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Siemens on June 18 said it would cut 2,700 jobs from its Gas and Power division, on top of 10,400 positions the German engineering firm last month said it would jettison as part of cost-cutting measures.
The Siemens’ announcement comes one day after U.S.-based rival GE said it would cut 450 jobs at two of its manufacturing sites in Switzerland.
Siemens in May said it would spin off and give up its majority stake in its Gas and Power unit, which includes its power generation, transmission, oil and gas, and related services businesses. The company in that announcement, which it said is part of its Vision 2020+ strategy, also said it was transferring its 59% stake in Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) to the new business.
Investors have cheered Siemens’ restructuring, with the company’s stock gaining about 9% this year.
Lisa Davis, head of the Gas and Power division, in a statement Tuesday said, “The planned measures will help us create more opportunity for growth and the security that comes from being a competitive player in the energy market.”…
The head of GE’s operations in France told a Paris newspaper that a French factory targeted for more than 1,000 job cuts will not close. GE last week said it wanted to make its operations in France more efficient and said changes would come at the Belfort plant in eastern France, which handles technology for GE Power’s hydro, gas, steam, and nuclear technology.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, had said he would try to save jobs at the plant after GE’s announcement on May 28. Job cuts were expected to be negotiated with the plant’s labor unions. GE had said it could cut up to 1,044 jobs at Belfort, where it employs about 4,300 workers, including 1,900 in the gas power unit. GE had said 792 job cuts could come from that unit, with other positions eliminated in support divisions.
Hugh Bailey, general manager of GE in France, in an interview published June 2 in the Paris-based Le Journal du Dimanche, was quoted as saying, “I want to be clear, Belfort will not close.…
The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget request released February 12 asks for more money to support fossil fuel-based power systems, but seeks funding below current levels for other energy initiatives, including renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The energy funding is part of a $ 4.4 trillion budget that features large increases in military spending, along with deep cuts to several domestic programs and entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and Social Security disability payments. Analysts immediately said it has little chance of being enacted by Congress as written, in part because of fears of what the proposal would add to the federal deficit over the next decade. A New York Times analysis said the proposed budget would add $ 984 billion to the federal deficit next year, and add about $ 7 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
The proposal, Trump’s second since taking office in January 2017, is similar in many ways to his administration’s proposed 2018 fiscal year budget, which was rejected by Congress.…
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a $ 528 million cut to its funding under the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill reported out of committee July 18. While Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee expressed disappointment in the deep cut, it could have been worse.
The Trump administration’s budget request, released in late May, proposed EPA funding of $ 5.655, a cut of $ 2.345 billion. In contrast, the House bill would fund EPA at $ 7.5 billion, a level Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) says “will ensure that the agency is able to fulfill its core duties while streamlining the agency and reshaping its workforce.”
The other side of the aisle had a very different take on the EPA funding level in the bill, saying that $ 7.5 billion in funding is not only inadequate, it is all but certain to tank the bill entirely. “It is outrageous to think that Republicans would threaten another government shutdown rather than work with Democrats to enact government funding bills even though they know any legislation will require Democratic votes to become law,” Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)…