ABC June 25 opposed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), or cap-and-trade legislation, due to the additional tax and financial burdens it would place on the American people and their businesses. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives June 26 by a vote of 219-212.
In a letter sent to all members of the House before the vote, ABC pointed to studies by the Congressional Budget Office and the Heritage Foundation that showed H.R. 2454 could add between 74 and 77 cents per gallon to the price of gas. According to the letter, the bill also has the potential to cost the nation two million jobs each year after it passes. In an industry that lost 59,000 jobs in May and 510,000 jobs for the year, that is a devastating blow, the letter said.
“With the unemployment rate in the construction industry at more than 19 percent, legislation that will lead to decreased construction and job creation is the last thing our industry and our economy needs,” ABC stated in the letter.
In addition, H.R. 2454 would expand the Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements to any project funded directly, or in part, by the bill. ABC noted that Davis-Bacon requirements negatively impact equal access of small, nonunion and minority-owned businesses to bid on projects, as well as inflating the costs of projects by up to 38 percent.
The letter went on to express concern over the possibility that projects funded by H.R. 2454 would require a union-only project labor agreement to be in place despite the fact that only 15.6 percent of the construction workforce belongs to a union.
“Federal and federally funded projects paid for by taxpayers should be administered in a manner that is free from favoritism and discrimination while efficiently spending tax dollars,” the letter stated. “Construction contracts subject to union-only project labor agreements (PLA) almost always are awarded exclusively to unionized contractors and their all-union workforces. This means union-only PLAs would discriminate against almost 85 percent of the private construction workforce.”
Finally, the letter pointed out that the bill provides additional funding for National Energy Training Grants. These grants, administered through the U.S. Department of Labor, contain language that requires applicants to partner with a labor organization to be eligible, effectively barring all open shop training programs from accessing the funding.
“It is our view that the most efficient path to encouraging continued growth in the emerging “green” sector is by giving all training providers, regardless of union affiliation, access to federal training programs so the greatest numbers of workers can be trained in green jobs,” the letter stated.
To read the complete letter, click
here.