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A single wind turbine spinning off the U.S. Northeast coast today can power thousands of homeswithout the pollution that comes from fossil fuel power plants. A dozen of those turbines together can produce enough electricity for an entire community. The opportunity to tap into such a powerful source of locally produced clean energyand the jobs and economic growth that come with it is why states from Maine to Virginia have invested in building a U.S. offshore wind industry. But much of that progress may now be at a standstill. One of Donald Trumps first acts as president in January 2025 was to order a freeze on both leasing federal areas for new offshore wind projects and issuing federal permits for projects that are in progress. The order and Trumps long-held antipathy toward wind power is creating massive uncertainty for a renewable energy industry at its nascent stage of development in the U.S., and ceding leadership and offshore wind technology to Europe and China. The U.S. Northeast and Northern California have the nations strongest offshore winds. [Image: NREL] As a professor of energy policy and former undersecretary of energy for Massachusetts, Ive seen the potential for offshore wind power, and what the Northeast states, as well as the U.S. wind industry, stand to lose if that growth is shut down for the next four years. Expectations fall from 30 gigawatts by 2030 The Northeasts coastal states are at the end of the fossil fuel energy pipeline. But they have an abundant local resource that, when built to scale, could provide significant clean energy, jobs and supply chain manufacturing. It could also help the states achieve their ambitious goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change. The Biden administration set a national offshore wind goal of 30 gigawatts of capacity in 2030 and 110 gigawatts by 2050. It envisioned an industry supporting 77,000 jobs and powering 10 million homes while cutting emissions. As recently as 2021, at least 28 gigawatts of offshore wind power projects were in the development or planning pipeline. With the Trump order, I believe the U.S. will have, optimistically, less than 5 gigawatts in operation by 2030. That level of offshore wind is certainly not enough to create a viable manufacturing supply chain, provide lasting jobs or deliver the clean energy that the grid requires. In comparison, Europes offshore wind capacity in 2023 was 34 gigawatts, up from 5 gigawatts in 2012, and Chinas is now at 34 gigawatts. What the states stand to lose Offshore wind is already a proven and operating renewable power source, not an untested technology. Denmark has been receiving power from offshore wind farms since the 1990s. The lost opportunity to the coastal U.S. states is significant in multiple areas. Trumps order adds deep uncertainty in a developing market. Delays are likely to raise project costs for both future and existing projects, which face an environment of volatile interest rates and tariffs that can raise turbine component costs. It is energy consumers who ultimately pay through their utility bills when resource costs rise. The potential losses to states can run deeper. The energy company rsted estimated in early 2024 that its proposed Starboard Offshore Wind project would bring Connecticut nearly US$420 million in direct investment and spending, along with employment equivalent to 800 full-time positions and improved energy system reliability. Massachusetts created an Offshore Wind Energy Investment Trust Fund to support redevelopment projects, including corporate tax credits up to $35 million. A company planning to build a high-voltage cable manufacturing facility there pulled out in January 2025 over the shift in support for offshore wind power. On top of that, power grid upgrades to bring offshore wind energy inlandcritical to reliability for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity will be deferred. Atlantic Coast wind-energy leases as of July 2024. Others ind energy lease areas are in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Pacific coast and off Hawaii. [Image: U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement] Technology innovation in offshore wind will also likely move abroad, as Maine experienced in 2013 after the states Republican governor tried to void a contract with Statoil. The Norwegian company, now known as Equinor, shifted its plans for the worlds first commercial-scale floating wind farm from Maine to Scotland and Scandinavia. Sand in the gears of a complex process Development of energy projects, whether fossil or renewable, is extremely complex, involving multiple actors in the public and private spheres. Uncertainty anywhere along the regulatory chain raises costs. In the U.S., jurisdiction over energy projects often involves both state and federal decision-makers that interact in a complex dance of permitting, studies, legal regulations, community engagement and finance. At each stage in this process, a critical set of decisions determines whether projects will move forward. The federal government, through the Department of Interiors Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, plays an initial role in identifying, auctioning and permitting the offshore wind areas located in federal waters. States then issue requests for proposals from companies wishing to sell wind power to the grid. Developers who win bureau auctions are eligible to respond. But these agreements are only the beginning. Developers need approval for site, design and construction plans, and several state and federal environmental and regulatory permits are required before the project can begin construction. Trump targeted these critical points in the chain with his indefinite but temporary withdrawal of any offshore wind tracts for new leases and a review of any permits still required from federal agencies. Jobs and opportunity delayed A thriving offshore wind industry has the potential to bring jobs, as well as energy and economic growth. In addition to short-term construction, estimates for supply chain jobs range from 12,300 to 49,000 workers annually for subassemblies, parts and materials. The industry needs cables and steel, as well as the turbine parts and blades. It requires jobs in shipping and the movement of cargo. To deliver offshore wind power to the onshore grid will also require grid upgrades, which in turn would improve reliability and promote the growth of other technologies, including batteries. Taken all together, an offshore wind energy transition would build over time. Costs would come down as domestic manufacturing took hold, and clean power would grow. While environmental goals drove initial investments in clean energy, the positive benefits of jobs, technology and infrastructure all became important drivers of offshore wind for the states. Tax incentives, including from the Inflation Reduction Act, now in doubt, have supported the initial financing for projects and helped to lower costs. Its a long-term investment, but once clear of the regulatory processes, with infrastructure built out and manufacturing in place, the U.S. offshore wind industry would be able to grow more price competitive over time, and states would be able to meet their long-term goals. The Trump order creates uncertainty, delays and likely higher costs in the future. Barbara Kates-Garnick is a professor of practice in energy policy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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If youre in charge of selecting a leadership development solution for your organization, your budget might feel dwarfed by the goals and needs the program must address. And while the money you have to spend is limited, the options you have to choose fromcoaching, learning platforms, content libraries and moreare not. All of those factors can make it difficult to identify the option that will deliver the best ROI. An affordable subscription to a vast digital library of leadership videos and courses is no bargain if it doesnt deliver the results you need. On the other hand, premium coaching for a few key executives might feel extravagant at first but ultimately create a huge ripple effect across the organization. Its not that content libraries are bad, and coaching is good. The right solution for one company could be a waste of time and money in another. So how do you make the best choice based on your goals and your budget? Before you contact a single provider or even start reviewing the options available to you, consider the questions below. As a CEO focused on transforming leadership development through technology, I can tell you that the organizations that are clear on their answers get the best results from leadership development, no matter what their budget is or the specific programs they choose. What are your specific goals? Leadership development is too expensive (U.S. companies spend more than $81 billion on it per year) to be merely a feel-good purchase or a box to check for the year. Your investment in a program will pay off only when you know exactly what you want it to achieve. So think about your companys priorities right now. A few examples: Does your CEO want to create a coaching culture? Has low performance by new managers surfaced as a problem? Is innovation one of your priorities this year? Is your organization worried about the state of your leadership pipeline? If your goals seem way out of alignment with your budget, you may have to determine which goals need immediate attention and which ones can be acted on later. For instance, if your mid-level managers are jumping ship to your competitors, developing your current leadership bench needs attention right away. On the other hand, a broader initiative to build leadership capabilities across all departments could wait. How many people do you need to target? Is a company-wide program necessary to achieve your goals? Or would it be more effective to focus on a particular department or type of employee, such as first-time managers or a new executive team? Your answer can help you start narrowing down options. For example, if your top priority is developing a new executive team, coaching could be the right choice. Its highly customized and effective. But your focus is on a larger grouplike new managerscoaching might be out of your budget, and a digital learning platform could be a better fit. Similarly, perhaps you can send all first-time managers to a conference or bring in a facilitator for a weeklong program, but you cant afford these options for every employee whos interested in leadership development. Whats going on right now with the employees you want to develop? The capacity of the participants is often overlooked as a key factor in whether a leadership development solution succeeds. So, once youve identified the employees wholl be part of your program, think about what might be affecting their current bandwidth to learn, grow and change. Lets say youre considering a program that would bring in a facilitator for a week of daylong classes with your managers. That might sound like an amazing development opportunity, and for some organizations, it is. But if your managers are already overextended with their workloads, this opportunity could become just another source of stress. Instead of paying attention and learning from the facilitator, the managers might be covertly multitasking through sessions just to stay afloat. And what if program participants dont work onsite full time? Will a fully remote employee get the same experience as in-person participants? Will hybrid employees resent an extra day in the office? In such cases, a program that empowers your managers to learn on their own schedule might be a better solution. You could provide them with a micro-learning app or access to a learning library. (With those options, just be sure to also give them customized learning paths. Busy, stressed managers dont have time to sort through piles of content to figure out what they need, either.) Thinking through these questions will help you zero in on what your company really needs from leadership development and the type of program that best fulfills those needs. I know the vast array of options out there can seem dizzying, but this variety also means that you have a better chance of finding a program that truly aligns with what you need and can afford. The more clarity you can bring into the selection process, the more likely you are to avoid costly mistakes and choose a leadership development program that delivers the results you need.
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E-Commerce
Major world leaders are meeting for an AI summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks are expected as tech titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry.Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit from Monday.High-profile attendees include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.“We’re living a technology and scientific revolution we’ve rarely seen,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday on national television France 2.France and Europe must seize the opportunity because AI “will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better, and it’s up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings,” he said. Vance’s debut abroad The summit will give some European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president was just 18 months into his time as Ohio’s junior senator when Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.Vance was joined by his wife Usha and their three childrenEwan, Vivek, and Mirabelfor the trip to Europe. They were greeted in France on Monday morning by Manuel Valls, the minister for Overseas France, and the U.S. Embassy’s charge d’affaires, David McCawley.Before the trip, Vance made it clear that he intended to use the opportunity for frank discussions with European allies. “At the AI Summit, the main reason I’m going is actually to have some private conversations with the world leaders who are also going to be there,” Vance told Breitbart News. “I think there’s a lot that some of the leaders who are present at the AI summit could do to, franklybring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, help us diplomatically thereand so we’re going to be focused on those meetings in France.”On Tuesday, Vance will have a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron, with discussions on Ukraine and the Middle East on the agenda. Vance, like the U.S. president, has questioned U.S. spending on Ukraine and the broader approach to isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Within six months of taking office, Trump promised to end the fighting.Vance also addressed what he views as a concerning trend in Europe regarding free speech, a topic he raised last year during his attendance at the Munich Security Conference.“Unfortunately, you’ve seen in Europe a really significant, and I think, frankly, an evil trend towards censorship,” he said. “And you hear a lot about America’s moral leadership. One of the things that America’s moral leadership is going to be about during President Trump’s term is free speech. We want people to be able to speak their minds, and we believe that free and open debate is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of our European friends have gone the wrong direction there.”Later this week, Vance will attend the Munich Security Conference again, where he may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He plans to revisit themes he raised last year, including the need for NATO allies to take on a greater share of responsibility.Leaders in Europe have been carefully watching Trump’s recent statements on threats to impose tariffs on the European Union, take control of Greenland and his suggestion that Palestinians clear out of Gaza once the fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict endsan idea that’s been flatly rejected by Arab allies. Fostering AI advances The summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors like health, education, environment, and culture.A global public-private partnership named “Current AI” will be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest.The Paris summit “is the first time we’ll have had such a broad international discussion in one place on the future of AI,” said Linda Griffin, vice president of public policy at Mozilla. “I see it as a norm-setting moment.”Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, noted an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction by “moving away from this concentration of power amongst a handful of private actors and building this public interest AI instead.”However, it remains unclear if the United States will support such initiatives.“There’s a lot of complicated questions to resolve” around issues like the ability to control AI systems, Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, founder of Google’s DeepMind research lab, said. “But also I think even more complicated are maybe the geopolitical questions about things like regulation.”French organizers are also looking for the summit to ignite major investment announcements in Europe, positioning the region as a viable contender in an industry increasingly shaped by a growing U.S.-China rivalry.France plans to announce AI private investments worth a total of 109 billion euros ($113 billion) over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as “the equivalent” of Trump’s Stargate AI data centers project.In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun expressed opposition Monday to any moves to restrict access to AI tools. The release of DeepSeek has prompted calls in the U.S. Congress to limit its use for security reasons.“We oppose drawing ideological lines and oppose overstretching national security concepts and politicizing economic and trade issues,” Guo said.He said that China advocates for open-source AI technology and promotes the accessibility of AI services to share the benefits of artificial intelligence with all countries. India’s Modi is cohosting the summit Modi is cohosting the summit with Macron in an effort to involve more global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a U.S.-China battle.India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, stressed the need for equitable access to AI to avoid “perpetuating a digital divide that is already existing across the world.”Macron will also travel on Wednesday with Modi to the southern French port city of Marseille to inaugurate an Indian Consulate there and visit the ITER nuclear research site.France has become a key defense partner for India, with talks underway on New Delhi purchasing 26 Rafale fighter jets and three Scorpene submarines. Officials in India said that discussions are at the final phase and the deal could be inked in a few weeks. Kelvin Chan in Paris, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi, contributed to this report. Sylvie Corbet and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press
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