New England Unions Push for Pro-Worker Strategy in Wind Energy Industry

Francisco Uranga,

Labor leaders consider offshore wind energy development the beginning of a green industrial revolution in New England, and they want it to be one with fair wages and high labor standards.

In a joint virtual conference on Friday, union leaders from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts expressed support for coordinated efforts by the governors of the three states to boost industry in the area, and called for development companies to commit to adopting high labor and wage standards, as well as ensuring that permanent workers can form unions.

The governors agreed in October to jointly pursue offshore wind proposals of up to 6 gigawatts. Unions said they sent letters to the four companies expected to bid — Avangrid, Ørsted, Southcoast Wind and Vineyard Offshore — asking them to commit to a suite of high-road labor and equity standards. Companies can submit bids until March 27; states will announce winners on Aug. 7.

“Every climate job should be a good job. We can’t build our way out of the climate crisis with low-paying, exploitative jobs,” Connecticut AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne said after the news conference. “That is why labor is proposing a set of shared principles: strong labor standards, transparency, accountability, state investment and workforce development. The offshore wind industry could help spur the build-out of equitable, responsible and worker-centered offshore wind energy. That is why we are united on it.”

The expansion of the offshore wind industry is part of a federal strategy aiming to produce 30 gigawatts of wind energy by 2030, as a way to fight climate change and create thousands of green jobs. Connecticut looks to occupy a key space in this new sector, as it assembles turbines for some of the first offshore wind projects underway at the State Pier in New London. 

Unions acknowledge that it’s difficult to quantify how many jobs the wind industry can create in New England. A study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2022 estimated that the number of  jobs needed to achieve President Joe Biden’s target of 30 gigawatts by 2030 ranged from 15,000 if just 25% of components were domestically manufactured, to 58,000 if all manufacturing was done in the U.S.

The study forecasts that eight out of 10 jobs will be related to manufacturing and supply chains, an area that remains largely untapped as most components are currently imported from Europe. New York is spearheading this effort, with companies like General Electric already manufacturing turbines and other components in the upstate region, alongside the construction of new facilities.

New England union leaders said they did not consider that a problem, given that reshoring and supply chain creation are regional endeavors. 

“We don’t see this as competition between workers. If New York and New Jersey get the manufacturing jobs, Connecticut would get the turbine work out in the water. Everyone wins,” Rhode Island AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Crowley said. “We see this as part of a regional effort to rebuild manufacturing jobs while we’re cleaning up the economy.”

Crowley highlighted New York’s experience as a model to follow, citing its success in overcoming conflicts caused by inflation and supply chain disruptions. Despite these challenges, New York launched the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

The study projects that the development sectors could contribute between 800 and 3,200 total jobs nationwide — port and staging between 400 and 1,600; marine construction between 500 and 2,100; and operation and maintenance between 600 and 2,300.

Connecticut could secure a portion of these jobs, along with specific specialized manufacturing phases, according to Paul Lavoie, the state’s chief manufacturing officer. In February, Lavoie told CT Examiner that Connecticut boasts one of the most sophisticated supply chains in the area, with expertise in manufacturing helicopters, jet engines and submarines. This, he said, puts the state at an advantage for creating windmill components.

In the same interview, Paul Whitescarver, executive director of the nonprofit Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region, noted that wind industry companies often express frustration with navigating the varying state and federal regulations in the U.S. He, therefore, praised the collaborative effort among Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts as a positive step toward streamlining the sector’s development. 

On Friday, union leaders echoed the sentiment, expressing confidence in their ability to collaborate across state lines.

“State governments don’t normally work across borders on major projects like this. Every state focuses on its own business,” Crowley said. “The labor movement, who has much more experience working collaboratively, can help the states navigate the process so that it benefits the entire region.”

Hawthorne emphasized that workers must not only be involved in energy transition discussions, but should also lead them. 

“We are not simply talking about reducing carbon emissions,” he said. “We are imagining a future where renewable energy projects power our homes and our industries and create a new era of opportunities for American workers.”

Norwalk's Berkely Street to get new sidewalks in $1.8M project

Katherine Lutge

NORWALK — The mission to close travel gaps for pedestrians and drivers and improve Norwalk’s road system continues with the approval of new projects.

Berkeley Street is set to get new sidewalks after Norwalk’s Common Council approved a $1.8 million request from the Department of Public Works.

“As you know, we have our annual paving operations; we pave our roads every year and as construction protocol, we always build our sidewalks ahead of time,” James Meehan, a principal engineer for Norwalk, said during the Common Council meeting on March 12. “We’re planning to pave Berkeley Street in the next coming construction phase.”

Off West Avenue, pedestrians often use Berkeley to avoid the main roads, said Nicol Ayers, a Common Council member from District A.

“Berkeley Street is a very quaint, quiet street,” Ayers said.

“I’m just happy that it is getting some curb appeal or some needed improvements, and because it’s in my district,” Ayers added.

In addition to the new sidewalks and curbs, Berkeley Street will receive drainage improvements ahead of the repavement project.

“I think it’s really valuable to highlight the strategy here, which is they go through, they fix all the drainage, they get the utilities taken care of, they make sure that everything is in good shape and that it has time to settle. So that then when they pave it the next year, we don’t get the cracking and the potholes,” said Nora Niedzielski-Eichner, a Common Council member. “I just really want to commend DPW for the thoughtfulness of this process.”

“I grew up on Berkeley Street, and I don’t think the roads and sidewalks have been paved since then,” Mayor Harry Rilling said.

In addition to approving the $1.8 million contract for Berkeley Street’s improvements, the Common Council also approved $550,000 for ongoing accessibility improvements in Norwalk.

An ongoing project with Norwalk’s Transportation, Mobility and Parking Department, the city has made several connectivity improvements associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act across the city, including a raised crosswalk on the Norwalk River Valley Trail at Union Park.

“We also did some ADA handicap ramps and crosswalks on North Water Street leaving the South garage and going directly across into the Maritime Aquarium entryway,” said Troy Deering, TMP’s construction project manager.

The funding will cover more projects, “closing gaps, making things safer” in Norwalk’s network, Deering said.

Bridge work on Lovers Lane in Wilton will cause some traffic closures in area near Merwin Meadows

Karen Tensa

WILTON — Motorists heading to the Merwin Meadows area will face intermittent closures on Lovers Lane on Monday and Tuesday due to work on a bridge replacement project, the town of Wilton announced. 

A crane will be delivered Monday to the bridge project area, and the bridge beams will be delivered and installed Tuesday, the town said. 

On both days, Lovers Lane will be closed intermittently while the equipment and beams needed for the project are delivered and installed. 

Police officers and traffic flaggers will be on site both days to direct traffic in the area near the town park. Any emergency vehicles needing to cross the Lovers Lane bridge will be given first priority. 

The entire bridge replacement project is expected to be completed this summer. 

The work this week is the latest step in installing a new 60-foot bridge to carry Lovers Lane over the Comstock Brook. Lovers Lane, which is off Ridgefield Road (Route 33) opposite Wilton Center, connects with Merwin Lane. Both roads are dead-ends, and there are about 10 houses as well as the Wilton Playshop along the road that leads to Merwin Meadows town park.

A temporary bridge, allowing one lane of alternating traffic, was installed last year on Lovers Lane to start the replacement project. 

The old bridge, which was about 90 years old, had structural problems and was only 16 feet wide, which made it “functionally obsolete.” 

There were serious problems with the old bridge's substructure, which had a rating of “poor.” In particular, the concrete abutments, which go down to the water, were rated “poor” and the scour was rated “critical.” Scour is the erosion by the water of the stream of the dirt at the bridge abutments.

For the construction — estimated at $2.7 million to $2.8 million in 2020 — the town will be responsible for 20 percent of the cost, with federal funds paying the remaining 80 percent.

Estimated cost of Madison Community Center at old Academy School may go up to $17.9 M

Sarah Page Kyrcz

MADISON — The Academy Community Center project has increased by some $2 million after consultants discovered “surprises,” bringing it to $17.9 million.

This unexpected cost jump may mean that the project may undergo some design changes. 

“We’re at a juncture of deciding where we have to go with the design of Academy,” said Joe Ballantine, chairman of the Ad Hoc Academy Community Center Building Committee at the Feb. 26 Board of Selectmen meeting.

“We thought that we’d be able to stay within the current budget and build a community center that was reflective of what was presented at the referendum,” Ballantine told selectmen.

Voters approved $15.9 million at a February 2022 referendum to construct the 50,000-square-foot community center at the shuttered Academy Street School.

This isn’t the first time the cost has gone up for the planned community center.

In 2021, the anticipated cost of the project was $14 million, but increased to $15.9 million a year later due to the rising material prices and the decision to add a geothermal system into the budget.

But, the committee nixed the geothermal system , representing a savings of $1 million. “The benefits of the geothermal system were reduced and the cost went up,” Ballantine told the selectmen.

Another savings, in the amount of $550,000, was in redesigning the entrance design of the building.

An elevator will be included in the project to ensure the building is ADA compliant. To keep within the budget, the original design of the elevator has been modified.

“The original design had glass on both sides and those were very, very much nice to have, but they went out very quickly in our process,” said Joan Walker, committee member.

These savings, however, do not offset the increased costs to the project.

Built in 1921 and added onto in 1935, the building was used as an elementary school before being closed in 2004. In 2011 the Board of Education turned it over to the town.

“It’s not just a big building, it’s an older building and it has its own quirks and its own challenges,” Ballantine said.

One large increase was in the cost of heavy construction, which increased $3 million.

When the school was initially looked at, town officials believed the infrastructure of the building could be saved  and some of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing could be reused, according to Ballantine. 

“That turned out to be a wrong assumption,” he said.

After studying the project, Ballantine said, “we went through a number of months thinking we could find things that we might be able to take out.”

“Unfortunately, what we saw was we actually got more surprises based on the assumptions,” he said.

These include the need to replace the septic system.

“Sanitary and sewers were originally $65,000 for just kind of tweaks, now it’s to $253,000,” said Walker.

The system serves all the town buildings surrounding the Academy and talks are ongoing to determine if the town will share in the cost of this replacement.

In addition, per fire codes, the building requires a sprinkler system, which will cost $300,000 and improved site improvement which will increase the budget by $220,000.

Over and above these increases, Walker said, “there’s potential add-ons because we haven’t even looked at the stage or theater – the larger theater.”

“We’re just going to do that as an add-on if we can raise funds for it, privately,” she said.

The cost of the project could be reduced by state and federal grants awarded to the town.

These include $3.625 million through a congressional earmark in the 2024 Minibus Appropriations bill and a $4 million grant from the State Bond Commission awarded in 2022, said First Selectman Peggy Lyons.

It is possible that even with this news the cost overrun would have to be voted on at a referendum.

“It is my understanding right now that although the grants significantly reduce the bonding costs of the project to the Madison taxpayer, they cannot be applied to cover any cost escalations over $15.9 million,” Lyons said in a text.

“The total project budget approved at referendum was $15.9 million, leaving Madison taxpayers to fund a much reduced amount of $8.275 million in local bonding,” she said in an email. The lower figure takes the grants into account.
 
Some of the amenities in the current plans include a large gymnasium with a stage, social lobby/lounge with a cafe near the Beach and Recreation offices, various community spaces and an auditorium/meeting room all on the main level.

Youth and Family Services offices and suites and other spaces would be located on the upper level.

The committee is in the process of going line by line through the budget to determine what is most important to retain and what can be left to do at a later time, members discussed at their February meeting.

“I’m disappointed because we stated categorically that this was a good number and now it’s not,” said Bruce Wilson, selectman. “But not completely surprised.”

The plan is to have construction start at the end of this year, with completion at the end of 2025 and occupancy by early 2026, according to Ballantine.

Wilson would like the committee to return to the BOS and present a new budget, incorporating the grant money.

“The early numbers suggest that we can actually do the project, reduce the level of borrowing commitment from taxpayers and get the community center that everybody thought they were voting for,” said Wilson.

“Before we start talking about scaling back the scope of the community center or what we put in it, we should make sure that we can’t create a pathway to building it out the way it was voted on,” he said.

Here's why a 420-ton, all-electric moving machine has come to New Haven

John Moritz

NEW HAVEN — On a platform suspended nearly 40 feet above New Haven Harbor, Gov. Ned Lamont got a first-hand look Monday at the latest piece of machinery designed to help the state meet its ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

From the platform, a gigantic green arm swivels over the docks, barges and cargo ships of the Gateway Terminal with the Port of New Haven. Attached to the end of the arm is a cavernous metal bucket, large enough to easily scoop up the governor’s state-issued SUV and deposit it into one of the awaiting ships. 

At the bottom of the structure, a line of red cable runs underneath the pier and onto land, where it hooks up the rest of the region's power grid. 

The cargo mover, built by the German firm Sennebogen, is the largest machine of its kind to run entirely on electric power, according to the manufacturer. It was installed by Gateway in December utilizing a $3.1 million in state grants, replacing an older diesel-powered crane that belched carbon dioxide and other smog-forming pollutants into the air. New Haven is one of only three ports in the country equipped with the newest Sennebogen machines. 

The total $7.5 million cost of the all-electric mover included infrastructure upgrades that allowed Gateway to draw enough power for the machines’ 500 kilowatt motor, which uses enough electricity to power several hundred homes. 

With the infrastructure already in place, Gateway plans to eventually replace its other diesel-powered crane with a second all-electric model, according to the company’s president, Greg Baribault.

Over the course of its lifespan, each of the electric cargo handlers will forgo around 350,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

“We’d like to get to a point where we can unload a ship with an electric crane, put it on an electric truck, bring it to our warehouse and unload it with an electric forklift and store it in our warehouse until it goes out to an end user,” Baribault said. 

During his tour on Monday, Lamont acknowledged that Connecticut and the other states sharing New England’s electric grid will need to vastly increase the supply of available, renewable electricity if they plan to meet their deadlines to slashing carbon emissions by mid-century. 

While industrial users such as Gateway account for just 8 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2021 report, the simultaneous transition to electric vehicles and growth of other energy-intensive users is expected to place incredible strain on the region’s power grid. 

“We’re going to need more electric capacity, this is a small piece of that need, but nothing compared to data centers and AI and the eventual electrification of the transportation system,” Lamont said. “It’s something we’re thinking hard about right now.”

Gateway is also the operator of the State Pier in New London, which was recently retrofitted to become a hub for offshore wind power. Lamont also pointed to discussions surrounding more distant possibilities, such as importing more hydropower from Quebec or even expanding the output of Connecticut’s Millstone Nuclear Power Plant —  though both of those options remain years away from reality. 

In the meantime, Baribault said that the move to electrify Gateway's operations in New Haven is expected to result in savings on both fuel and maintenance. 

While the Sennebogen’s 50-ton lift capacity is slightly less than a traditional crane, its longer arm and speedier maneuvering means that crews can also save time loading and unloading vessels. Baribault said the difference between a crane and a material handler depends “more or less how you use it,” though cranes typically involve cables supported by a latticework structure.

“Even though you lose one or two tons each cycle, you’re doing three cycles for every one cycle on that one,” Baribault said. 

On Monday, the machine was being used to load scrap metal into a barge destined for Charleston, S.C., where its cargo was to be offloaded and recycled into steel coils and billets. In addition to exporting scrap metal, Gateway’s New Haven facility also imports steel products, lumber and asphalt both domestically and from ports as far away as Turkey. 

New Haven is the first of 21 port facilities operated by Gateway's parent company, Enstructure LLC, to be equipped with an all-electric cargo mover according to CEO and founder Philippe De Montigny. He said the company eventually plans to roll out similar systems throughout its network of ports.