"Its Windsday": Offshore Wind Power

For the same reasons it attracted the bulk of the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, geography was to be destiny for Tidewater Virginia’s participation in the offshore wind economy, Easy transportation connections and a deepwater port attached to the ocean make the region the go-to place for offshore wind power. In contrast to the talk-much, do-little culture of other “green” states, Virginia put a priority of putting wind turbines in the sea. Tidewater’s region, which despite its once-great promise, has been struggling to bring good jobs and retain local talent. Offshore wind farms, or “It’s Windsday”, as a booster touted, would turn the local economy around. Each state has unique energy challenges. Green energy mandates in the Northeast compelled the search for renewable energy. Densely-populated rust belt states were retiring nuclear power plants. Virginia has to reckon with surging energy demand to power its growing data center economy. For several decades, it seems, electricity demand stagnated as light bulbs, insulation, and appliances became more energy efficient. Computer programmers, once terse on account of small and expensive data storage and processing options, have become inefficient, and this trend will not turn around soon. I was in the room- in December 2021- when the Republican Party of Virginia decided to pursue an all-of-the above energy policy. Solar farms, wind turbines, nuclear energy, and clean coal would be the way forward. The cranks and nutjobs who opposed farming the sun, and for that matter, who opposed installing 5G internet in rural areas, were put to pasture. Unfortunately, some of those cranks slithered into federal government agencies. Conservative principles of limited government be damned, they sought to seize the physical assets of large wind investors (by revoking offshore permits), and use the regulatory state to keep business- the wind power business- from participating in the free market. Virginia has so far stayed out of the fray that enveloped wind power projects in the Northeast. That saga is slowly being played out in the courts, where swift and direct action by Congress should have happened.

Not so Free and Careless Anymore

What are you going to write about? It should be about ships. If the trend of blog posts is an indicator (Gerry Connolly and Donald Trump, with one post in between), one might think I quit the sea. But that is not true. Mentally, July was the longest month. For the first two weeks, I was at sea in the Indian Ocean, working long days to coordinate cargo movements. Then, six days of travelling from a remote island (guess which one!) back to the USA. The final week of July was spent at home, and commuting to the office, to wrap up business from the voyage. I also commemorated ten years' of career work in the maritime field. August was a month of decompression, and a fast month. After two weeks of "demobilization" class, I officially finished duty with the Navy mid-month. As a civilian mariner, we simply flew home from the ship. On the military side, such an event is considered a career transition. By "decompression", I was referring to the day job. After 3 months' absence, I had a to-do list of upkeep tasks for my home and property. Surprisingly important for me, I made up Spring and Summer events I missed, or were put on hold while at sea. First and foremost was the Sacrament of Confirmation (August 9th) and then attending Mass with my recently-ordained Priest friend (August 31st). I also squeezed in a summer barbeque in August, in place of the usual July 4th spectacle. I think that September will be a good, routine month. We've got a lot of living to do...