Comments on: Wind Power Action Month – Help Create Our Open Source Advocacy Letter Template

By: ANON

ANON — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:29:59 +0000

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…

By: delmarva power | Wonderful Article

delmarva power | Wonderful Article — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:14:39 +0000

[...] natural gas. I'm a Delmarva power customer, …TommyWonk – http://tommywonk.blogspot.com/|||Wind Power Action Month – Help Create Our Open Source Advocacy …HCR 38, which would recommend that the Controller General approve the power purchase agreement (PPA) [...]

By: Nancy Willing

Nancy Willing — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:18:19 +0000

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.

By: liberalgeek

liberalgeek — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:18:14 +0000

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.

By: TommyWonk

TommyWonk — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:57:39 +0000

Comments on this blog are nice enough, but have you all written your senators?

By: cassandra_m

cassandra_m — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:18:41 +0000

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.

By: cassandra_m

cassandra_m — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:10:51 +0000

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.

By: liberalgeek

liberalgeek — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:04:45 +0000

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…

By: john kowalko

john kowalko — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:59:16 +0000

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

By: FSP

FSP — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:58:06 +0000

The job benefits are all real, but they are mostly indirect. Tourism, entrepreneurship, that kind of thing. It still makes it worth doing.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:53:47 +0000

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.

By: liberalgeek

liberalgeek — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:45:14 +0000

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…

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:29:06 +0000

Hi Dave,

We need better jobs in Delaware quickly, please.

By: FSP

FSP — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:20:30 +0000

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.

By: liberalgeek

liberalgeek — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:37:56 +0000

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.