Off-shore wind projects, part of the Biden administration’s clean energy push, are bringing border security issues to our coastline.
A House Coast Guard authorization package seems like a benign bit of legislation, but as RollCall reported, it’s anything but. On one side, lawmakers are fighting to keep crew requirements that they say provide incentives for offshore energy developers deploy more domestic vessels with American crews.
On the other, advocates of offshore wind, oil and gas on Capitol Hill, argue that keeping the requirements would halt some key energy development projects, many of which rely on foreign labor.
Wasn’t the Inflation Reduction Act’s offshore wind bonanza supposed to create good jobs in green energy for American workers?
The requirements in question would mandate offshore vessels operating on the Outer Continental Shelf be crewed by members of the same nationality as the flag of the vessel, limit the amount of visas offshore energy developers can issue to their workers and require that foreign workers undergo a security check.
“President [Joe Biden] is absolutely correct — American taxpayer dollars ought to be used to support American business and American workers,” said Rep. John Garamendi D-Calif., referring to tax credits for offshore wind included in the reconciliation package. “What our language does is provide safeguards with the requirements that the personnel match the flag of the ship, which is going to significantly reduce unknown people from God knows where.”
Judging by the southern border crisis, reducing the amount of unknown people from God knows where is not a Biden administration priority.
Garret Graves, R-La., who co-authored the provision with Garamendi, added “We’ve also been told that new energy technologies – including offshore wind – will increase American jobs. Our provision is a step toward ensuring a level playing field for American workers, vessels and operators to compete for those jobs.
This makes sense – so of course there is pushback from lawmakers.
Massachusetts has a big commitment to the offshore wind industry, and according to Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss, “Offshore wind development is critical to meeting the Biden administration’s climate goals, becoming energy independent and creating good jobs. Offshore wind construction requires highly specialized ships, including wind turbine installation vessels … the provisions in Section 336 thereby sacrifice the entire offshore wind workforce by focusing on a small segment of the job market.”
The Biden administration has a track record of putting the cart before the horse in terms of green energy, for example enacting policies phasing out the sale of gasoline-powered cars while gas stations still outnumber electric vehicle charging locations. According to analysts at S&P Global Mobility, the U.S. will need to quadruple the number of EV chargers between 2022 and 2025 and grow more than eight-fold by 2030.
Garamendi took aim at opponents: “So you want this multi-billion dollar program to be run, operated and profited by foreign companies?” he asked.
Green energy and good jobs for Americans were supposed to be a package deal. Lawmakers must keep that promise.
