SHAHEEN: CLEAN ENERGY CRITICAL TO FUTURE ECONOMIC GROWTH

(New Castle, NH) – The United States must continue to invest in clean energy research if it wants to stay competitive in the global economy, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said today following a boat tour of the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Ocean and Renewable Energy’s (UNH-CORE) Isle of Shoals research site.  The ocean energy technologies that CORE works to develop, Shaheen said, are one kind of clean energy that has tremendous potential for coastal areas like New Hampshire, in terms of energy independence, economic, and environmental benefits.

“We are going to see millions of jobs created in the clean energy sector in coming decades,” Shaheen said.  “China and other nations are aggressively developing these sectors of their economy.  We need to invest seriously in facilities like UNH-CORE and match the tenacity of our global competitors in vying for these jobs.”

"We are grateful for Senator Shaheen’s support for the Center for Ocean Renewable Energy,” said Ken Baldwin, UNH-CORE Director and Professor of ocean engineering.  “The ocean is a vast reservoir of energy, and developing the technology to extract this energy in an environmentally sustainable manner requires exploring cutting-edge technology to help our nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil and create jobs in our clean energy economy.”

Shaheen has broadly supported clean energy in the Senate and helped secure $750,000 in funding for CORE’s research efforts in Fiscal Year 2010.  She is a cosponsor of the Marine and Hydrokinetic Renewable Energy Promotion Act of 2011, which will help facilitate studies of ocean energy technologies, like those being conducted at CORE.  Shaheen is a national leader in the promotion of energy efficiency, and recently introduced a national bipartisan energy efficiency strategy that would help create jobs and save businesses and consumers money.

CORE is dedicated to the study of tidal, wave, ocean current, and offshore wind energies as environmentally sustainable ways to generate electricity.  Its team works with commercial developers looking to enter the sector, and trains future engineers, scientists, and policy makers to advance the development of ocean energy systems.