State Pier wind project gets public hearing

Greg Smith  

New London — State environmental officials will conduct a virtual public hearing Tuesday afternoon on a permit application for work at State Pier, the proposed site of an estimated $200 million project that will initially accommodate the offshore wind industry.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection issued a tentative approval of the application in December following a monthslong review of a project first submitted in 2019 by the Connecticut Port Authority. Tuesday’s public hearing is another step in the process that continues March 30 with an evidentiary hearing. A timeline for a final decision by the commissioner is unclear, but the start of the major work on the project is contingent on this approval.

The application is a request to conduct work that will include maintenance dredging of berthing areas and installation of a sheet pile bulkhead between State Pier and the adjacent Central Vermont Railroad Pier. If approved, about 7 acres of water between the piers will be filled in to accommodate construction of one larger pier.  

Tuesday’s public hearing begins at 3 p.m. and will include a brief presentation from the Connecticut Port Authority and DEEP staff before the hearing is open for public comment. The application is available online at https://statepiernewlondon.com/documents.

The proposed project is the result of an investment by the state and a partnership between Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and utility company Eversource. An agreement has them sharing the costs of what had been a $157 million project. Updated estimates put the project closer to $200 million, though a final plan has not been finalized.

The pier is expected to be used as a staging area with the ability to handle heavy cargo and dock larger vessels being used to transport wind turbine components to proposed offshore wind farms.

While Ørsted has several offshore wind farms planned, its only constructed project in the U.S. is the five turbines off Block Island, which became operational in 2016.

DEEP has been accepting comments about the project since last year.

Advocates of the project see it as an opportunity for the state to meet its renewable energy goals, modernize the port and provide an economic boost for the region. Opponents have criticized the use of the pier exclusively for the offshore wind industry. They say it has displaced previous State Pier tenants and filling in a large portion of the Thames River has the potential to hurt the environment. 

Ørsted and Eversource issued a joint statement in support of the project.

“For decades, the State Pier has been underutilized. The proposed redevelopment plan will expand the capability of the State Pier to support larger, more impactful projects, including but not limited to offshore wind turbine staging. In addition, this project will bring a modernized port facility to southeast Connecticut and dramatically expand the economic and job opportunities available to the state. Furthermore, the proposed improvements will complement and present opportunities to expand the existing local high-tech maritime economy.”

In a letter submitted to DEEP in January, project opponent Patti Harrison voiced the concerns of many critics.

“At a minimum we need to stop the fill in and allow the local business to continue to use the port and to prevent a monopoly on the ports. Best would be to stop the wind project,” Harrison wrote. “For the amount of money and destruction going into this fiasco I don't see an equivalent true payoff for our environment. Damaging the existing environment for an overpriced project that doesn't really produce enough electricity is just not common sense.”

The Connecticut Port Authority is working to find a suitable alternate location for the two commercial fishing operations based at Central Vermont Pier.

New London has obtained intervening party status for the project, which allows it to submit testimony and participate in the evidentiary hearing. The city initially submitted testimony criticizing the project, saying it would not financially benefit the city. New London Mayor Michael Passero has since signed a host community agreement that ensures the city will receive at least $5.2 million over seven years with the possibility for more revenue if the state agrees to buy more offshore wind power.

DRVN Enterprises owner Steven Farrelly has a pending request with DEEP to become an intervening party in the case. DRVN’s road salt distribution business is being displaced by the project.

White House prepares $3 trillion infrastructure, jobs bill for highways, bridges, schools

Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager Washington Post 

 WASHINGTON - White House officials are preparing to present President Joe Biden with a roughly $3 trillion infrastructure and jobs package that includes high-profile domestic policy priorities such as free community college and universal prekindergarten, according to three people familiar with internal discussions. 

After completing the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package this month, Biden administration officials are piecing together the next major legislative priority. Although no final announcement has been made, the White House is expected to push a multitrillion jobs and infrastructure plan as the centerpiece of the president's "Build Back Better" agenda.

That effort is expected to be broken into two parts - one focused on infrastructure, and the other focused on other domestic priorities such as growing the newly expanded child tax credit for several years. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, stressed that planning was preliminary and subject to change. Some aides said the package's final price tag remains unclear.

Although still in the works, the sprawling legislative package follows weeks of uncertainty about Biden's second big legislative effort and confusion among congressional lawmakers about the administration's top priority.

The infrastructure and jobs bill is poised to further define Biden's presidency. He has faced intense pressure, including from some Democrats, to scale back his domestic policy ambitions and work with congressional Republicans on more incremental legislation after his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, which every Republican voted against.

Doing so would require Biden to jettison many of his most consequential 2020 presidential campaign promises while frustrating much of his base and Democratic Party leadership. Introducing a new $3 trillion package, which is expected to include tax increases to offset spending, is sure to frustrate Republicans, setting up another acrimonious legislative fight. But it gives the president a chance to solidify a domestic policy agenda beyond the emergency response to the pandemic.

"The country has not had a real infrastructure bill since Dwight Eisenhower set up the highway system," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democratic proponent of infrastructure spending. "This could do more for American manufacturing and blue-collar jobs than anything else. It's crucial not just for Biden's legacy but for the legacy of the American government in the next decade. It's a seminal moment for the country."

Crucial decisions have not been made about how the administration seeks to advance the measure. Congressional Republicans probably will not support trillions more in additional spending, or the tax increases that the White House is eyeing to fund these initiatives. It's unclear what the appetite could be, even among congressional Democrats, to use reconciliation - the budgetary procedure Democrats used to pass the pandemic bill with 51 votes in the Senate.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that the administration had not decided on its next step. "President Biden and his team are considering a range of potential options for how to invest in working families and reform our tax code so it rewards work, not wealth," Psaki said. "Those conversations are ongoing, so any speculation about future economic proposals is premature and not a reflection of the White House's thinking."

Congressional Republicans have talked about supporting infrastructure spending but have largely rejected Democratic proposals for doing so, particularly those that include investments in cleaner energy sources in an effort to curb climate change. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday warned on the Senate floor against a "so-called infrastructure proposal that may actually be a Trojan horse for massive tax hikes and other job-killing left-wing policies."

Biden's proposal is expected to center on infrastructure spending, with hundreds of billions of dollars to repair the nation's roads, bridges, waterways and rails. It also includes funding for retrofitting buildings, safety improvements, schools infrastructure, and low-income and tribal groups, as well as $100 billion for schools and education infrastructure.

The infrastructure component is expected to include $400 billion in spending to combat climate change, including $60 billion for infrastructure related to green transit and $46 billion for climate-related research and development. The plan also would aim to make electric-vehicle charging stations available across the country. The measure would also include $200 billion for housing infrastructure, including $100 billion to expand the supply of housing for low-income people.

The second component of the effort would include many of Biden's other domestic priorities. Those include universal prekindergarten and free community college tuition. The package also would significantly expand spending on child care, and extend for several years the expansion of the child tax credit recently signed into law for one year as part of the stimulus plan.

Biden has previously touted these initiatives as necessary parts of the "caregiving economy."

The new legislation would extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, as well as free and reduced tuition at historically Black colleges and universities.

Biden is expected to be presented with a menu of tax options by Treasury Department officials to fund the plan. Biden campaigned on raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, as well as increasing taxes on wealthy investors. It was not immediately clear which of his tax plans would be included in the final legislation.

"Anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant tax increase," Biden said last week on ABC's "Good Morning America."

White House officials plan to include a measure to force pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices or pay a steep penalty. The White House's efforts probably will be similar to the prescription drug bill announced by House Democrats in 2019, which aimed to respond to voter frustration over the rising costs of prescription drugs across the country, the people aware of the internal discussions said.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the House Democrats' bill would save the government about $450 billion over the next decade. By lowering the cost of prescription drugs, the government would spend significantly less on Medicare and other public health programs.

Many details of the plan were first reported by The New York Times.

The emerging proposal comes amid an extensive debate among Democratic policymakers about the next steps for the Biden administration. The Democrats' left flank is clamoring for the party to use its hold on power in Washington to approve long-held policy goals, from an expansion of health care to action on climate change. Democrats' centrist wing, however, has expressed repeated unease about the party-line vote over pandemic relief, and it has pushed for a return to bipartisan policymaking.

Republicans in particular are expected to oppose Biden's tax increases on businesses and rich people. That could complicate passage, particularly through the Senate, of any major Biden infrastructure package.

"The GOP won't vote for these tax hikes," said Brian Riedl, a former aide to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who now works at the libertarian-leaning think tank Manhattan Institute. "Why should they be the tax collectors for Biden's spending spree?"

Others point out that what Biden has proposed may not be sufficient to meet the challenge of climate change and a warming planet.

"If $3 trillion is what Biden's team lands on, they'll be neglecting what's politically and publicly popular, and what's quite frankly vital for the future of our society and our planet," said Ellen Sciales, national press secretary for the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is confirmed to be labor secretary 

Eli Rosenberg  

WASHINGTON - Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, was confirmed Monday by the Senate to be the secretary of labor, set to take the reins of an agency that is central to President Joe Biden's worker-friendly agenda.

Walsh, a friend of the president's who was a favored candidate of organized labor groups such as the AFL-CIO, is the first labor secretary to come from a union background in nearly 50 years.

He rose to prominence in Boston through the building trades unions after dropping out of college to work in construction. He also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Walsh's nomination was relatively uncontroversial. He was approved on a 68-to-29 vote.

During a mostly amicable confirmation hearing, he was asked repeatedly by senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about disparities for women and people of color on issues such as unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic, on wages and earnings, and on health care.

"We are dealing with a system of systemic racism that we have to continue to address," Walsh said at the hearing. "It's not simply just throwing fancy words out there, but in policies, it's actually doing the work, rolling up our sleeves."

Walsh, 53, has supported labor policies including the PRO Act, a proposal to update labor laws and give workers more ability to organize at work that the House passed last year. He also has supported efforts to raise the minimum wage.

Walsh will lead a Labor Department navigating a complicated economic and public health crisis, with an estimated 18 million people collecting unemployment benefits and others who have left the workforce since last year. He will oversee agency decisions about the proper level of safety compliance necessary for workplaces during the pandemic. Walsh also will face other challenges that predate the pandemic, such as how to regulate contract and gig work.

Under President Donald Trump, the agency passed rules that exempted a large number of workers from the paid sick leave requirements in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and issued guidelines for unemployment insurance payouts to gig and self-employed workers that labor advocates and workers considered restrictive.

Its workplace safety division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has drawn ire for doing little to enforce safety standards for workplaces during the early days of the pandemic.

Carrier Construction signs letter of intent for commercial, residential development in city

Susan Corica  BRISTOL – Carrier Construction Inc. has signed a letter of intent to move ahead with plans for commercial and residential development of four parcels in Centre Square downtown, totaling 4.39 acres.