| Friends and Elected Officials, I thought you would be interested in this article by WNY Labor Today, a widely circulated online publication, which sends a powerful message–Wind Energy is vital in New York State. We need clean, renewable energy, and we need it now. Thanks, Sam Hoyt President Upstate Strategic Advisors, LLC sam.hoyt@upstatestrategicadvisors.com 716 830 1958 | UpstateStrategicAdvisors.com |
| Buffalo Building Trades Support Major Offshore Wind Energy Initiative, Slated To Meet With Diamond Generating Corporation In December |
 by Labor News Services & WNYLaborToday.com Staff |
| (BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – The Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council is supporting a Los Angeles-based company’s Offshore Wind Energy Initiative and plans to meet with the organization’s representatives here in Buffalo in December as the project looks to gain momentum, a representative of the Building Trades told WNYLaborToday.com this week. In September, Diamond Generating Corporation (DGC) took the first step towards building up to three wind farms out on Lake Erie by submitting an Interconnection Request with the New York Independent System Operator, according to Public Radio Station WBFO-FM. The company’s request shows two wind farms connecting to substations in Erie County and one wind farm connecting to a substation in Dunkirk, all by December of 2023. DGC – which is based in Los Angeles and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation, is a developer, owner and operator of privately-owned power projects across the United States. The project would create a great number of “good-paying jobs in the industries of the future,” Ironworkers Local 6 Business Manager Tom Halligan – who also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the 18-Member Union Buffalo Building Trades Council, told WNYLaborToday.com this week. He also told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper that Diamond Generating is interested in building a facility on the grounds of the old Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna, where the massive windmill foundations would be built for its projects not only here on Lake Erie, but for several others out on the Great Lakes. Halligan spoke publicly for the Building Trades in favor of the initiative during a mid-September hearing that was held in the Erie County Legislature. The initiative is being opposed by two Republicans, including Legislator Lynn Dixon, who is currently running for Erie County Executive. Halligan, along with representatives from the Sierra Club’s Niagara Chapter and concerned residents rallied together on the steps of Erie County Hall that day in support of the local offshore wind energy investment, citing wind energy’s significant job-generating potential and the urgent need to move toward a sustainable, environmentally-sound power grid. During the rally, Halligan said: “Our (Members) want ‘good-paying’ jobs in the ‘industries of the future – and we deserve every opportunity to be a part of the future of offshore wind in Western New York.’ Our communities ‘must not be left behind’ as New York and the rest of the country ‘look toward alternative’ job-creating energy sources. We ‘expect’ our Legislators ‘to be forward-thinking and welcoming of common-sense’ economic development opportunities. Western New York ‘has lost enough and we can’t afford to stand in the way of job growth.’” This week, Halligan told WNYLaborToday.com: “We’ve set up a meeting with Diamond for December and they’re willing to sign a Project Labor Agreement (PLA should the project move forward). ‘I don’t know if it will happen, but it would put a lot of Ironworkers, Carpenters, Cement Masons, Operating Engineers and other Members of the Trades to work in very good-paying jobs.’ (The Republican Legislators) ‘don’t understand’ the lake bottom (won’t be negatively impacted) since the on-shore built foundations ‘will be taken out onto the lake and sunk, not built out on the lake where anything will be disturbed.’ The ‘majority (of the work) will take place on land and not negatively impact the health of the lake or the fish.’ (Diamond) will have to get through the RFP process and ‘we’ll help them push for it.’” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he would like the State to be 70% powered by renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. It is said that Downstate New York will host more than $30 billion in wind energy projects when all is said and done. MORE >> https://www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2019/10/22/buffalo-and-western-new-york-labor-news/buffalo-building-trades-support-major-offshore-wind-energy-initiative-slated-to-meet-with-diamond-generating-corporation-in-december-company-s-taking-first-steps-towards-building-up-to-three-wind-farms-out-on-lake-erie/ |