Welders and machinists from Louisiana and Texas are building the nation’s first offshore wind supply vessels and turbine installation ships, and are expected to be at the front of the line when the Interior Department conducts the first lease sale for wind in the Gulf of Mexico next year.
But locals in the ports across south Louisiana are quick to point out the region isn’t ready to ditch its rigs, reports Energy Wire. If anything, the embrace of offshore wind showcases a Gulf oil sector that remains mostly confident in the face of the energy transition.
That sentiment is common across the Gulf Coast. The region demonstrates perhaps more than anywhere else in the country the entrenchment of the fossil fuel industry, even as the Biden administration tries to drive an energy transformation that includes a commitment to approve 16 offshore wind arrays by 2030 to help decarbonize the grid by 2035. Read the entire story.
