海角大神

Ironworker Roy Coulombe was one of the union reps approached by Deepwater Wind, a renewable energy firm, with a daring proposal: Back our efforts to lobby for the country鈥檚 first offshore wind farm, and we鈥檒l make sure you build it.

Seven years later, Mr. Coulombe聽and his crew were among the 300 union laborers that constructed the 1,500-ton turbines that rise 600 feet out of the ocean off the coast of Block Island, R.I.

Coulombe and dozens of other labor leaders rode a ferry out to the five turbines on Friday, just weeks before the 30-megawatt system begins generating power for 17,000 homes on the island and mainland 鈥撀燼nd ushering in the era of offshore wind in the United States.

This emerging industry puts electrical workers and ironworkers, once the manpower behind natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy, in a peculiar predicament. As the Northeast shuts down coal-fired and nuclear power plants, and聽global temperatures continue to rise, many of these workers believe in a clean-energy future that could benefit the environment while spurring hundreds of thousands of jobs along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards and the Great Lakes region.

But they also respect their union brothers' struggles to find work in fossil fuel industries.

鈥淭hose people are making a good living, and we gotta respect their ability to make a living,鈥� says George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, when asked by 海角大神 about the national labor union鈥檚 support of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access crude oil pipelines.

鈥淎t the same time, we understand there are environmental concerns we have to address because, at the end of the day, our people are workers, but they鈥檙e also citizens,鈥� he adds, aboard the ferry. 鈥淲e have to care about the environment.鈥澛�

The start of an industry

Mr. Nee acknowledges the offshore wind industry is a natural fit for the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, since the chapter is close to Block Island and other proposed commercial sites for offshore wind. Its location is also why Deepwater Wind first approached these unions, says Matthew Morrissey, the developer鈥檚 vice president of Massachusetts.

Early on, Deepwater Wind recognized it could eventually lower the cost of turbines by training a local workforce to develop an offshore wind supply chain near sites, says Mr. Morrissey. The five turbines that make up the Block Island Wind Farm cost about $290 million. But much of the structure was built in Europe, whose offshore industry is decades old. And the foundations that hold the turbines were built in the Gulf of Mexico by oil and gas platform manufacturers, according to Bloomberg.

About 30 New England companies were then involved in the design, fabrication, and manipulation of these parts, says Morrissey. This includes the 300 unionized electrical and ironworkers.

鈥淭hese projects are highly complex and they鈥檙e technical,鈥� says Morrissey. 鈥淲e think that offshore wind will not only be an opportunity for organized labor, but an opportunity for young people who want to get into the industry to benefit from the opportunities organized labor brings to a local economy.鈥�

But those opportunities are still in their infancy. The United States currently produces no offshore wind energy, although offshore farms are more attractive than onshore ones because the strong, steady wind that blows day and night makes coastal waters ideal for wind energy production.

But unlike in Europe, where thousands of turbines dot offshore waters, the five turbines off Block Island are, more or less, a pilot project.

Deepwater Wind and its competitors, including Denmark-based turbine giant DONG Energy, and New Jersey-based OffshoreMW, as well as states like Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, and the Obama administration, hope this is just the start of a flourishing clean-tech industry.

Last month, the Departments of Energy and the Interior released a strategic plan to develop a national offshore wind industry. The plan calls for 20 percent of the nation鈥檚 electricity to come from wind power by 2030聽鈥� enough to聽spur 160,000 wind-related jobs.

That would require massive growth. In 2015, wind energy supplied just聽4.7 percent of the all the electricity generated in the US, according to the American Wind Energy Association.聽

Not so fast

But some union reps are concerned about the shift from carbon to offshore wind and other renewables. 聽

鈥淲hile this is all good, too fast is dangerous,鈥� John Duffy, national vice president of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, tells the Monitor while aboard the ferry on Friday.

鈥淚 think they can coexist,鈥� says Mr. Duffy, who has 42 years鈥� experience surveying natural gas systems in New York City. 鈥淭he transition just has to be done slowly so it can be done properly.鈥�

Robert Collier, an analyst at the University of California鈥揃erkeley Labor Center for Research and Education, says policies and regulations must also ensure the creation of high-skilled, good paying clean-tech jobs. 聽

鈥� 'Green jobs' is a promise that has been talked about a lot,鈥� says Mr. Collier in a phone interview with the Monitor Friday. 鈥淏ut it has only been partially realized.鈥�

In the California solar industry, for instance, there is a massive discrepancy between the job opportunities and wages for rooftop solar and utility-scale solar farms, according to researchers with the Berkeley Labor Center.

From 2010 to 2015, the utility-scale solar industry created 10,200 full-time jobs in California, paying workers $39 per hour, the Labor Center found. The rooftop solar industry, by contrast, employed 1,800 laborers, paying them between $11.50 and $20.81 per hour. 聽

But offshore wind presents a unique opportunity for renewable energy industries, says Collier.

鈥淚n future years and decades, offshore wind is likely to create many green jobs that are high-skilled and well paying, from construction and electrical workers to maritime, dock workers, divers, as well as bringing home the wind turbine supply chain, which is very similar to aerospace manufacturing,鈥� he writes in an email.

There is already a precedence for this growth in Europe, which employed 75,000 workers in the offshore industry in 2014, according to the European Wind Energy Association. With the support of offshore wind, Europe鈥檚 clean-tech sector also brought in $132 billion in 2011.

But a Bloomberg New Energy Finance study in March found this sector聽has been on the decline ever since. It attributes this slump, in part, to the global financial crisis, but also to member-states鈥� policy mistakes.

鈥淎n uncoordinated patchwork of policies across Europe continues to stifle progress, not least in the UK and Spain,鈥� Oliver Joy, spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association, told The Guardian. 鈥淲e need to see more political appetite at European and national level, which means putting in place a vision for renewables into the next decade.鈥�

The Obama administration and several Atlantic states are drafting policies that require the development of offshore wind. Whether those policies will create a seamless network of laws or a European-style patchwork remains to be seen.

And of course, transitioning to wind power will take time, says Collier.

鈥淥ne has to look more broadly at the economy to see where the jobs are not just for current workers, but also for workers鈥� children in the decades to come. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e talking about with offshore wind,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an answer for tomorrow. It鈥檚 an answer for the 2020s and the 2030s for us and for our children.鈥� 聽

[Editor's note:聽A previous version of聽this story incorrectly stated how many homes the Block Island wind farm would power. The correct number is 17,000.]