Capping a week of climate-themed events, Gov. Wes Moore (D) traveled to Maryland’s biggest industrial development Friday to break ground on a new construction facility for the offshore wind energy industry and to sign three pieces of legislation designed to boost the state’s efforts to combat climate change.
After touring the massive Tradepoint Atlantic development in Baltimore County, where the Patapsco River meets the Chesapeake Bay, Moore joined dozens of dignitaries to hail the potential economic and environmental benefits of offshore wind. Tradepoint Atlantic is the site of the long-shuttered Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrow’s Point, and several political, business and labor leaders said wind energy development will be an integral part of the renaissance of the massive property — and the state’s economic future.
“Maryland steel led the American economy in the 20th century and I want Maryland wind to lead the American economy in the 21st century,” Moore told the crowd of 200 assembled under a large tent in a gravel expanse a few hundred yards from the water.
Officially, Friday’s event was a groundbreaking for an advanced component center that Ørsted, one of two companies planning wind energy installations off the coast of Ocean City, is building. It’s where fabricated steel from a plant on the Eastern Shore will be shipped and then assembled into component parts that support the company’s wind turbines. The planned facility would provide about 125 new union jobs and 20 professional jobs.
Click here to read the rest of the story written by Josh Kurtz over at Maryland Matters
