NORTH KINGSTOWN – A newly-awarded $2.5 million federal grant will allow University of Rhode Island researchers to study an area of offshore wind development that they say is often overlooked – impact on local communities.
“Traditionally in the renewable energy sector, most of the funding goes to engineering, and some to economics,” said David Bidwell, associate professor of marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island, “and three’s a growing and recognition that widespread deployment of offshore wind – which is a goal of our administration – is as much of a social issue as it is an energy, technical or environmental issue.”
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Starting with a focus on impacts to New Bedford and New London, Connecticut, the project will also extend to a third community, which has yet to be selected.
“One of the difficulties with environmental justice is defining exactly what that means on the ground,” Bidwell said, and requires the identification and ongoing measurement of social indicators.
To determine the progress of abstract goals such as community welfare, researchers try “to find things that can be measured that operate as a proxy for whatever it is you’re trying to measure,” Bidwell said, such as employment rates, poverty levels and education access.
Researchers and communities have already pinpointed several ways that offshore wind developments can benefit their surrounding communities, such as job creation and attracting development, education and training opportunities. But to advance environmental justice efforts, Bidwell said, researchers need a better understanding of the benefits, as well as burdens that these projects could impose on communities.
The project will involve direct work with the New Bedford and New London communities, Bidwell said, and use methods such as interviews, surveys and workshops for input. Part of the grant funding is also set aside for grassroots organizations in each of the selected communities.
The project will also build on other URI projects funded by the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium, which investigate climate justice in Martha’s Vineyard, New Bedford, Narragansett, New London and East Hampton.
The award is part of a $72 million Department of Energy package rolled out under the Biden administration’s Investing in American initiative, which included a total of $6.5 million toward social science research across five projects.
Alongside Oregon State University, which also received $2.5 million, URI secured the largest grant in this category. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and Yurok Tribe in California also received $500,000 each.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
