With billions in economic opportunities and thousands of jobs on the line, the Local Content Insights Series highlights the vital need to understand taxpayer opinions, attitudes, and perceptions. Presented by compliance technology and deployment company Local Content and powered by offshore wind developer Vineyard Offshore, this series explores public sentiment on the offshore wind and manufacturing industries in Staten Island and Brooklyn. By harnessing advanced data analytics to identify key patterns and trends, it delivers actionable insights that align infrastructure projects with public priorities, streamlining permitting processes and ensuring compliance with local and domestic content regulations to create meaningful benefits for taxpayers.

New York’s push toward achieving infrastructure local and domestic content policy goals relies on earned public trust and authentic stakeholder engagement. These infrastructure policies are designed to drive local economic, workforce, and community development for taxpayers, but their success hinges on positive public sentiment. Without taxpayer support, the full benefits of these initiatives cannot be realized.

In today’s fast-paced world, individuals’ and organizations’ public digital footprint creates a realistic reflection of their opinions, attitudes, and perceptions. Local Content Insights deploys large model data analytic technology that analyzes millions of data points, tracking social media trends, press coverage, and digital behavior to provide actionable insights. These insights create a roadmap to help industry leaders, community stakeholders, and government entities of the challenges and opportunities in delivering small business opportunities, job creation, and measurable community benefit investments.

Vineyard Offshore shares this commitment, emphasizing the importance of early and consistent stakeholder engagement. Their Excelsior Wind project stands as a model of how offshore wind initiatives can bring transformative benefits to taxpayers across New York.

Excelsior Wind, a 1.3 GW offshore wind project by Vineyard Offshore, will generate $2.6 billion in direct economic benefits for New York over its lifetime, with 35-40% of spending targeted to disadvantaged communities, totaling up to $578 million by year three. The project, with a capacity to produce 5,000 gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually—enough to power 700,000 homes—will create over 2,000 jobs and 5,200 job-years using union labor and project labor agreements. Overall, it’s expected to generate $6 billion in total economic benefits. Vineyard Offshore is committing $50 million to workforce development, supply chain support, and environmental initiatives, including $39 million for MWBE/SDVOB upskilling. The project also plans investments in New York ports, upstate supply chains, and Long Island infrastructure. The proposed landfall site at Jones Beach minimizes community impact while promoting local initiatives with fast-install transmission technology to lower costs. Over 100 community organizations support the project, with over 20,000 stakeholders engaged since 2023. These efforts comply with New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

The Local Content Insights Series underscores that building trust with residents and small businesses isn’t just a helpful step—it’s essential. Staten Island and Brooklyn illustrate how industry can meet regulatory mandates while delivering benefits that resonate locally. Projects aligning with public priorities unlock supply chain advantages and help achieve New York’s ambitious climate and economic objectives. As New York prepares for pivotal policy shifts in 2025, Staten Island and Brooklyn demonstrate how public-private partnerships can transform communities. By addressing economic and environmental goals together, these boroughs are setting the stage for a new era of clean energy and manufacturing.

Who Should Attend

• For Businesses: By aligning with local voices, developers can build trust, reduce opposition, and meet compliance goals.
• For Residents: Transparent, community-focused projects create jobs, opportunities, and meaningful investments.
• For Government: Robust public-private collaboration strengthens economies and ensures policy objectives are met.