Saving Seafood

Senator Markey Announces Legislation to Bolster Offshore Wind Workforce Training

November 8, 2023 — Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety and a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, reintroduced the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act, legislation that would support offshore wind workforce development that meets the needs of the offshore wind and maritime industry through a new grant program. More specifically, the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would help create thousands of good-paying union jobs in coastal communities through apprenticeship programs, maritime centers of excellence, and institutions of higher education.

The legislation would also help the Biden administration achieve its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. First, the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would direct the Secretary of Labor to identify the offshore wind industry’s workforce needs by engaging with the offshore wind industry, maritime industry, eligible entities, local governments, ports, and nonprofit organizations. Based on this workforce gap analysis, the Secretary of Labor would establish a grant program in consultation with the Secretary of Energy to support the training of both new and current workers, provide tuition financing, and support apprenticeship programs.

“Billions of dollars in clean energy investments are being unlocked from the Inflation Reduction Act, including my Offshore Wind American Manufacturing Act. We must ensure that our offshore wind workforce is ready,” said Senator Markey. “The Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would prepare workers with the skills and training needed to supercharge our grid with clean energy powered by offshore wind. I will continue to push for the winds of change to blow off the shores of Massachusetts and other coastal communities throughout the nation so that our workers can benefit from this clean energy force.”

“There is much work to be done to bring offshore wind online effectively and efficiently — that includes ensuring we have access to talent,” said Senator Whitehouse. “Our legislation will invest in job training programs to prepare the next generation of workers to fill well-paying jobs that help meet America’s offshore wind goals.”

“I’m proud that Virginia is developing the largest offshore wind project in the country, creating thousands of good-paying jobs,” said Senator Kaine. “This legislation will help us train the workforce we need to fill those jobs and expand economic growth. I will continue to do all that I can to help workers access job training programs and to create good-paying jobs in the Commonwealth.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Barry Myers, Trump’s pick to run NOAA, declares humans are main cause of climate change

November 29, 2017 — In his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday morning, Barry Myers, President Trump’s choice to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he agrees humans are the primary driver of recent climate change.

Myers’s unambiguous acceptance of the human role in climate change marks a clean break from other members of the Trump administration, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Trump himself — all of whom have questioned the extent of human contributions.

Myers, the chief executive of the private weather forecasting company AccuWeather, was first questioned about human contributions to climate change by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass). Markey asked Myers if he agreed with the climate science report released by 13 federal agencies earlier this month which stated it is “extremely likely” human activities are the dominant cause of recent climate warming. “I have no reason to disagree with the reports,” Myers said.

Markey pressed Myers further. “So you agree humans are the main cause of climate change?” he asked. Myers responded, “Yes.”

In a written response to questioning from Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Myers also said he accepted the federal report and a supportive statement from the American Meteorological Society “as the current state of the articulated science.”

Despite these authoritative reports, efforts to publicize climate change science research findings have been undermined at a number of federal agencies, probably reflecting the dismissive stance of their leadership. The EPA, for example, took down its climate change website and blocked researchers from presenting scientific results at a recent conference.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

Lawmakers call lobster ban ‘excessive’ in letter to EU

September 29th, 2016 — Sweden’s push to list live American lobsters as an invasive species and ban their import by the full European Union is “an excessive and unscientific response” that jeopardizes its $125 million lobster trade with Massachusetts, according to Rep. Seth Moulton, Sen. Edward J. Markey and the remainder of the state’s congressional delegation.

In a letter sent today to the EU’s directorate-general for the environment that listed Moulton and Markey as the lead signatories, the Bay State delegation picked up where many North American scientists and fisheries regulators have left off in the escalating international trade tiff.

“Isolated reports of individual American lobsters found in European waters do not constitute the invasion of an alien species,” the delegation wrote to Daniel Calleja Crespo. “This possible designation is not merited because, as indicated in the data provided to the (EU) Scientific Forum by the United States and Canada, there is no evidence that American lobster can reproduce in waters as warm as those of coastal Europe.”

They also insist that the initial Swedish risk assessment, which serves as the basis for the Swedish claim, “failed to demonstrate that interbreeding between European and American lobsters produces fertile offspring” and an “outright ban of the importation of live American lobster to the EU is an excessive and unscientific response.”

The import ban, they argued, would dismantle the $200 million trans-Atlantic lobster trade between Canada and the United States with the 28 members of the EU and severely and negatively impact the Massachusetts lobstermen and lobster sellers who annually send about $125 million worth of live American lobsters to the EU.

A link to the letter can be found here 

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times