Posted on June 19, 2023
Portions of Louisiana sit along the Gulf of Mexico and that expansive body of water is seen as a major resource for offshore renewable energy which involves the generation of electricity from sea or ocean-based resources.
Clean energy efforts are what brought Deputy U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Don Graves to the New Orleans area on Thursday (June 15).
He took part in a round table discussion at Nunez Community College in Saint Bernard Parish, which is just outside of New Orleans.
“Building that workforce, making sure that we’re meeting people where they are,” said Graves during the discussion.
A south Louisiana coalition, H2theFuture, received a $50 million grant from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration. Michael Hecht leads GNO Inc., an economic development organization part of the coalition.
“This grant that we’ve gotten from the Commerce Department, the H2 Our Future grant is going to allow us to continue to support our industry in the corridor, up and down the river but we’re going to be able to reduce emissions by as much as 70%. That’s a very exciting future for all of Louisiana and I think it’s really a model for the whole nation,” said Hecht.
Still, Louisiana is not immune to workforce challenges.
Tiny Tinney, Ed.D is chancellor of Nunez College.
“The projections are approximately in the end of 60,000 wind turbine technicians between now and 2026, the next three years. We’re not prepared currently to be able to deliver that, so we’ve got to do some aggressive work,” she said.
Graves is impressed with the coalition’s work.
“It’s clear that the work that is going on here in New Orleans is a model we can share with other parts of the country. We know that the clean energy economy is going to grow, is going to create tens of thousands of new jobs and as we invest all across America we need to make sure that the types of jobs that re being created that we have the workforce that is prepared to take those jobs,” said Graves.
Cherie LaCour-Duckworth of the Urban League of Louisiana said prisons are a resource for workers because many inmates return to society.
“We are working also inside of the prisons,” she said.
Graves’ trip here to St. Bernard Parish also included talks with local officials about coastal restoration efforts.
“Our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working with local partners to invest in remediation of wetlands because we know that if we can restore, remediate the wetlands, help to make our coastal areas more resilient it means we’re going to protect against the type of devastating weather events that we expect to see much more of in coming years,” he said.
