Changing Tack: Equity, Maritime Labor, and Offshore Wind in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

The Biden Administration has championed ambitious policies to accelerate offshore wind energy development in the United States. With a focus on combating climate change, advancing clean energy, and creating jobs, the Administration aims to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030. The Administration has also adopted a “whole of government” approach to advancing equity for historically marginalized and underserved groups. With reference to a chain of equity-based policies at the federal, state, and local level this thesis argues that offshore wind and blue economy development must be viewed through an equity lens, including the impacts on workers. A significant demographic of the offshore wind workforce will be maritime workers. Tasked with executing these ambitious projects, workers on the docks and at sea will face changes to their work environment due to offshore wind. This project builds upon the growing body of work surrounding offshore wind development by using criteria from the literature of equity, precarious labor, decent work, and just transition in direct dialogue with maritime workers’ perspectives. Through a “just transition methodology,” this project centers the perspective and experiences of maritime workers to evaluate the prospects and practices of labor equity within offshore wind development. Utilizing in-depth interviews, these discussions add nuance to our understanding of existing challenges facing maritime labor while attempting to address emerging issues due to new maritime development projects associated with a potential clean energy transition. Workers discuss existing inequities, job security, opportunities for advancement, and their broader visions of the blue economy and just transition. By interviewing workers engaged in ports and staging, maritime construction, and the operation and maintenance of wind projects, this project contributes to the growing discussion around offshore wind, equity, and public policy that strives toward a just transition while also suggesting policy changes that can help create a more equitable work environment for maritime workers under the policy directives of the Biden Administration.