Daily Archives: June 14, 2017

Mary Ann Bragg @MaryAnnBraggCCT

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. With the country's first offshore wind farm up and running for the past six months, labor and environmental advocates are looking toward future collaborations on even larger projects.

Many years of hard work ensured that these were good quality union jobs that paid good solid wages, said Kimberly Glas, executive director of BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmentalists, as a chartered boat neared the Block Island Wind Farm on Tuesday.

As more offshore wind energy projects are developed off New England and New York more grassroots effort is needed, Glas said.

I ask folks to start calling their legislators and start showing up at city council meetings to figure out ways to ensure that these are quality jobs, she said.

The nonprofit National Wildlife Federation sponsored the boat tour of the 30-megawatt, five-turbine wind farm installed by Deepwater Wind, one of three offshore wind energy companies with plans to build more wind turbines on leased land south of the Islands. The federation, with 6 million members, wants to protect wildlife from the effects of climate change through clean energy options such as wind.

This kind of (boat) trip allows our company to talk about how offshore wind can be built and has been built in the United States," said Matthew Morrissey, Massachusetts vice-president for Deepwater Wind.

The partners in Block Island project were environmental groups, organized labor, government regulators, fishing groups and others, Morrissey said.

Its an opportunity to come together and see that you can actually build a new economy in America while protecting the environment, he said about the tour.

Among the 115 people on board the fast ferry Ava Pearl were labor leaders representing union members such as welders, painters and crane operators who helped build the wind farm.

Construction of the wind farm created 300 local jobs, according to Deepwater Wind.

They did sign an agreement to do it all union, said Scott Duhamel of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council.

The political strength of unions in Rhode Island, with the support of congressional and state legislators, along with union representatives showing up at and speaking at public meetings, all helped seal the deal, Duhamel said.

I have to admit they could do it without us but they didnt, he said.

Deepwater Wind could have used non-union labor, Duhamel said.

They did it with us, he said. We feel our people are better trained.

The typical wages of the union workers who worked on the wind farm ranged from $28 to $40 per hour plus benefits, union representatives said.

Were thankful to Deepwater for having trust not only in IBEW but the building trades in general, said Michael Monahan, a regional vice-president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

While the construction of a wind farm employs many people in the short term, the long-term maintenance of the equipment creates more jobs, said Monahan and Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training Director Scott Jensen.

Were doing the commute that thousands and thousands of people are going to be doing over the next any number of years, Jensen said as the boat passed alongside the towering turbines.

Monahan and others said they are hoping for more union contracts in upcoming offshore wind energy projects.

At the end of June, there's an opportunity to bid on power contracts with three electric distribution companies in Massachusetts, which could attract Deepwater Wind, Bay State Wind and Vineyard Wind, all of which have signed leases for federal land south of the Islands. Bay State and Vineyard Wind officials said recently that they could start construction in the early 2020s.

Follow Mary Ann Bragg on Twitter: @maryannbraggCCT.

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Labor, environmentalists praise offshore wind collaboration - Cape Cod Times (subscription)

Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of failing to pay 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million) in taxes.

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The prosecutors office in Madrid filed a lawsuit that alleges that the 31-year-old knowingly used offshore accounts to hide income from his image-rights payments. The charges come months after Spanish newspaper El Mundo published leaked documents revealing details of the offshore holdings of several soccer players, including Ronaldo. The tax evasion relates to a three-year period starting in 2011.

A spokeswoman for Ronaldos management company said there wouldnt be an immediate comment.

Ronaldo,who led Real Madrid to win both the Spanish league and European Cup, is just the latest high profile soccer player to face prosecution over tax affairs. Earlier this month a court rejected Lionel Messis appeal over a tax fraud conviction. Messis Barcelona teammate Neymar is also being prosecuted in Spain over his transfer from Brazilian team Santos in 2013.

The management team for the four-time world soccer player of the year responded earlier this year to the tax allegations against him by releasing his 2015 tax declaration. It revealed he held assets outside of Spain worth more than 203 million euros.

This communication, which was not required by law, constitutes irrefutable proof that Cristiano Ronaldo and his representatives are in good faith, and cooperate with the authorities in a spirit of transparency and compliance with legality, the agency Gestifute said.

Ronaldo is the best paid athlete in the world, according to a report last week by Forbes magazine, which estimated that he earned $93 million over the past 12 months. The Portuguese forward scored 42 goals in all competitions this season, including two in the Champions League final as Real became the first team to retain the title.

The Madrid prosecutor said in his 2014 tax return Ronaldo claimed to have recorded revenue from Spanish sources between 2011 and 2013 of 11.5 million euros, though in reality that number was almost 43 million euros.

In January Ronaldo cited the pressure of the scrutiny when he was awarded the prestigious Balon DOr award for soccers best player. There are a lot of innocent people in jail and I feel a bit like that, he said. You know you didnt do anything wrong, and they say you did something wrong.

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Cristiano Ronaldo Accused of $16.5 Million Tax Evasion - Bloomberg

I love the ocean. Its enormity inspires me, impresses me, moves me. Its future worries me. As the famous Oceanographer Sylvia Earle said, With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Whether we live in the deserts of Nevada or the beaches of Florida, we are all connected to the oceans and for this reason, we must all do our part to take care of the ocean.

Every year, on June 8th the world marks International Oceans Day, and this year it served as an important reminder of the risks that our oceans and all that depends on them face. In April, President Trump took the first troubling step towards opening the Arctic and Atlantic, and potentially the Pacific, to expanded offshore oil drilling and attempted to undo the much-needed permanent protections currently in place.

Besides being another move to enrich huge, international oil companies that pollute our country and worsen climate change, expanding drilling not far from our coastlines it too high risk.

Offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous practice that pollutes the ocean and puts our coastal communities and sensitive marine ecosystems at huge risk of the harms from a catastrophic oil spill. But the limits dont stop at the coasts. Even for those living inland, these impacts affect us all. Covering 71% of our planet, the ocean impacts everything from our food to our water, air and climate.

Seven years ago, the U.S. suffered the worst drilling disaster in our history. The BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting massive oil spill killed 11 people and leaked 3.19 million barrels of oil and gas into the ocean about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana for 87 days.

Despite this and other disasters, Trump wants to sell off more of our publicly managed coastal areas to the oil industry and the administration has begun taking steps to make this a reality. His executive order proposes to open the Arctic and Atlantic to new offshore oil drilling, seeks to remove important security measures for oil extraction operations, and attempts to remove protections designed to preserve our most valuable, ecologically rich ocean resources. The Department of the Interior has already announced plans to allowseismic blastingoff the Atlantic coasta dangerous precursor to drilling. These loud underwater explosions harm marine life and disrupt sensitive ecosystems and the activities surrounding these like fishing, recreation and tourism.

Communities across the country have already declared their opposition to expanded offshore drilling and are sending a message to our elected leaders to keep dirty, dangerous oil drilling, including the seismic exploration for oil, off our coasts and out of the ocean.

Latino, African American, Asian American, indigenous communities have expressed strong opposition to turning these public waters over to private companies, recognizing that expanded Atlantic and Arctic drilling leaves us all vulnerable to disasters that pose an unacceptable risk to our oceans, beaches, coastal communities, marine life, and to the livelihood of the millions of Americans who depend on healthy oceans for fishing, recreation, and tourism dollars.

Communities in the United States and around the world are directly suffering the impacts of climate change on their health, security, and way of life, and want action. Our communities cannot wait. Not only are we more likely to experience asthma, sea-level rise, and other negative health impacts due to the pollution driven by carbon and other fossil-fuels, millions in our communities rely on healthy oceans to sustain our economies and feed our families. Our future depends on clean renewable energy, not sacrificing our oceans to drill for oil that harms our families health and pollutes our world.

Over the next year, the Department of the Interior and Congress will consider options for expanding offshore drilling to regions including the Mid- and South Atlantic, Floridas Gulf Coast, the CaliforniaCoast, and the Arctic Ocean. This misguided move ignores the fact that clean energy is now the fastest-growing and cheapest source of power in the country. Far more Americans want to preserve our oceans than sell them to oil companies to exploit.

The millions of Americans who live in these areas know whats at stake. Whether we live in Colorado or Virginia, Alaska or Houston, Americans know that reckless government actions like these, which threaten our public landsplaces that belong to all of usmust be stopped.

Please visit ourcampaign pageand tell Secretary Zinke and President Trump to keep drilling off our coasts and protect our oceans and our world.

Director of Partner Engagement

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Oil & Oceans Don't Mix: Say No to New Offshore Drilling - Natural Resources Defense Council

New York Times

Australia to Pay $53 Million Settlement to Detainees Held Offshore New York Times SYDNEY, Australia Australia has tentatively agreed to a $53 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of asylum seekers housed in one of the country's contentious offshore detention centers, lawyers for the detainees said on ... Class Action is Nail in The Coffin For Offshore DetentionPro Bono Australia all 57 news articles »

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Australia to Pay $53 Million Settlement to Detainees Held Offshore - New York Times