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Artist’s Rendering of Brooklyn Port Upgrade Art: Equinor
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer
New York state selected Norwegian energy giant Equinor to build and supply clean energy from two offshore wind facilities in one of the largest renewable energy deals ever in the United States, according to Reuters. Under the deal, Equinor and its “strategic partner” BP will generate 3.3 total gigawatts of offshore wind power for the state. In addition, they will refurbish two port facilities in New York (the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and Port of Albany) to support additional offshore wind projects. Per Businesswire, Equinor’s Chief Executive Anders Opedal described the successful bids as “a game-changer for our offshore wind business in the U.S.”
Anders Opedal, also said in the statement that these offshore wind projects will help the State restore its economy after the pandemic and provide jobs to disadvantaged communities while helping New York become a leader in the nation’s quest to pursue more sustainable forms of energy. “These projects will deliver homegrown, renewable electricity to New York and play a major role in the State’s ambitions of becoming a global offshore wind hub,” continued Opedal. The upgrades will make world-class wind facilities of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and Port of Albany, which will provide the facilities to build offshore wind towers, transition pieces, and other manufacturing components.
BP Gets Winded
BP bought a 50% share of these Equinor projects last summer for $1.1 billion. BP had a target of increasing its renewable power generation capacity 20 fold over the coming decade to 50 gigawatts, according to Reuters at the time of the sale. BP will partner on the development and construction phases of these projects — they are planning on partnering to develop both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind facilities.
Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, the Japanese government announced that it will release treated radioactive water from the destroyed plant into the ocean beginning in 2023. The decision to dump more than 1 million metric tons of contaminated water into the Pacific ocean has upset local fishers and surrounding countries.
Why This Matters: A decade after a 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami led to a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the decision to release water into the ocean is just one part of the prolonged decommissioning of the plant.
Hundreds of citizens will fan out across the nation’s capital next week to meet with lawmakers in what’s projected to be the largest ocean lobby effort in US history. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they will meet with Biden administration officials, federal agencies, and members of Congress for a nonpartisan Ocean Climate Action Hill Day.
Why It Matters: As the Biden administration and the Congress begin to debate what’s infrastructure and therefore within the American Jobs Plan, the blue economy needs to be front and center in it.
The Evergiven is no longer stuck in the Suez Canal, but world shipping is hardly back to normal. In just six days, the massive container ship held up almost $60 billion in global trade. Supply chains across the world are delayed and off schedule, and the incident has economists and maritime experts across the globe reevaluating the efficacy of the current shipping economy.
Why this Matters: The pandemic has rocketed demand for goods (and vaccines) to all-time highs, but bottlenecks at many major ports and slow shipping speed could slow the global economy just as it begins to recover from COVID-19.
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