Local (DE) impact of Obama's energy policy announcement yesterday

[kristopher]

Offshore wind regulations released
Bluewater, other projects can now proceed

By AARON NATHANS • The News Journal • April 23, 2009


Long-awaited federal regulations governing offshore wind farms will help ease the permitting of the Bluewater Wind project, company officials and observers say.
Advertisement

Bluewater officials said they will also instill confidence in potential investors at a critical time for the project.

No offshore wind projects could go forward until the final rules governing offshore renewable energy projects were released, as the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service did Wednesday. President Barack Obama announced the new rules at an Iowa Earth Day event at a wind turbine manufacturing facility, and mentioned Delaware's project in his remarks.

"This will open the door to major investments in offshore clean energy. For example, there is enormous interest in wind projects off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware and today's announcement will enable these projects to move forward," Obama said.

Obama also said that the nation's wind power held the potential to generate as much as 20 percent of its electricity by 2030.

The rules were held up for so long in large part because of an interagency turf battle, resolved a few months into the Obama administration.

Jeremy Firestone, an associate professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware, noted that just because a state holds a competitive bidding process to build an offshore wind farm doesn't necessarily mean the winner will get the rights to build on that spot in the ocean. But the new federal rules will make it more likely to happen.

The rules give great weight to projects that are the result of state-sponsored bidding, Firestone noted. That's also good news for projects slated for the coasts of New Jersey and Rhode Island, he said. Like Delaware, those plans were commissioned by state governments. Only the Delaware project includes a signed contract to buy the power.

"It doesn't make sense to have one competition to sell the energy, and a second competition to place the structure in the water," Firestone said. "It's very good news for Bluewater, and it's very good news for the industry and for states."

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090423/BUSINESS/904230371