Ocean Energy Workforce Development Summit

In Europe, hundreds of thousands of jobs are projected to have been created supporting offshore wind, wave and tidal energy, and in just three years the German offshore wind deployment sites at Bremen and Cuxhaven have created over 2,400 direct manufacturing jobs. 

Panels of experts will address the following issues: 'What are the Needs of Industry?' - CEOs involved in deployment and supply chain will talk about their projected needs. 'What is the Experience in Europe?' - trainers involved in supporting the rapid expansion of these industries will discuss their lessons learned. 'What are Plans in the USA?' - A panel of workforce developers and trainers will tell the audience about their plans to meet this emerging need.

New industries create new jobs for the young, but can also allow workers displaced from older industries to find new careers. This summit will allow you to understand the challenges and the work being done to address both the needs of industry and the workers.

Friday summit raises need to ask tough questions. Jobs summit Friday In offshore renewable energy? On Oct. 20 , 2010, it was announced that the new multipurpose Marine Commerce Terminal was going to be built in New Bedford. A Tacoma, Wash., engineering firm was hired to transform New Bedford to the Wind Turbine City. Today, there is no executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, no Marine Commerce Terminal and no approval by the EPA to build on the proposed 20-acre site. Questions remain about land ownership and toxins. Quonset Point, R.I., is a natural and obvious place for offshore wind turbine construction, assembly and staging. The land there was shaped by the Navy over the course of the 20th century and therefore it has many characteristics that make it work for these purposes. It is also home of one of the largest barge companies in the world. The old Quincy Shipyard in Massachusetts just south of Boston has the same characteristics as Quonset Point. A local SouthCoast company is in negotiations to build the foundations of ocean wind turbines in Quincy. Hard questions need to be asked at this Friday's summit. 35 million dollars is hardley enough to build a Marine Commerce Terminal ! The proposed New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal has some issues with a possible suspected 150,000-gallon fuel oil underground storage tank (UST) and two 7,000 fuel oil tanks. This would be in addition to all the other toxins found in other sites in New Bedford http://www.newbedford-ma.gov/Environmental/L2006-034new.pdf Potential impacts to site soil and groundwater from a suspected 150,000-gallon fuel oil underground storage tank (UST) potentially located on the subject site, and former USTs in the vicinity of the site. A June 1920 Acushnet Mills map prepared for the Plan Department of the Associated Mutual Insurance Companies indicates that a 150,000-gallon fuel oil UST was formerly located on the subject site. TRC’s determination was based on a scaled overlay of the aforementioned 1920 Acushnet Mills map over a current City of New Bedford land parcel map. In addition, the site of a former 550-gallon gasoline UST associated with the former mills is located approximately 30 feet west (upgradient) of the subject site. Also, the site of two 7,000-gallon fuel oil USTs that served the former mill is located approximately 50 feet to the west (downgradient) of the subject site Frank Haggerty - 03/05/2012 - 16:49