June 11, 2019 — Poised to be the first state in the country to draw from utility-scale offshore wind power, Massachusetts has a responsibility to get it right and to position the offshore wind industry for long-term success dealing with climate change and delivering affordable power across the United States, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday morning.
The state’s approach to secure clean power for itself and to blaze a trail for other states might make it “a little bit annoying to some people along the way,” but is designed to balance predictability for developers and the build-out of a sturdy local supply chain with increasingly urgent calls to deal with the impacts of a changing climate.
In a keynote address to the U.S. Offshore Wind Conference, meeting this week in at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, the governor said the two things he hears most often when talking to people interested in the offshore wind industry is that Massachusetts is moving too quickly and that Massachusetts is not moving quickly enough.
“That makes me think we’re probably in just about the right spot because people who think we’re not going fast enough have a completely unrealistic view about actually what’s possible and when, and the people who think we are going too fast I think don’t appreciate the fact that time is not necessarily our friend when it comes to these issues,” Baker said.