Laying the Groundwork

In recent years, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO under Patrick Crowley has been out front in the fight for pro-labor climate policy. They were a leader in helping to pass the 2021 Act on Climate, which set binding targets for carbon emissions reductions in the state. But they’ve also thought about the problem regionally.

In October 2023, thanks to the initiative of southern New England building trades unions, a unique multistate procurement agreement for offshore wind was signed by Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The idea of the procurement was to coordinate the development of offshore wind across the region and reduce costs in implementation.

Unions worked with the Climate Jobs National Resource Center to publish an excellent report on the great potential for offshore wind to stimulate industrial development in the region, and on what needs to be done to ensure that the work is done with union labor.

The North Atlantic Coast possesses the most favorable conditions for offshore wind in the entire country. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that there is capacity to build 264 GW of offshore wind that could produce up to 27 percent of the United States’s annual electricity consumption. Generally, wind over water blows at a higher speed and is more consistent than wind over land.

And there is certainly an appetite for lower energy prices. Southern New England already has some of the highest electricity prices in the nation, with residents paying more than double the national average in monthly electricity bills. Rising electricity costs will only become a worsening national problem without the robust build-out of other clean energy sources. For New England, offshore wind is an obvious answer.

Building out the entire domestic supply chain for offshore wind, including components, specialized ships, and transmission networks, will be important for the industry to withstand global economic turmoil and trade disruptions. Rising interest rates and COVID-related supply chain disruptions already made three offshore developers in the region cancel contracts in 2023.

Southern New England states have begun to invest heavily in port infrastructure to support the offshore wind build-out. New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, the first offshore wind port in the country, and the heavy-lift deepwater port New London State Pier are signs that offshore wind could be a key driver of economic development. Rhode Island’s Block Island Wind Farm created activity at the Port of Providence and Quonset, increasing the demand for skilled workers.

In turn, unions like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are creating training programs for their members catered to the industry. So far, many of the offshore wind jobs are indeed going to local New England residents. A UMass Dartmouth study estimated that 70 percent of the jobs to construct the Vineyard Wind project went to workers in New Bedford and nearby communities.

As is common with the growth of manufacturing, economic dynamism is spilling over into the service sector as well. Juan Miguel, the owner of a Portuguese restaurant located near the Vineyard Wind terminal frequented by workers, told the Boston Globe that the offshore wind industry has provided a great boost to his business. “It would be a lot worse for business and the economy if they stop the projects,” Miguel said. Just across the street from the restaurant is the Harbor Hotel, where hundreds of offshore wind workers are filling up hotel rooms.

Trump Attacks, Unions Push Through

Much of this momentum has been slowed by the Trump administration’s seemingly obsessive hatred of the industry. A slew of offshore wind projects, many off the coast of New England, have been either halted or canceled. On August 22, a stop-work order was issued for Rhode Island’s Revolution Wind project, which was already 80 percent complete at the time. Then the Department of Transportation announced that it was pulling $679 million in funding for port upgrades related to offshore wind–related projects.

Despite these setbacks, there are signs that Trump’s assault on offshore wind is hitting roadblocks. On September 22, a federal judge intervened and allowed work on Revolution Wind to continue. In New York, the administration stopped the Empire Wind offshore wind farm, a massive project employing fifteen hundred mostly union construction workers. But the mobilization of building trades unions and lobbying by Governor Kathy Hochul pressured the administration to allow construction to resume.

A growing chorus from the building trades has been speaking out about how attacks on offshore wind and other clean energy projects are hurting union workers. “In the first six months of this Administration, they have killed tens of thousands of jobs, and for the first time in 13 years, building trades members are collecting unemployment checks instead of building the energy dominance President Trump promised,” said a statement from the National Association of Building Trades Unions (NABTU).

Unions like the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry (UA) have taken to social media to highlight the Trump administration’s disastrous policies for workers and infrastructure development. The more that defense of clean energy can be tied to high-quality union jobs, the more vulnerable the administration will be when trying to attack it.

While it’s essential that building trades unions defend against attacks, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO’s initiative on the SouthCoast wind project is a great example of how unions can proactively fight for good clean energy jobs even in a tough national environment. Similarly, in California the United Auto Workers worked to pass a green industrial policy bill that includes the build-out of offshore wind through the legislature. It now awaits Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature. 

Offshore wind is just one piece of the clean energy puzzle. But unions in southern New England have recognized its particular regional benefits and that the battle for its future is not over. Now is their time to take the lead.