The joint venture behind the massive Vineyard Wind project has signed an agreement to ensure union workers will play a key role in building the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm.
Executives from Vineyard Wind and its turbine manufacturer, General Electric, plan to join politicians and union leaders on Friday at the state-funded New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, where much of the wind-farm construction will be staged, to celebrate their new project labor agreement with the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Trades Council. The deal with the unions is seen as another key milestone in finally launching the Vineyard Wind project, and by extension the nation’s entire offshore wind industry.
Vineyard Wind chief executive Lars Pedersen said the agreement covers about 1,000 jobs over the course of the two-and-a-half-year construction project, including about 500 union jobs. The reportedly $2.8 billion project will be built in federal waters about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, with 62 giant GE wind turbines that will generate about 800 megawatts of electricity, or enough power for more than 400,000 homes. Pedersen said he hopes the project, which is owned by Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, will complete its financing and start construction later this year. The federal permitting process was significantly delayed under the Trump administration, but is now essentially complete under the Biden administration.
Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, said the project labor agreement covers three phases of construction: work on the port, in the water, and on a Cape Cod substation. He said the agreement requires that at least half of the on-shore jobs be set aside for people from Southeastern Massachusetts, at least 20 percent for people of color, and at least 10 percent for women. He expects those percentages would likely carry over for the offshore work, although some workers will be in the mix from Europe, where offshore wind is already an established industry.
Vineyard Wind is the country’s first big offshore wind farm but it certainly won’t be the last: Several Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have launched long-term contracts to ensure more of their electricity comes from renewable sources, following the Massachusetts Legislature’s passage of a clean-energy law in 2016 that included offshore-wind targets.
Among the politicians slated to attend Friday’s event: US senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, US Representative Bill Keating …
“I’ve always felt like Paul Revere, saying, ‘offshore wind is coming, offshore wind is coming,’” said Markey, a prominent renewable energy advocate in the Senate. “Now we’re talking about a clean energy future … and union labor will lead our clean energy revolution and set a precedent for the rest of the country.” …
” Senator Joe Manchin said he wouldn’t carve out an exemption to the chamber’s filibuster rule for voting rights legislation, effectively dashing chances that Democrats could maneuver around Republican opposition to overhauling the nation’s elections laws.
The West Virginia Democrat made the remarks after meeting with a group of Texas House Democrats who left the state to stall a vote on Republican-backed legislation that they say would restrict voting.
“Forget the filibuster,” Manchin told reporters after the meeting.”
Hmmm. Manchin jumps broom, joins GOP, which then becomes the majority party in the Senate. Shhh. Let’s keep this to ourselves! (WV constituents are yoogely pleased!)
In West Virginia, they have held lotteries offering trucks and custom shotguns or hunting riflesto those who have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. In parts of New York, vaccinations come with a freebeeror a Krispy Kremedoughnut. A vaccine lottery program that began in Ohio has been emulated inCalifornia, Michigan, and New York, and of course Massachusetts too. In Indiana, health officials are handing out boxes of Girl Scout cookies, while Alabama has offered the chanceto drive a truck two laps around the Talladega superspeedway.
Public health officials, in other words, are getting desperate. It’s understandable: Only20 statesreached President Biden’s goal of getting one dose of vaccine in 70 percent of adults by July 4; only54 percentof adults in rural areas have received at least one shot; and the more contagious Delta variant threatens to rip through unvaccinated communities. …
… The most effective messaging seems to emphasize, above all, the safety of the vaccines. And this message is especially persuasive to vaccine-hesitant conservatives when it comes from prominent Republicans.
One new study, for example, finds that short video messages encouraging vaccination did more to increase conservatives’ intentions to get the shot when they stressed the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and how easy it is to get one. Emphasizing social norms and peer pressure in these messages worked less well. In other research, people responded well to messages emphasizing that the vaccines are approved by health care workers and that they are the quickest way to get life back to normal. Sharing information about how vaccination promotes herd immunity also helps, as does emphasizing the risks that COVID poses to the most vulnerable Americans.
Other new research confirms just how important it is for Republican leaders to support the vaccine. Unvaccinated Republicans who were shown prompts about President Trump’s connection to the vaccine — such as the fact that he played a role in vaccine funding — were significantly more likely to say they intended to get vaccinated than those who were not. …
DES MOINES — If ever there was a political bloc that could be counted on to hold a candle for Donald Trump, it would seem to be white evangelical Christians, who maintained a near-uniform front for the Republican throughout his presidency and beyond.
Yet, as some 1,200 evangelicals gathered here for the Family Leadership Summit, widely seen as the first political event on the long road to the 2024 Republican primary, there was a feeling among some that it was time to move on.
“I agree with pretty much everything Trump did on policy as president, but I don’t think it would be good for him or good for the country if he ran again,” said Ken Hayes, a retired nonprofit worker from rural Fort Dodge, who said he prayed for Trump every day the man was in office.
Held in the Des Moines convention center, the daylong event is considered a key preview of how would-be candidates resonate among social conservatives, who dominate the Republican caucuses here. It featured appearances from former vice president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. …
… in interviews with 15 people at the conference, all of whom voted for Trump, none said they hoped the former president would run again.
“I am interested in who comes next,” said 58-year-old Cheryl Prall.
Trump himself has remained largely focused on bogus audits in states he lost to President Biden. Denied access to major social media platforms, most days he churns out press releases complaining about the election and those he feels have slighted him. On Friday alone, he released at least four press statements on the topic through his political action committee. …
Faced with record job losses because of COVID-19 shutdowns, Congress authorized an unprecedented expansion of unemployment benefits last year to meet the moment. Lawmakers dramatically broadened who was eligible to receive the payments and added hundreds of dollars morein extra income to the checks each week.
That extra money, which is set to expire in early September, provided a financial lifeline for tens of millions of Americans during a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it also fueled a fierce backlash from employers and some politicians, whose voices have largely dominated the debate around the benefits.
Republicans in Congress said the generous benefits allowed some low-wage workers to earn more on unemployment than from a paycheck, discouraging them from work. After business owners complained of difficulty hiring as the economy reopened this spring, governors in 26 states — all but one of them Republican — announced they would cut off the extra benefits before they expire to force more people back into the workforce. …
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/16/business/vineyard-wind-developers-sign-deal-with-unions-build-28b-project/?event=event25
(Infrastructure jobs for the 21st century. Make them happen!)
Welcome to the Senate Minority asshole.
” Senator Joe Manchin said he wouldn’t carve out an exemption to the chamber’s filibuster rule for voting rights legislation, effectively dashing chances that Democrats could maneuver around Republican opposition to overhauling the nation’s elections laws.
The West Virginia Democrat made the remarks after meeting with a group of Texas House Democrats who left the state to stall a vote on Republican-backed legislation that they say would restrict voting.
“Forget the filibuster,” Manchin told reporters after the meeting.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/n…
Hmmm. Manchin jumps broom, joins GOP, which then becomes the majority party in the Senate. Shhh. Let’s keep this to ourselves! (WV constituents are yoogely pleased!)
By the way, this hasn’t happened. Yet.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/16/opinion/lotteries-prizes-arent-working-heres-how-boost-vaccination-rates/?event=event25
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/16/opinion/lotteries-prizes-arent-working-heres-how-boost-vaccination-rates/?event=event25
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/16/nation/kickoff-event-2024-presidential-race-trump-voters-iowa-say-they-are-ready-move/?event=event25
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/17/nation/it-kept-food-my-table-maligned-by-some-bosses-unemployment-benefits-helped-americans-weather-pandemic/?event=event25