Washington (January 12, 2022) – Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, today issued a statement applauding the Biden administration’s announcements on federal clean energy deployment. The Biden administration today announced a record-breaking offshore lease sale that will support union jobs, new offshore wind consortium grants, investments for manufacturing and staging hubs at ports, and a new memorandum of understanding between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on shared ocean use. The Department of Energy also released a report today on how to amplify offshore wind in the United States, which includes several policies introduced and led by Senator Markey, such as offshore wind manufacturing tax incentives.

“To create a livable future for the next generation, we need bold and effective policies to rapidly deploy clean energy sources like offshore wind. Today’s announcement from the Biden administration shows that the United States will be a home for offshore wind generation, manufacturing, and good-paying union jobs,” said Senator Markey. “We can build on this baseline with the transformational policies to drive deployment of offshore wind turbines in U.S. waters and foster domestic manufacturing -- many of which are included in the Build Back Better Act. We cannot wait any longer. Let’s put those winds to work.”

Senator Markey is the author of the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act, which would investigate the offshore wind industry’s needs by engaging relevant stakeholders and create a grant program to train new workers for a critical clean energy technology. Senator Markey has also introduced the Offshore Wind Manufacturing Act, which would create a 30 percent manufacturing investment tax credit for facilities that manufacture offshore wind components and vessels, create a manufacturing production tax credit for selected offshore wind components, and require prevailing wage rates for workers. In the last Congress, Senators Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Congressman Jim Langevin (RI-02) reintroduced legislation that would spur the growth of offshore wind energy by extending tax credits for the renewable energy industry. Key components of their Offshore Wind Incentives for New Development (WIND) Act were included in the year-end spending package in December 2020, including the provision that extends the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for offshore wind facilities at 30 percent through 2025. 

In December 2019, Senator Markey sent letters to offshore wind developers Vineyard Wind, Ørsted, Mayflower Wind, and Equinor calling on them to enter into Project Labor Agreements (PLA) for all projects off Massachusetts and the larger East Coast. A PLA would ensure that newly created jobs in the offshore wind industry would be filled with a highly skilled local union workforce. The Biden administration’s leasing announcement for the New York Bight will encourage PLAs for winning bidders.

###