Lt. Governor John Carney at Senator Harris McDowell’s wind farm hearings.

Last month, Lt. Governor John Carney announced that the State of Delaware and Babcock & Brown, the parent company of Bluewater Wind, had reached a deal that would make Delaware a regional hub for East Coast wind farm operations. AUDIO

Today, Carney announced an agreement with Bluewater Wind to “help develop a workforce training program” for wind farm workers:

Lt. Governor John Carney announced today that Bluewater Wind and its parent company, Babcock & Brown, have committed to partner with a two-year college, such as Delaware Technical & Community College, to develop a regional training program for wind turbine maintenance technicians, provided approval of the proposed wind farm project. Babcock & Brown’s commitment includes a $150,000 grant to help Del Tech develop this program, as well as significant contributions in the way of technical expertise.

“This is a great opportunity for our State and the many students who will benefit from such a training program,” said Lt. Governor John Carney. “The wind power industry is set to grow rapidly over the next few decades, and with Babcock & Brown’s previous commitment to locate their regional hub in Delaware, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of high-paying jobs will need to be filled. This partnership would create the skilled workforce here in Delaware that Babcock & Brown, as well as other companies in the industry, will need to meet their demand.”

Carney deserves some credit. The last big idea knocked around to bring new industry to the State was when Congressman Mike Castle wanted to make Delaware a biotech hub (an idea that went down in flames like the Hindenburg). Other than that, all you ever seem to hear about is expanding casino gambling, (Representative Vince Lofink is pushing for sports betting and roulette is coming to the casinos this fall).

This is really some innovative thinking, and it means jobs and job training…I like the idea of new jobs for the State that don’t require learning how to balance five whiskey sours on a tray….

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Beaches, Delaware, Democrats, Education, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Health, Local Politics, Rehoboth Beach, Sussex County, Technology, WGMD Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.