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0 pointsfennecfoxen5y ago0 comments

This sort of opposition is usually effected through the environmental review phase, as noted. It's a cleverly named little barrier that lets a lot of meddling happen — because after all, only evil people who hate the environment would oppose environmental review. In places like San Francisco, in particular, there are many "stakeholders" who use the threat of litigation in this phase to extract concessions, whether that's NIMBYism, or preferring union labor, or some "environmental justice" concerns that can only be remedied by paying someone's favorite nonprofit — it's a shakedown.

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jeffbee5y ago· 2 in thread

It is legalized extortion. Every utility-scale solar project in California has at some point been sued under CEQA by labor unions looking for more money.

Same for urban housing projects and "community benefit organizations" aka neighborhood shakedown outfits.

quickthrowman5y ago

> Every utility-scale solar project in California has at some point been sued under CEQA by labor unions looking for more money.

Which union? IBEW (electrical, wireman not linesman) has solar project labor almost completely locked down, electricians assemble the racking and panels, run all the conduit, pull all the wire, and terminate everything. Site work/concrete/buildings are the only work that falls outside the IBEW scope.

Edit: My employer does 8 figures worth of solar panel projects with union labor a year

Second edit: So CURE is a coalition of labor unions that sue to hold up solar projects while they try and force the developer to hire union labor. That’s pretty shady, there’s plenty of work to go around for everyone, no need to do shakedowns to get contracts IMO. There’s plenty of facilities that only hire union MEP contractors because the job will get done correctly, nearly all Class A office space, for example.

jeffbee5y ago

I was going to mention CURE but it looks like you are on it. The way I normally identify these anonymous groups is because they have the same lawyers as the unions.

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