Re: Thursday SMUD Board Meeting and Union CQA Objections to Rancho Seco II Solar Project

Dear SMUD Board Members:

Ratepayers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) are going to be stunned when they learn about your proposed 130 MW photovoltaic solar power plant (Rancho Seco II) and the damage it may inflict upon the environment.

Fortunately, Mother Nature still has friends: construction trade unions.

California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) was obviously appalled at how you ignored the grave dangers of solar power to our planet. They needed 45 pages - that’s right, 45 pages - to show how your Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) fails to fulfill the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

You should ask representatives of California Unions for Reliable Energy and their lawyers from the law firm of Adams, Broadwell, Joseph & Cardozo if a Project Labor Agreement will protect the Ricksecker's Water Scavenger Beetle, the Midvalley Fairy Shrimp, the Western Red Bat, and the California Tiger Salamander.

We hear that Project Labor Agreements are regarded by unions as an effective way to mitigate impacts on biological resources. While the PLA you used on your SMUD HQ renovation was of course a disaster, they do serve the purpose of pacifying aggressive big labor special interests. 

You should consider giving California Unions for Reliable Energy a commendation for emerging as Sacramento’s most committed environmentalist organization while praising CEQA as one of the most powerful labor laws of our time.

Or you might consider calling them out for their abuse of the CEQA process to achieve a political end, that being corporate welfare. 

We look forward to watching regardless.

Sincerely,

Eric Christen
Executive Director
Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction
www.opencompca.com