Music to our ears….

By Joe Martens

Today’s Crain’s includes this terrific piece from Roland Lewis, CEO of the Waterfront Alliance, a NYC-based coalition of more than 1,000 organizations dedicated to making the New York and New Jersey harbor a shared, resilient, and accessible resource for all. You can find and follow them on Twitter at @OurWaterfront.

Mr. Lewis makes great points, particularly about offshore wind’s massive job potential and how port development is so important if New York is going to reap offshore wind’s full economic as well as environmental and health benefits. He’s particularly energized about the 72-acre South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT), at Brooklyn’s Sunset Park waterfront.

"The maritime support industry is concentrated mostly along the Brooklyn and Staten Island shorelines. These tug operators, stevedores, ship-repair facilities and other water-dependent businesses are already the backbone of our growing port, the third largest in the United States and closing in on the top position—but they must be expanded, not only to serve the region’s vital maritime industry, but also to help build and maintain wind farms,” Mr. Lewis writes.

As you may know by now, Governor Cuomo’s offshore wind master plan estimates creation of 5,000 new jobs  [See the Governor’s release here and NYOWA’s statement here]. Then last week, in his appearance with Al Gore, the Governor doubled down on offshore wind by reinforcing New York’s 2.4 gigawatt commitment to offshore wind energy by 2030, beginning with procurements this year and next of 800 megawatts. [NYOWA statement here].

Roland Lewis’ piece is music to our ears — not just because of his arguments but also because of his awesome, first-line reference to one of the great songs of all time. So read Roland’s piece and then treat yourself to 2 minutes and 18 seconds of classic Bob Dylan [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0].