Featured member of the inaugural cohort of the PACE Offshore Wind Scholars program: Cam Poole, GNO Inc.

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Cam Poole, Energy & Innovation Associate | GNO, Inc.

Cam Poole is Energy & Innovation Associate at Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) -- the regional economic development organization that services the 10-parish Greater New Orleans Region. In this role, Cam manages the GNOwind Alliance, or, GNOwind. GNOwind is a member-based group of stakeholders from across the State of Louisiana seeking to support the growth of the offshore wind industry, as well as ensure that our State achieves maximum economic impact in the process. Cam also supports the relationship between Louisiana's emerging offshore wind sector with the ability to provide green hydrogen to the state's strong industrial base by supporting the Executive Director of Future Energy in the execution of GNO, Inc.'s H2theFuture program. This program received $50M from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and $25M from the State of Louisiana in October of 2022 to catalyze the development of clean hydrogen opportunities in the South-East region.

Why wind? Why Louisiana? Why now?

Wind, because Louisiana has the 4th strongest wind energy resources in the country (per NREL) and can leverage this abundant natural resource to decarbonize the State's strong industrial base.

Now, because we have declining employment in our offshore workforce by oil and gas, and can use emerging OSW developments as an avenue to employ these high-skilled citizens of our State and avoid further brain drain. They're already being employed on the East Coast!

Louisiana, because we have the workforce, infrastructure, and ingenuity needed to tackle our market's offshore wind challenges (like Hurricane force windspeeds) to welcome a cleaner, greener, and stronger economy!