WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0A former industrial site on Erie\u2019s waterfront could become part of America\u2019s shipbuilding future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA young man by the name of Will Lewis, who is a Navy vet, comes up with this idea and saying, \u2018we have this property and what are we going to do with it or what can we turn it into, to something that is actually a big plus up for our community,’\u201d said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One local man\u2019s idea has caught the attention of Pennsylvania\u2019s leaders in Washington. It may be a long shot to turn the former Erie Coke site into a naval shipyard- the site requires extensive cleanup and environmental remediation- but optimism and ideas are growing to try and bring shipbuilding back to Erie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shipbuilding thing could be it could just be transformational for our town,\u201d said Kelly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What was once a major industry in America, shipbuilding has drastically declined over the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have less than 1% of the shipbuilding in the world happening in America,\u201d said Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leaders in Washington say Erie can play both a unique and vital role at a time when the nation is looking to strengthen domestic shipbuilding capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s in the Iranian situation or perhaps in Taiwan or across the globe. That\u2019s\u00a0our responsibility- to make sure our military has\u00a0whatever\u2019s necessary and to provide the kinds of jobs, and all of it made right here, you know, in our backyard,\u201d said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erie touts many of the ingredients needed to compete in shipbuilding: a rare combination of deep-water access, dry\u00a0docks\u00a0and a skilled workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sens. McCormick and Fetterman, along with Congressman Kelly, say\u00a0they\u2019re exploring avenues from a federal angle to help bring it to life, with hopes of eventually reshaping Erie\u2019s economy while attracting major investments and job opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the reason shipbuilding is attractive in Erie for the shipbuilding investors is we have this great workforce, great skilled laborers that can actually build things,\u201d said McCormick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local officials, business\u00a0leaders\u00a0and development professionals are exploring several possibilities, from building commercial and military vessels to manufacturing ship components that could be shipped and assembled elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The process is still in\u00a0very early\u00a0stages. Several concepts and details still need to be addressed. But if the vision becomes reality, Erie could write another chapter in its rich shipbuilding history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be an incredible uplift. And more than anything else, people need to know that the future is bright, not dark,\u201d said Kelly.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0A former industrial site on Erie\u2019s waterfront could become part of America\u2019s shipbuilding future.\u00a0 \u201cA young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2288,136,138,137,2287,2286,2289],"class_list":["post-224039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-bureau","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-u-s-capitol","tag-washington-d-c","tag-washington-d-c-bureau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}