Wind Power Action Month – Help Create Our Open Source Advocacy Letter Template
I have to admit that I’ve been slacking.
We have about 30 days left in this legislative session and we need to turn up the heat on Harris McDowell and Charlie Copeland and stop them from blocking the off shore wind power project. McDowell, Copeland and Delmarva have telegraphed their “run out the clock” strategy in today’s News Journal – we can’t let that happen.
To apply the pressure on the State Senate and Lt. Governor John Carney, I’ve been trying to get together a polite but direct advocacy letter template complete with bullet points and email links so that we can get a bunch of letters to Carney, each Delaware Senator, The News Journal, the Delaware State News, as well as calls to radio stations.
We each need to NOT ONLY make 50 or so contacts (including calls to the Delaware State New’s “Sound Off”) , we need to expand our circle a bit and get this letter template to other groups and intervals that are sympathetic to the cause of wind power.
This “open source” model worked well with the radio ad that we did, so add what ever you want in the comment section. Here is my half-assed start, but I’m asking for your help getting this thing done. Thanks for pitching in !
1) Offshore wind power should be brought to a vote in the Delaware Senate as soon as possible.
a. HCR 38, which would recommend that the Controller General approve the power purchase agreement (PPA) between Blue water Wind and Delmarva Power, has eight sponsors in the Senate and only three more votes are needed to pass the measure.
b. After a year and a half of effort, analysis, negotiations, radio ads, and overwhelming expressions of support from Delaware’s citizens, it is time to bring HCR 38 to a vote.
c. Contrary to Delmarva Power’s claims, offshore wind power won’t cost us more unless fossil fuel prices magically go down instead of up.
d. Delawareans want the price stability that offshore wind power in Delaware will provide.
e. Delawareans want to protect our health by replacing coal and natural gas with non-polluting wind power.
f. Delawareans want to lead the country in renewable energy technology.
g. Delawareans don’t think that Delmarva Power should enjoy veto power over energy policy in Delaware.
h. Delawareans are sick and tired of Delmarva’s phony statistics and stalling tactics.
Delawareans are tired of paying more for their electricity than other states within the PJM grid.
Delawareans are tired of the environmental damage done to Indian River, Delaware River, and Delaware Bay.
Delawareans want reap the benefit from the proposed artificial reefs off shore, supporting the turbine towers.
Delawareans would like their state to stay above sea level in the near future…
…..And you need to tie DeLuca in with the three. He is the only one up for re-election this term……
Delawareans deserve their energy dollars going towards building a wind farm in Delaware for Delaware, not Indiana or Pennsylvania.
The wind farm project will mean new jobs and new entrepreneurial opportunities for Delaware, a state that has been stagnant in job creation.
Maria- that is very true it is not just this area but in many areas we need a strong basis for innovation and encouraging innovation in many areas.
It makes me wish Irenee Du Pont was still alive. That was when we truly embraced the new and advanced the innovative and made the jobs and the people together into a kind of statewide matter of pride. We produced some of the best sicentists in the world and at the same time set a very high standard of humane capitalist paternalism. It was something almost no other state could claim to have.
Now DuPont hires a french chef and provides a very high standard of living for their workers in Shenyang, China; that used to be reserved for us in Delaware. I am glad to see China develop, but I wish we would do the same for Delaware again and make innovation and job creation here a high priority.
I am thinking that when I get better I may ask to go to China for DuPont.
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Delmarva wants to outsource our energy jobs to Pennsylvania and Indiana. Delaware needs the jobs that this windfarm would provide. We need the jobs that would come from being the regional center of excellence for off-shore windpower.
The scarcity of burnable natural resources is going to damage our states economy if we don’t act to limit our exposure to the risk.
Does anyone know how many jobs we’re talking about here, and is there a clause in the PPA that says that the construction jobs have to go to Delaware residents?
I think the real jobs impact goes back to my original piece on this in the fall of 06: Taking risks like this will appeal to new economy entrepreneurs.
I don’t think the direct jobs created will amount to as much as you might think.
Hi Dave,
We need better jobs in Delaware quickly, please.
Well, for the construction phase, we will create a large number of construction jobs. Once we go into production, probably not as many, a couple dozen, perhaps. But if you add on the distribuion portion of the business (assuming that they build the distribution center here).
Another few dozen. So a hundred jobs plus half that again if the windfarm is expanded. There is also the issue of improved fishing that is predicted, tourism bumps that may occur because of the windpark. Plus, we may become a huge location for manufacture if we have the least expensive power on the East Coast.
Anyone else wanna weigh in on this. My numbers seem too nebulous…
Yeah, if you drop the bottom out of the cost of energy WE WILL become the productive center of the east coast, hands down. That would be the biggest job creation program Delaware has ever had. I just do not think we are forward looking enough to see that yet.
The job benefits are all real, but they are mostly indirect. Tourism, entrepreneurship, that kind of thing. It still makes it worth doing.
Representatives from FLUOR (the contractor building the Wind-Farm) testified(on the record) at one of the Senate Energy Committee Hearings “ghosted” by Randall Speck for certain Senators that they have reached agreement with Local Organized Labor to commit approximately 500 jobs for five years for construction and approximately 70-90 jobs regularly for operations and maintenance during the length of the contract.
John
I wasn’t too far off then. Also, it is worth knowing that this is one of three potential sites off the coast. Build this one and when it is a proven success, two more in the next 20 years. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Those are going to be pretty highly paid construction jobs and the O&M techs will be certainly making a solidly middle-class wage.
If you can add on the promise by Bluewater to create a turbine technician training program and perhaps some forward thinking by U of D or DSU (or both) to create a wind power R&D center, you may have the makings of a windpower Silicon Valley here. Maybe.
The other thing to mention is that a company that is about to raise its rates again — 2 years after the 59% increase — should not be in the business of holding its ratepayers hostage to stack the market in their favor.
Comments on this blog are nice enough, but have you all written your senators?
Good point Tom. We need to be on the phone or writing today and tomorrow. And if we don’t get a vote this week, we do it more next week. And the week after that.
I called my senator, Sorenson, months ago and happily report that she is actively supporting the offshore project.
Amick was undecided but had a lot to offer towards resolving the underlying issues that Delmarva insists are intractable.
If you actually pay attention to the “fine print” Peter Mandelstam’s comments during the hearings you will find that the “500 jobs” you talk about are actually a nice number that does not mean 500 jobs for Delaware. It is not written into the contract that any jobs are to be exclusively for Delawareans. If it is not in writing, it doesn’t exist. Also, there are construction jobs at the beginning, but once it is built, those jobs are gone! Do you have any idea what the opportunity cost of 1-2 BILLION taxpayer dollars is? Come on, this blog is so one-sided I think that you fail to even acknowledge that BWW might not be as good as they want you to think they are…