Robert Collier Email & Phone Number

Berkeley, California, United States

Founder and CEO of company developing a multi-use port facility to spur California's offshore energy transition.

California, United States

I directed government, labor, and tribal relations, plus ports facility planning, for Cierco US Corp., a developer of floating offshore wind power. In California we were in the environmental review process for the proposed CADEMO project, with four 15 MW turbines in state waters off Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Central Coast. Specific initiatives that I personally directed included:1) Negotiation of a Community Benefits Agreement with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. This CBA, finalized in November 2023, was the first between an offshore wind developer and a Native tribe on either the West or East Coasts.2) Negotiations for a Project Labor Agreement with the State Building Trades Council and IBEW 1245. This PLA, signed in November 2022, was the first in California’s offshore industry. It covers onshore and offshore construction, assembly and installation, and O&M. 3) Initiation and coordination of a coalition of Central Coast groups in obtaining two grants totaling three years from the California Workforce Development Board to create a High Road Training Partnership. This involved supply chain research, economic impact analysis and workforce planning to create a model for in-state economic and social benefits.

I developed outreach, research, and governmental affairs strategies for renewable energy companies, labor unions, and environmental groups as they worked to advance solutions toward California’s goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2045. I initiated the offshore wind program of Environment California, positioning the state's NGO sector to support the responsible development of the industry as a key component of the state's climate policy

Berkeley, California

I was a researcher, writer and strategist on the labor and workforce needs of climate policy in California and other states. My work had particular emphasis on offshore wind, the refineries sector, cap and trade, and worker training needs. I authored two white papers published by UC Berkeley on industrial strategy for offshore wind development in California. These reports pioneered the concept of “high road” policies for the offshore wind sector and analyzed opportunities for maximizing local/domestic content in the supply chain. Please see the “Publications” section below.

Consultant on California and U.S. policies for renewable energy, electricity markets, and the oil industry. How to communicate the complex details of climate policy in ways that resonate with policymakers and the general public alike.

I was a roving international staff correspondent coving energy, climate, and an eclectic, inter-disciplinary mix of issues from Latin America to the Middle East to China to North America. Oil and gas development, wars, hybrid autos, renewable energy, trade policy, the full gamut - the headlines and way behind the headlines. I dodged missiles, tank shells, and bullets in Iraq, I examined the oil and gas industries of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Wyoming and Colorado, I explored in granular detail why energy consumption is so different in Japan and California. I hunted caribou with the Gwitch'in tribe in the Yukon and I dissected renewable energy development in California. What makes energy, money, wars, the environment, and real people's lives intersect in such fascinating, important, little-understood ways? I was lucky to have free rein at a historically fleeting moment when such things were possible - until long-form U.S. journalism was gutted by the harsh economics of digital media. Awarded three national journalism prizes by the Society of Professional Journalists, National Press Foundation, and the Associated Press.