Union workers, climate advocates and city leaders are raising concerns over the evident failure of Apex Clean Energy to prioritize local job creation on the company's 200 megawatt Bowman Wind project in western North Dakota. Bowman will provide power to the Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Mass Brigham, the City of Cambridge, and several other Boston-area nonprofit organizations under a virtual power purchase agreement.

Despite commitments in the Bowman Wind site permit application to prioritize local hiring, out-of-state workers account for roughly 95% of workforce on the project according to union estimates -- potentially resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity to locals based on an analysis of the project. 

The development of North Dakota's wind energy resources should be creating family-supporting jobs and providing "just transitions" for the state's energy workforce while injecting tens of millions of dollars into local economies. Unfortunately opportunities are lost when companies like Apex bypass local workers and instead rely on travelers who take their paychecks home when they leave.

 A 2018 report by the North Star Policy Institute found reliance on out-of-state labor can negatively impact local economies. Local construction workers contribute three or four times more to expected local economic activity than non-local workers, and on a project like Bowman Wind that can translates into millions of dollars lost to local families and economies.

The Mayor of Cambridge has expressed disappointment over Apex's conduct in a letter to company CEO Ken Young, and the City Council is now considering a resolution that would warn future customers to "exercise extreme caution before entering into any similar agreements with Apex". 

Climate leaders are also raising concerns, with Ceres indicating in a letter to the City that the company's failure to adequately address local workforce issues could "undermine the rapid deployment of clean energy at precisely the time when the City of Cambridge and every other municipality and business needs it most".