"We Want New Jersey To Be 'The Houston' Of Offshore Wind" Featuring Tim Sullivan, Jen Becker & Jonathan Kennedy, NJEDA

Today it was our pleasure to host the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) for an offshore-wind and infrastructure focused session. With Governor Murphy’s leadership, the NJEDA is working to position New Jersey as a hub for US offshore wind and the organization is currently managing the development of a 200-acre wind port off the southern coast of the state. Joining us from the NJEDA are Tim Sullivan, CEO, Jen Becker, Vice President, Offshore Wind, and Jonathan Kennedy, Vice President, Infrastructure/NJ Wind Port. Together, they have a great amount of experience in public policy and planning: Tim is a native New Jerseyan and his background is in investment banking. He was formerly Deputy Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and the Chief of Staff to the New York City Deputy Mayor. Jen is a public policy strategist and urban planner with 25 years of experience and Jonathan has a public infrastructure and finance focused background with US and international experience. We were thrilled to visit with the team and dive into project details. 
  
Our conversation started with Tim’s background and journey to joining the Governor’s staff and the NJEDA, the strategic and economic opportunities the wind port will provide, and how this wind port is unique in that it will host the infrastructure for both manufacturing and deployment/instillation of offshore wind. Jonathan shares his perspective on the commercial significance of the project, the state’s role in investing in the infrastructure, and the scale of the project. We then discuss the competition for offshore wind economic benefits and how the wind port has the potential to supercharge the South Jersey economy. Jen provides key information on the workforce involved and the state’s partnerships with schools, universities and labor unions to develop a talent pipeline. The wind port will not only help add offshore wind to the state’s power mix but will be a manufacturing hub for the wind industry and support tens of thousands of jobs. Another feature of the wind port is the potential for New Jersey to significantly increase domestic wind-related manufacturing and become an exporter of such products. The location is also well positioned in that the continental shelf is relatively shallow and allows for turbines to be installed 15 – 55 miles offshore. It also happens to be next to the Salem nuclear power plant which presents its own benefits (and challenges). Nuclear currently holds 40% of the state’s power mix and we discuss what the mix will look like in the future with an increase in wind and solar power. Overall, we are greatly impressed with this innovative and unique initiative and can’t thank the NJEDA team enough for sharing their insights. 
  
Mike Bradley kicked us off by relaying that over the last week, markets have been directionless as they await Wednesday’s April CPI & PPI results. Markets also continue to worry about additional regional banking stress and an unresolved US debt ceiling limit. He also highlighted that WTI price over the last week was stable but still trades at the lower end of its 5-month trading range due to growing recessionary concerns. He then shared notable trends from Q1 earnings season including a disconnect between the financial market and demand for US refiners, oil service call discussion dominated by rig/frac drops and current/future pricing guidance, and wrapped with key themes from E&Ps. Jeff Tillery joined today’s session and chimed in with his thoughts on the OFS sector moving past Q1 earnings season. 
  
We’re excited to follow the wind port project’s progress and hope you enjoy the discussion as much as we did!