California Unions for Reliable Energy

{{Short description|Coalition of California labor unions}}

California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) is a coalition of labor unions, mainly affiliated with the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, that uses California Environmental Quality Act lawsuits (or threats thereof) to force developers of power plants, including new solar and other clean energy projects, to sign "project labor agreements", which require construction be done by union workers.{{ r | LAT_2011-02-05 | p=1 | q=An industry trade group official, Jan Smutny-Jones of the Independent Energy Producers Assn. of California, described CURE as "professional litigants" that exploit loopholes in the California Environmental Quality Act. }}

{{ r | LAT_2011-02-05 | p=1 | q=[State Energy Commissioner Jeffrey Byron said] "It does strain credibility when you have an organization called CURE that is concerned with the desert tortoise and wildlife habitat and turns around and disappears when a project labor agreement is signed. Then it takes credit for improvements to the project to justify its existence," he said. }}

{{ r | LAT_2011-02-05 | p=2 | q=CURE is "here for one reason, which is to extract or shoehorn this company, this industry, into a project labor agreement that is not only costly and restrictive but inappropriate under the circumstances," Daniel Curtin, director of the California Conference of Carpenters, testified last year at an Energy Commission hearing about solar plant licensing. "To use the environmental issues to extract this is really shameful," he said. }}

{{ r | MCW_2015-03-12 }}{{ cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-sep-06-fi-power6-story.html | title=Struggle Over Power Plants - Cities say a union group is using environmental laws to protect jobs, but CURE says it's trying to prevent pollution. | last=Lifsher | first=Marc | newspaper= | date=2004-09-06 | access-date= | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110214155513/http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/06/business/fi-power6 | archive-date=2011-02-14 | url-status=live | pages= | quote=The California Energy Commission is studying allegations that California Unions for Reliable Energy, or CURE, repeatedly has threatened to raise environmental concerns that could cause costly delays in licensing procedures unless power plant developers agree to use only union construction workers. ... "CURE aggressively opposed this project, which was surprising because as renewable energy, it faced few environmental hurdles," he said. "But once we executed the project labor agreement and were confirmed as working with the unions, CURE's intervention at the energy commission no longer was an issue."}}

{{ r | NYT_2009-06-19 | p=1 | q=At proposed fossil-fuel power plants, the union group has long been accused of exploiting environmental laws to force companies into signing labor agreements. The tactic is a subject of perennial discussion in the California legislature, which has considered, but never passed, bills to strip labor of its right to participate in environmental assessments. ... Lawyers for the union both negotiate labor agreements with solar developers and participate in the environmental review of the projects. }}

This practice has been described as "greenmailing".{{ cite news | url=https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/local_news/environmentalists-and-shadowy-labor-group-may-sue-over-planned-solar/article_fc6c4b56-c82d-11e4-808d-b74aad84e585.html | title=Environmentalists and shadowy labor group may sue over planned solar farm | last=Rubin | first=Sarah | newspaper=Monterey County Weekly | date=2015-03-12 | quote=Horton’s firm also has represented California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), a coalition that pushes for union contracts on power plants across the state. ... Critics call the practice “greenmailing.” ... CURE is a project of the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California. }}{{ r | NYT_2009-06-19 | p=1 | q=“These environmental challenges are the unions’ major tactic to maintain their share of industrial construction ? we call it greenmail,” said Kevin Dayton, state government affairs director for the Associated Builders and Contractors of California. “The future of solar energy is jeopardized by these unions holding up construction.” }}

Using union construction workers has been estimated to increase the cost of renewable energy projects by about 20%.{{ r | NYT_2009-06-19 | p=1 | q=In California, project labor agreements can raise costs on a project by about 20 percent, Mr. Dayton estimated. }}