摘要: |
The Biden administration's headlong plunge into offshore wind energy has yet to be matched by private investment in new vessels. Advocates for the new U.S. industry now see it as a serious bottleneck and are working with industry and government to lower barriers. "The U.S. offshore wind industry hovers right on the verge of a period of major growth, but without enough vessels to install, operate, and maintain the [offshore wind] farms, the market will never reach its true potential," wrote John Begala, vice president for federal and state policy with the Business Network for Offshore Wind, in a commentary leading up to the Network's International Partnering Forum in Baltimore in late March. The network's new "vessel working group" met for the first time there. With 16 offshore wind leases in the Atlantic and an estimated $9.8 billion in new investments planned in ports and other infrastructure, industry boosters are worried about the pace of new vessel construction. |