Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey advocates for more offshore wind despite Trump threat

Southern New England labor unions and elected officials are going full speed ahead with trying to develop offshore wind energy despite the looming threat of a crackdown from the incoming Trump administration.

Gov. Maura Healey is backing a union-led push for the Bay State, Rhode Island and Connecticut to merge forces and set a target of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040, more than triple the current goal of 9 gigawatts by 2030.

The proposal, unveiled in a new report, comes while President-elect Donald Trump has said he will look to cut down on wind farms when he regains office in January.

“As we look ahead, there’s a certain amount of uncertainty with the new administration,” Healey told a packed hall of climate jobs allies and offshore wind experts in Taunton on Tuesday. “But I firmly believe that the fabric of this industry, of this clean energy industry, is strong.”

“We have private corporations,” she continued, “we have research institutions, we have incredible union leadership and unions, and we have our friends in the environmental community who we credit for so much of the advocacy and helping us move forward to this place of a better understanding that we need to act now.”

The “Winds of Prosperity” report outlines how if the goal of at least 30 GW by 2040 is met, the industry would be fulfilling 100% of the region’s retail electricity demand. That would be enough energy to power 10 million homes, the study found.

President Biden and his administration set a national goal of 30 GW by 2030.

In campaign appearances, Trump railed against offshore wind and promised to sign an executive order to block such projects.

“We are going to make sure that that ends on Day 1,” Trump said in a May speech.  “They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is. They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”

Advocates and leaders in southern New England also look to set a target of 60 GW by 2050 regionally.

To get the job done, they say a multi-state approach is essential, one that must include port upgrades, regional manufacturer development, vessel construction, a regional transmission system, and “robust labor standards and protections.”

In September, Massachusetts secured the largest offshore wind energy procurement in state history. The selected 2,678 megawatts from three projects is also the largest purchase in New England to date and is part of a coordinated effort with Rhode Island, which will receive 200 megawatts.

The pricing details won’t be available until contracts are put on file this winter, a sensitive topic for the industry and its boosters in state government. Connecticut backed out of the purchase because of its expected high cost, Gov. Ned Lamont said earlier this fall.

Advocates and leaders who gathered in Taunton on Tuesday did not make any direct reference to the summer’s turbine blade failure at Vineyard Wind 1, a 62-turbine, 806-megawatt wind farm about 20 miles south of Nantucket.

When asked about the incident and whether advocates and unions are going too fast with development, Patrick Crowley, president of Rhode Island AFL-CIO, brought up issues with the supply chain, inflation and regulatory hurdles.

“We are going to see those kinds of issues in any new industry,” Crowley told the Herald. “Just because it’s offshore wind, it doesn’t make it any special.”

Conservative watchdog Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance teamed up with similar organizations across New England in issuing a respective report Tuesday. In it, they argued that residents and businesses can “expect electricity rates to double, along with rolling blackouts” under a plan to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2050.

“The outlook is grim for the working people and businesses of our state alike,” MassFiscal spokesman Paul Diego Craney said in a statement, “but entirely avoidable with the right policy changes.”

Material from Herald wire services contributed to this report

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