Big Solar vs. Big Labor: Tension in the Blue-Green Alliance

Union labor has been suffering over the last few decades, strained in the face of free trade agreements and outsourcing. Now a new green-collar economy is on the rise, rife with potential for jobs that cannot be outsourced and a voracious demand for skilled tradesmen. Unions are pressing for a large stake in that economy. Photo credit: CURE

Nationally, that push has led to a so-called blue-green alliance, in which unions and environmental groups have teamed up to press the clean energy issue — environmentalists get clean energy and an army of “enforcers” while unions get high-quality green collar jobs and increased membership. It is a win-win situation. But in California, America’s solar frontier, that alliance is being tested. Tensions are beginning to rise, and accusations tossed about, as union leaders press hard for inclusion in the many large-scale energy projects on the state’s docket.

The tension in California rises from implications that labor organizations, under the guise of environmental stewardship, are attacking and delaying only those large solar projects that refuse to sign a project labor agreement. In fact the unions — as part of California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) — have been quite effective in halting solar projects, much to the ire of well known solar firms such as Ausra, which was met with a slew of environmental “data requests” before a proposed solar plant could go forward.

Contrarily, when BrightSource Energy, which pledged to hire union-friendly contractors, wanted to move forward on an even bigger solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert, CURE made no complaint. This apparent double standard has set off a fight between Big Solar and Big Labor in California, a fight that could set the stage for renewable energy construction nationwide. (more…)

Big Solar vs. Big Labor: Tension in the Blue-Green Alliance