With Federal Stamp of Approval, ‘Cape Wind’ Pumps Green Job Prospects

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5928/cape_wind_pumps_green_job_prospects/

Friday April 30 12:21 pm


Greenpeace activists make their case for the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. "Bobby" refers to activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has opposed the project.


By Michelle Chen

The massive oil slick spreading over the Gulf of Mexico reminds America once again of the hazards inherent in the country's fossil fuel addiction. The oil rig disaster also makes some new developments up north seem especially refreshing. The U.S. Department of the Interior has finally blessed an unprecedented renewable-energy project off the mid-Atantic coast. Known as Cape Wind, it would be the first ever offshore wind farm in the United States.

The prospect of churning windmills in the sea has whipped up a storm of controversy, but the Nantucket Sound project seems poised to finally go forward after nine years of regulatory review. (It does still need appproval from the Federal Aviation Administration.) Clean-energy advocates around the country are watching to see if the project and the incipient wind-energy market deliver on their promises of eco-friendly power and green jobs for the local workforce.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 103, the leading union in the coalition supporting the project, is betting high on Cape Wind:

"With Mr. Salazar giving the permit for Cape Wind," IBEW representative Marty Aikens told In These Times, "this is the new revolution of offshore renewable energy that the I.B.E.W. members will be working on from Maine to North Carolina and from Washington to California."

Anticipating career-track employment opportunities for local union members, Aikens added, "This is the new American technology job that the I.B.E.W. has been training its Members for the last eight years... We expect to see hundreds of Local 103 I.B.E.W. members working on this project and thousands on the others that will be coming on line."

Advocates say that while wind currently makes up a tiny siver of the overall energy supply, it will be a crucial ingredient in building a sustainable energy mix to replace oil's dominance.

FULL story at link.