Sept. 27, 2009, 2:00 a.m. - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced that technology and defense powerhouse Science Applications International Corporation is moving its corporate headquarters from San Diego to the company’s McLean campus in Fairfax County. The scientific, engineering, and technology applications company plans to invest $25 million as part of the relocation and is expected to create 1,200 new jobs over the next three years, adding to its current base of approximately 17,500 employees in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.  

            “As one of the largest employers in Northern Virginia, SAIC already has a significant, positive impact on communities in the commonwealth,” said Kaine. “By expanding its investment in McLean, SAIC not only joins a growing list of FORTUNE 500 companies who call the commonwealth home—it confirms Virginia’s status as the ‘Best State for Business in America.’”

 

SAIC is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The company’s approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. government civil agencies and selected commercial markets.  SAIC had annual revenues of $10.1 billion for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2009.  The relocation puts the company’s leadership team in close proximity to its federal government customers while creating new, high-paying jobs for the area.

 

          Kaine announced the commonwealth’s intentions to develop offshore wind resources. Following a multi-year study by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, a number of offshore wind developers have contacted the commonwealth to share their plans to lease federal waters off Virginia to develop wind power.

 

            “Wind power holds the potential to create new jobs and provide cheaper and cleaner energy to our citizens without having an adverse effect on the environment,” Kaine said. “I am looking forward to working with federal, state and local officials to begin the process of making Virginia a regional leader in clean energy.”

           

            On Sept. 15, Kaine submitted a letter to Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, formally requesting the formation of a federal-state-local task force to guide and facilitate the leasing process. The formation of the task force will be the first step in what will ultimately be the development of a clean, renewable energy source for Virginians and the introduction of a new sector to the Hampton Roads and Virginia economy.   

 

            In 2008, Kaine launched Renew Virginia, a year-long series of legislative and administrative actions promoting renewable energy, creating green jobs, and encouraging preservation of the environment. The development of offshore wind power is an important component of this effort to promote clean energy and provide career-length green jobs in the wind energy and associated sectors.  Developing the commonwealth’s offshore wind resources is included in the Virginia Energy Plan and the recommendations of the governor’s Commission on Climate Change.