April 17, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Comments surrounding Vineyard Wind’s offshore wind projects filled the Waypoint Convention Room on Monday night and they came from a diverse group ranging from climate change deniers to environmentalists.
But the main discussion revolved around jobs.
Fishermen strongly criticized the process with one saying he feared Europeans would commandeer all the jobs associated with offshore winds.
Union workers stood in support of those jobs that they want to fill.
“Don’t tell me we’re going to have Europeans overrunning our workers,” one union member said. “It ain’t going to happen. We’ll train our workers.”
Vineyard Wind said it has created a $2 million workforce training fund. It proposed hundreds of jobs would be created from the project. The Port of New Bedford would be one of the homes for construction. Bristol Community College and UMass Dartmouth have also said they plan to invest in offshore wind programs in the future.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times