American Clean Power has sent a letter to Senate leadership, with support from 24 senior leaders in the US offshore wind sector, raising concerns with the wording of a House-passed US Coastguard Bill.
If enacted, the Young Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022 will change longstanding rules for manning vessels in US waters and potentially stall offshore wind development, preventing the country from achieving the target of deploying 30GW of offshore wind by 2030, ACP warned.
The letter notes that if this provision is enacted, the US will not see offshore wind energy deployed at scale for many years and some projects may even be cancelled.
This would threaten tens of thousands of potential new American jobs in the manufacturing and maritime sectors, impact US energy security objectives, and severely curtail the emissions reduction targets that are dependent upon the industry’s continued development, ACP said.
It urges Congress to replace the provision with policy incentives to build more US-flagged vessels.
The letter was sent to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ranking Member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).
The letter states: “As written, the House maritime crewing provision is an existential threat to the future of offshore wind in the United States and the immediate result would be the delay and potential cancelation of the 19 offshore wind projects with power offtake contracts or awards.
“The provision would require, within 120 days of passage, that crews on specialized offshore international construction vessels match the flag of the vessel or be American mariners as a condition of working on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
“The crewing provision would thus serve to block the use of these international specialized offshore vessels when there are currently no U.S.-flagged specialized construction vessels to do the work needed.
It added: “Offshore wind represents a tremendous opportunity for the American economy and we have already committed to at least $4 billion in U.S.-flagged vessels, workforce training, and supply chain development.
“The first step Congress should take to promote continued American offshore wind growth is to focus policy solutions on the root cause of the problem: a lack of U.S. mariners, a shortage of U.S.-flagged ships, and uncertain timing of approvals on offshore wind Construction and Operations Plans.”