Offshore wind will extend Maine’s maritime legacy, allowing our state to step into a leadership role in the national clean energy landscape. It will attract young people to Maine as students, engineers and contractors. This new industry will open doors for students like me who want to contribute to a cleaner, healthier future along Maine’s working waterfront.
A bill being considered by the Legislature, L.D. 1895, “An Act Regarding the Procurement of Energy from Offshore Wind Resources,” is our best opportunity to jumpstart offshore wind in Maine and create thousands of clean-energy jobs for Maine’s working coastline in the process.
As a recent graduate of Maine Maritime Academy, I strove to better my community on campus and beyond by being a leader and an advocate for Maine’s environment. I was the president of MMA’s Environmental Action Club. I used that role to expand environmental consciousness on campus by organizing community cleanups and establishing a bottle recycling program on campus. I care deeply about Maine’s maritime future, and I want to see my classmates and future graduates find success as they look for maritime careers.
I took on an internship focused on offshore wind development to set myself up for a career in the wind industry. At the conclusion of the internship, I worked with department chairs to advocate for new renewable energy courses to be offered on campus and to incorporate renewables into existing curriculum. For my senior capstone, my team built an operational wind turbine and testing facility on campus which will be used in teaching for many years to come.
Like so many other young people studying at Maine’s colleges and universities, I want to continue my career in offshore wind right here in Maine.
So far, I’ve tried to do so on my own. It is time for Maine to create those opportunities for current and future students. L.D. 1895 would help do that. Not only does the bill set a schedule and create a market for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine, it does so with strong labor and equity provisions that will ensure that the benefits of offshore wind go to Maine workers and leave nobody behind.
Passing L.D. 1895 would send a signal that Maine is ready to be a leader in offshore wind, bringing billions of dollars of investment to the state in workforce training, as well as our ports, communities and local businesses.
We will need clean energy workers to build the port facilities we need for offshore wind. We will need these workers to build and deploy the floating offshore wind platforms and turbines that will bring clean energy to Maine families. We will need merchant mariners and wind turbine technicians to maintain and service the turbines once they are operating in the Gulf of Maine. And we will need to educate and train clean energy workers to advance this industry well into the future. These will be good-paying jobs that could sustain people and families for a lifetime.
Fortunately, Maine is equipped to capture this opportunity. The University of Maine is a national leader in floating offshore wind research and development, and Maine Maritime Academy is one of the premier maritime training institutions in the world. Several trade schools and community colleges, including Northern Maine Community College, have already established programs to train wind technicians.
Building a new offshore wind industry for Maine can allow young people to build lives in Maine, doing work we can be proud of, contributing to the state’s future and fighting climate change. Join me in supporting L.D. 1895 to create opportunities for Maine workers for decades to come.
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