$70M MA Funding Infusion To Jumpstart Salem Wind Port Project: Mayor Pangallo

SALEM, MA — Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo is hailing $70 million in state funding included in Gov. Maura Healey's supplemental budget as a means to jumpstart the wind turbine port construction that stalled late last year when the Trump Administration slashed $34 million in federal funding from the project.

In an Earth Day "State of the Environment" message, Pangallo said the funding "will allow the project to finally get under construction this year."

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"Salem remains steadfast in its commitment to becoming Massachusetts' second offshore wind marshaling seaport, even as the industry navigates significant headwinds imposed by the Trump administration," Pangallo said this week. "These challenges affect not only Salem, but every community working to support the growth of this renewable, American source of boundless clean energy."

Pangallo called the federal funding clawback a "reckless move" in September, three years after Congress approved the funding under the Biden Administration, and declared that the city and state would explore "all options and legal avenues available" to restore the investments.

"This project was set to transform 42.3 acres of vacant land into a heavy-lift port for marine industries, which would have generated hundreds of jobs and provided a boost to our economy," Pangallo told Patch at the time. "The unilateral decision to terminate the agreement, without any consultation with the Salem Harbor Port Authority, the city of Salem, or the port developer, is unacceptable."

Pangallo told Patch last year that the city was "continuing the efforts necessary to advance the project" despite what Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called at the time the Trump Administration's "unlawful attempt to freeze the development of wind energy."

Campbell and AGs from 17 other states filed a lawsuit seeking to unfreeze the funding.

"These challenges are speed bumps, not roadblocks, however, and Salem's focus remains on the longer-term horizon," Pangallo said in his Earth Day message. "This work is about securing American energy independence, creating good American manufacturing jobs, and driving a clean energy economy in the state.

"Across the nation."

Pangallo said this past fall, a full cohort of students completed a MassHire North Shore Clean Energy and Offshore Wind Training Program designed to employ residents from "underrepresented, low-income, or environmental justice neighborhoods on the North Shore."

"While these workforce development efforts are creating economic justice, 'climate tech' is also a powerful means for addressing climate justice," he said this week. "That's why Salem is collaborating with partners across the North Shore and into the Merrimack Valley.

"This region can and must play a meaningful role in the Commonwealth's developing Climate Tech strategy."