attractiveness of 77 jurisdictions.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
The result is a combination of two indexes — Best Practices Mineral Potential, which rates regions based on their geologic attractiveness, and the Policy Perception Index, a composite indicator that measures the effects of government policy on attitudes toward exploration investment.
Second place was taken up by another US state, Arizona, which moved up from the ninth spot in 2019. Canada’s Saskatchewan province climbed eight spots from 11th in 2019 to third in 2020 and consolidated its place as the country’s most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment.
POLITICS:
Interior Pick Haaland Draws Ire Over Opposition to Fracking
Jennifer Dlouhy, Bloomberg, February 22, 2021
Interior Secretary-designate Deb Haaland’s opposition to fracking, early endorsement of the Green New Deal and participation in protests against an oil pipeline in South Dakota have made her one of President Joe Biden’s most controversial cabinet nominees.
Haaland, a Democratic representative from New Mexico, will face questions about those and other positions during a confirmation hearing Tuesday, with some Republicans already warning she’s unlikely to get their support.
“I have serious concerns with Rep Haaland’s radical views and support for the Green New Deal,” Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican and member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee vetting her nomination, tweeted after a meeting with Haaland. “Unless my concerns are addressed, I will not only oppose her confirmation for Interior, I will do all I can to defeat it.”
The Senate ultimately is still expected to confirm Haaland, 60, but the slim control Democrats have means Haaland needs every vote she can get. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee considering her nomination, threw into doubt the fate of another Biden nominee last week. Manchin said he would vote against Neera Tanden to be budget director though the president vowed to press on with the nomination.
Haaland’s nomination has become a target for oil industry advocates, who question whether her past views will get in the way of legal obligations to advance energy development on territory under the Interior Department’s control. The agency runs the national park system and oversees grazing, recreation, energy development and other activities on about a fifth of U.S. land.
CLIMATE CHANGE:
Colorado adopts oil industry, environmental group plan to phase out thousands of devices that emit methane
Greg Avery, Denver Business Journal, February 19, 2021
Colorado air quality regulators unanimously embraced a plan hammered out by industry and environmental groups to change equipment at tens of thousands of oil and gas wells to cut methane emissions.
Oil and gas companies will stop using pneumatic controllers at new well sites established after May 1 and by mid-2023 retrofit existing wells to replace hundreds of thousands of the devices with alternatives that don’t emit greenhouse gases.
The plan, approved Thursday by the state Air Quality Control Commission, is a compromise negotiated among environmental groups, oil and gas companies and Colorado regulators over three years.
It’s considered another nationally precedent-setting rule change in Colorado to cut oil industry greenhouse gas pollution.
“The collaborative and good-faith work across parties has led to a clear path forward for further emissions reductions in the state,” said Lynn Granger, executive director of API Colorado, the state chapter of the American Petroleum Institute. “Our industry remains firmly committed to demonstrable environmental progress, and today is an important milestone in that effort.”
by wp_sysadmin | Feb 22, 2021 | News
OIL:
Oil Search presses ahead on $US3b Alaskan oil project
Angela Macdonald Smith, Financial Review, February 22, 2021
Oil Search has taken a major step towards construction of its first major project outside Papua New Guinea, committing to major engineering and design work on its $US3 billion ($3.8 billion) Pikka oil project in Alaska.
The project was one of several major growth investments across the petroleum sector that were put on hold last year after the oil price crashed in March but have since been revived.
After work last year to revamp it, the project is now expected to break even at less than $US40 per barrel for Brent crude including a 10 per cent return.
A final go-ahead for construction is targeted for later this year after Oil Search finds a third partner to join it in the venture alongside existing 49 per cent partner, Repsol of Spain.
The commitment on engineering involves the first phase of the revamped project, which will be able to produce 80,000 barrels a day of oil. The design of the venture was reworked last year to make it more economic, and to carry it out in phases, cutting capex by half. Production is due to start up in 2025.
GAS:
Australian Gas Networks Looking to Include Hydrogen in Infrastructure
Pipeline & Gas Journal, February 22, 2021
Australia’s natural gas pipeline owners are working to future proof their A$75 billion ($59 billion) in assets amid a global push towards clean energy, running tests to blend hydrogen with gas and produce green methane to replace the fossil fuel.
Cashing in on rare bipartisan support for hydrogen across Australia’s national and state governments to help cut carbon emissions, pipeline and network owners have already committed A$180 million to a range of projects involving green hydrogen.
Australian states have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, in line with many developed countries, but Canberra has yet to commit to the 2050 timeframe.
“It’s a business risk we all need to manage,” said Ben Wilson, chief executive of Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), owned by units of Hong Kong-based CK Group.
“What started out as defensive has become an opportunity, particularly given our renewable energy sources. We can become the world’s largest exporter of green hydrogen,” he told Reuters.
Pipeline owners seeking government funding for hydrogen projects aim to show how their infrastructure can be used to deliver hydrogen in blends with gas and store hydrogen as a form of renewable energy storage.
MINING:
Could rare earth minerals be Alaska’s edge?
Peter Segall, The Juneau Empire, February 21, 2021
With the state and nation reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Lisa Murkowski said Alaska’s mineral wealth could offer the state a critical lifeline going forward.
President joe Biden may have started his administration by taking a hard line on environmental issues, including limiting oil production in Alaska, but his plan is going to require something Alaska has a lot of: rare earth minerals.
POLITICS:
The Non-Covid Spending Blowout
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2021
Most of the $1.9 trillion House bill has little to do with the virus. Here is a breakdown.
The Biden White House is pointing to polls showing that its $1.9 trillion spending bill is popular, and the press corps is cheering. Yet we wonder how much public support there’d be if Americans understood that most of the blowout is a list of longtime Democratic spending priorities flying under the false flag of Covid-19 relief.
Let’s dig into the various House committee bills to separate the Covid from the chaff. The Covid cash includes some $75 billion for vaccinations, treatments, testing and medical supplies. There’s also $19 billion for “public health,” primarily for state health departments and community health centers.
CLIMATE CHANGE:
Biden squeezed between promises to go green and bolster unions
Eric Wolff and Rebecca Rainey, Politico, February 21, 2021
President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda is in danger of being engulfed in a fight between organized labor and industry over unionization, wages, and other workplace issues.
As the renewable energy industry expands, unions and their allies in Congress are determined to unionize more of the jobs or, at the very least, require the payment of union-equivalent wages. But the industry says such moves would cripple some of their operations.
While both sides are eager to push clean energy projects forward and make them a bigger part of the nation’s electrical grid, their disagreements will test Biden’s vow to be both the greenest and the most pro-union president in history.
The clash is playing outin Congress, where Democrats are cranking out bills filled with carrots for developers of zero-emission infrastructure, but with pro-labor strings attached, including wage requirements, job certification and Buy American provisions. Labor groups skeptical of whether green jobs can adequately replace high-paying union jobs in the fossil industry see these provisions as the bare minimum, while solar and wind producers want to see those labor demands dialed down.
