A coalition of New Jersey solar energy businesses, electrical contractors, independent electricians, and solar energy workers is urging Governor Jon Corzine to veto (A-3372), legislation that the group says will not only drive up costs for ratepayers, but cost the state hundreds of new green energy jobs as well.
In a press release, the coalition said the legislation imposes an "oppressive new mandate" on all renewable energy and energy efficiency installation projects in New Jersey, with the sole exception of residential projects, by mandating that state "prevailing wage" rates be paid to workers on all such projects.
Prevailing wages, the coalition says, are synonymous with union wage rates and "often forces businesses to hire union labor and sub-contractors at additional cost."
"This legislation must be vetoed by Governor Corzine. It is anti-solar because it will result in increasing the labor costs of solar by 180%. It contradicts the Governor's and Legislature's policies of growing solar and reducing global warming gases, " said Dennis Wilson, vice president in New Jersey for the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Energy Industries Association, a trade group representing solar energy companies, manufacturers, and solar project developers in NJ, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
The coalition says the legislation applies to all energy efficiency projects--along with renewable projects such as wind, solar, and biomass--that receive any "approval" or any authorization by the NJ Board of Public Utilities.
The group claims that the legislation is so broad that it would includes energy efficiency upgrades for non-profits such as churches, and small businesses.
In opposing the bill in committee and on the floor of both legislative houses, the solar industry and its allies were supported by the NJ Business and Industry Association and the state Chamber of Commerce.
A large number of union organizations lobbied in favor of the legislation.
A large number of union organizations lobbied in favor of the legislation.
Curiously absent from the legislative debate were environmental organizations, like the NJ Environmental Federation and the Sierra Club, which normally are outspoken advocates of alternative energy technologies and projects.
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9 comments:
This is a very dumb move.
Solar businesses should understand that without the political support of labor and environmentalists, they they would not enjoy the current subsidies and policy framework.
Alternative energy needs a strong coalition of business, labor and environmentalists. Moves like this will undermine those efforts.
Wolfe
Continues from last comment.
And did I mention that solar get rich quick owners asked for sales people to sign non-compete agreements for all leads including those clients brought in from previous business relationships. Then they laid these sales people off soon after...
Cajones!
This person will never work in the solar industry again. Too raw a business climate for their preference.
I have to laugh when chickens come home to roost, as they usually do.
Some, who I know very well, and have worked in NJ's volitile solar industry:
- use/d illegals for installations
- Dropped wages by 15% coinsidentally when raw material costs increased
- paid sales commissions 2 years after contracts were signed
- paid half of agreed sales commissions. ie: 1% not 2%
- did not pay some sales commissions.
- owners were into solar as a get rich quick scheme to retire in 5 yrs. Social benefit? They didn't seemed to care.
Perhaps that's just "good business practice" in capitalizmo. The wild west/do what you can get away with, adolescent attitude- like the one that is sinking Wall Street and our financial system (crime made legal).
Boy will this be interesting to see how this solar wage issue shakes out. Power to the people!
The Industry Needs Time to Develop!!! This bill is totaly unreasonable. I'm not sure who your speaking of but we train and ceritfy every installer. The industry is still developing and most electricians have never installed a solar system before. The training and learning curve is a cost that business must endure. Be realistic paying someone $25 - $30 per hour plus benifits is reasonable considering most have no experience. And what about not letting contractors paying a lessor wage for apprentices. The Union can! Why cant we who are non union. I will tell you why. It's becuase the Union want the advantage when bidding jobs. Thy do a good job of lobbying and getting the state to insist that Private contractors must be part of a fereral approved apprentice program. Unfortunately the programs are nearly impossible for a private contractor to comply with. This is a crock of Blank! So do me a favor stop talking about the few contractors who hire illegals. What about the contractors who are trying to do legitamite business. For this you have no comment. Please your arguments are total self serving.
Stop talking?
No way.
The truth usually hurts when labor is unfairly mistreated. It's all a matter of timing and opportunity.
MSEIA public lobbying/antics around A-3372/S-2340 brought these truths about a supplier to public light.
Too bad.
Pandora's Box opens with impropriety.
No hiding now.
Selfish children hate giving up their toys.
Thanks for this post
Thanks for this post
As a New Jersey resident and taxpayer, I believe that every single aspect of this policy is nothing shy of pure theft.
First of all, the subsidization of these solar power efforts are a business give-away being financed by the already-overburdened taxpayers of our state. It's pretty clear that the allocation of this subsidy is not being driven by science or merit, but by lobbying and political payoffs.
The act of politically choosing how to allocate investment funding is destructive because it starves what may be technologies of superior potential of resources they need to develop. As just one example, I family friend of mine, who is now facing possibly end of his business because of this new law, chose to go into solar instead of geothermal or other technologies BECAUSE OF THE SUBSIDY.
That's a recipe for bad investment and wasted resources. Will solar be a winner? Maybe. Is it now? Hell no.
It takes upwards of 20 to 25 years, from what I understand, to recoup the costs of solar installations. In what world could it possibly be economical to dump 25 years worth of energy use up front and forego that whole period's worth of innovation?
It isn't worth it. Hence the subsidy. Since no sane person would have these unproductive panels installed voluntarily with their own money, the corrupt politicians in New Jersey, lead by Mr. Goldman Sachs himself Jon Corzine, use their coercive force to steal the money from all of us in taxes and give it to these companies.
Now, just like any mob/drug dealer, they're asking for their pound of flesh. The subsidies created an industry of unproductive, dependent firms that must now do whatever the state says. And what the statists want is to pay off their union cronies.
And so we have this law. Now, this parasite industry will be forced to pay above-market wages to the corrupt, coercive unions. This will cause more people to lose their jobs in a State that had no private sector job growth even through the boom years. Worse, the higher costs will be passed on to the taxpayer.
Solar subsidies AND union mandates are both immoral, impractical and unjustifiable theft.
Oh... and they're bad science and bad environmentalism. True environmentalists appreciate the value of productivity and conservation of scarce resources. This policy, just like Washington's "Cash for Clunkers" corporate give-away, does neither.
I am sick and tired of being ripped off by my "representatives" to give to their cronies. WAKE UP NEW JERSEY!!!
"Perhaps that's just "good business practice" in capitalizmo. The wild west/do what you can get away with, adolescent attitude- like the one that is sinking Wall Street and our financial system (crime made legal)."
This is a very strange strawman argument. How is it "capitalism" to have an entire industry reliant on government subsidies? Perhaps it's about as "capitalist" as having a banking system regulated by a monetary monopoly that bails them out repeatedly with their printing press.
Capitalism is a system of profit AND loss. Solar has no profit. Wall Street is prevented from having loss.
Both of these are failures of government, NOT capitalism.
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