Page 31: of Marine News Magazine (October 2016)

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OFFSHORE ENERGY discussion of both boat speed and the continues to suffer from the current projected to begin generating electric- reduction of emissions using hybrid (low) price of crude oil. At the same ity in the second quarter of 2017. Are or LNG propulsion technology while time, the unanswered question re- we ready and we will be able to sup- the boats drift in waiting. mains: can clean wind energy rebuild port the shift, should it occur, from

The Deepwater ONE lease site is our workforce and revitalize our ship- South to North when the wind blows?

256 square miles and the NIMBY yards? The Block Island wind farm is *Images courtesy of Robert Kunkel problem continues to force the con- struction further offshore where

Deepwater reports they will be “bare- ly visible from shore.” The size of the lease, its position offshore and the necessity to navigate between towers creates new design requirements. As a workboat industry, are we prepared to make that commitment, provide those designs to support alternative energy and create port infrastructures in a coastal area that has been devel- oped for large tanker and container- ship terminal operation? Make no mistake: the northern section of the

U.S. East Coast through the mid-At- lantic coastal areas are prime wind lo- cations. The ? rst lease area is capable of creating of more than 1 Gigawatt of clean energy with the introduction of the ? rst 200 turbines.

The U.S. Gulf offshore industry

Robert Kunkel, President of Alternative

Marine Technologies, previously served as the Federal Chairman of the Short

Sea Shipping Cooperative Program under the Maritime Administration and the USDOT from 2003 until 2008. A past Vice President of the Connecticut

Maritime Association, he is a contributing writer for MarineNews. A graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime

Academy, Kunkel sailed as a licensed engineer and continued his career in ship construction at NASSCO and Hyundai

Heavy Industries, among others. He is a senior member of the Special Committee on Ship Operation with ABS and an elected member of the NCB.

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