October 2, 2019 — With a dozen offshore wind energy projects planned on the East Coast, New York port interests are in high gear pitching their state as the industry’s logical future base.
“A few years ago, we would have had trouble filling this room. But as you can see things are moving quickly,” said Michael Stamatis, president of Red Hook Terminals in New York City, at the State University of New York Maritime College’s offshore wind energy conference Sept. 26.
“There is no better place to be in for offshore wind than New York and New Jersey,” said Stamatis.
“This is going to be in the middle,” declared Boone Davis, president of Atlantic Offshore Terminals, whose company aims to develop a new offshore wind energy port facility on Staten Island, N.Y., well clear of the city’s bridges and other limits on moving massive wind turbines by ship.
But New York has plenty of competition. From New Bedford, Mass., to Norfolk, Va., port operators and their allies in business, labor and politics are working to snag a share of the business.