Ocean Commission Releases Preliminary Report - With Chapter on Offshore Renewables

For those who follow the development of offshore renewables, there's an important document just out that you don't want to miss: the chapter on offshore energy development contained in the Preliminary Report just issued by the Ocean Commission. The Ocean Commission is an executive body appointed by the president pursuant to the Oceans Act of 2000.

With respect to renewables, the Report provides a good overview of the current competing and disparate state of regulation for different offshore technologies. The report recommends creation of some type of comprehensive ocean management body which would, among other things, implement more coordinated and consistent regulation for offshore renewables to promote development. The report also endorses some type of fee system so that the federal government and adjacent states would receive a "fair return" from offshore renewables development.

The report solicits comments, with a deadline set for May 21, 2004. Absent from the report is how a new regime would affect existing offshore proposas like Cape Wind which is now under review by the Corps of Engineers or the AquaEnergy Group's proposed Makah Bay Wave Energy Project, now undergoing licensing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. These issues will likely be fleshed out in more detail in the comment process.

This
article reports on the Ocean Commission's report and in particular, the potential impacts on the Cape Wind project.