When it comes to the emerging wind energy business, Rhode Island seems to be heading in the right direction. The state’s developing association with Deepwater Wind LLC, which wants to erect over 100 wind harnessing turbines off Block Island to generate electricity, has the potential to jump-start a new economic model for a state that is clearly lacking one. When you think of it, it is quite fitting for the Ocean State to take the lead in developing offshore wind energy. Remember, this is the place where the American Industrial Revolution was born. Clean alternative energy technologies such as wind, wave and solar are going to be critical to our future as America reinvents itself by turning its manufacturing model from blue collar to green collar.

Deepwater wants to build two wind farms off the Rhode Island coast at a cost of $1.5 billion. One farm would be about three miles from Block Island, the second about 15 miles out in the Atlantic. Unlike the hotly contested Cape Wind project off Cape Cod, which powerful local interests continue to stymie, there is apparently no organized opposition to the Rhode Island plan. The wind farm three miles off Block Island would barely be visible from the island; the one 15 miles off our coast would be over the horizon. Both the Governor and the General Assembly are in agreement in support of this venture, although there are differences yet to resolve regarding long-term contracts between alternative energy suppliers like Deepwater and National Grid, the state’s principal electricity provider. Last year the Governor vetoed the Deepwater legislation passed by the General Assembly because of the snafu over National Grid. It will be absolutely critical for the two branches of government to work out the differences and get a bill to the Governor’s desk that he will sign. Another year’s delay and we could see the business go elsewhere.

With legislation in place, the Deepwater project can begin moving ahead. It will also send a strong message that Rhode Island is open for business when it comes to wind energy technology. There is great potential here: Deepwater plans to hire around 800 workers to assemble and install the turbines; they intend to use land at Quonset Point as their assembly facility. Once established at Quonset the assembly area could become a long-term operation and by its presence attract other companies involved in other facets of wind energy technology. Already Aeronautica Wind Power of Plymouth, Mass., a manufacturer of wind turbines, is looking at establishing a manufacturing site in the Quonset Business Park.

There is a grand future vision to have much of the upper Eastern seaboard become a giant offshore wind farm – creating a potential $50 billion market for offshore wind energy production. Rhode Island could become a leading player in that market. Add the prospect for greater URI-centered oceanographic research facilities and activities calling Quonset Point home and we will have gone a long way to actually fulfilling Quonset’s economic development potential – and at far less cost and delay than attempting to become a Johnny-come-lately in the deep water port business. I have long agreed with the Governor’s stand on the deep-water port issue, despite the railings of the state’s major daily newspaper. A deep-water container port at Quonset might have been a viable objective 20 years ago but at this point in time its day has passed. The fact is, Quonset is doing well enough on its own right now, as even the Special Legislative Study Commission on Quonset, appointed by the RI Senate, admitted recently, citing “impressive progress.” You know Quonset is doing okay when there’s no berthing room left for the USS Saratoga battle carrier museum.

America’s economic progress going forward will be defined by how rapidly we can create well paying green collar jobs in new technologies to replace the millions of old line-manufacturing jobs lost in recent decades. Those jobs, we know, are not going to come back. But investment in and development of new manufacturing technologies – especially those centered on “clean” technologies – will represent the wave of the future. Rhode Island, because of its long manufacturing tradition and proximity to the abundant ocean, is strategically positioned to capture a leading share of this 21st Century marketplace, and, in doing so, reinvent our economy for the next generation. Let’s hope we do it.