I would like to add to the list of offshore wind benefits that Mike Jacobs of Vineyard Power so aptly cited in his recent commentary.

I believe offshore wind has the potential to bridge the dangerous and widening economic and political divide between the “have” coastal states and the “have not” Rust Belt.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that our coastal and Great Lakes states account for nearly 80 per cent of America’s electricity demand (with an annual worth, based on actual 2016 US power industry generated revenue, of around 309 billion dollars). The department has also determined that enough environmentally benign offshore wind sites exist to reasonably produce twice as much power as the entire country currently uses.

This represents a truly enormous clean energy and manufacturing opportunity.

Thousands of offshore wind turbines exist abroad, with the number rapidly growing. But, at present, the United States — indeed, the entire western hemisphere of the planet — has, to the best of my knowledge, only five such machines in operation.

President Trump’s expressed hostility toward offshore wind is without rational basis. America greatly needs this green energy economic engine and the sooner it is up and running the better.

Thomas Sullivan
Vineyard Haven