Talk, talk and more talk

Does my Subject line Talk…talk…talk seem negative? Goes along with blah…blah…blah.  In fact, talk can be cheap, but talk can also be productive. As was the case last week at the Offshore Wind Open House event with Doreen Harris, President and CEO of NYSERDA, held at the Wang Center at Stony Brook University and hosted by the Long Island Association. This large roundtable discussion (the first since Covid hit), moderated by Jessica Dealy Senior Policy Advisor, Offshore Wind at NYSERDA, covered a lot of ground; from project updates to supply chain and workforce issues, technology innovation to community involvement. If I had to pick an underlying theme, it would be the need for diversity and inclusion within our future OSW workforce and the companies applying to get into the supply chain. Our union friends and partners Roger Clayman, Matty Aracich and Mariah Dignan drove home the point that this is an opportunity for new skills and upskilling development in an industry that can provide a truly livable wage, with job security and all the other components that make for a good quality of life, providing regional economic benefits for all.  Also present were reps from many of the developers, LI’s own Haugland Industries, OWTI, AERTC (click the links to unlock the acronyms), Suffolk County DOL, LIPA and the MRV Group. Hope I didn’t miss anyone. 

Alas, diversity is a tough subject, especially when trying to proactively solve an age-old problem within the framework of an emerging industry. So, while the talk did not solve those long-standing problems, by simply coming up as a consistent theme within a roundtable that itself was hardly diverse, it helped drive the point home. I think I speak for many participants and audience members when I say that we need a group of people already doing the great work in DEI in other industries at the table, guiding  the OSW players – governmental agencies, developers/tiered suppliers, trainers, etc. – on how to do the necessary community outreach, how to build out the training centers for certifications, and how to help pave the way for MWBEs to get their companies recognized by Tier 1 giants like Vestas, GE and Siemens Gamesa. It’s a heavy lift but now is the time, so let’s keep the heat on everyone to ensure we create a fair and balanced workforce and an equitable supply chain. Don’t stop talking; it will build the pathway to action.

And below, a little reminder from the National Renewable Energy Lab of how huge this opportunity really is.