Ocean Included in Senate Energy Bill

Senate Passes Energy Bill 85-12

The United States Senate today passed the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 with Ocean Renewable Energy Amendments covering the Renewable Energy
Production Incentives, Mandatory Purchase Requirements, and Production Tax
Credits for ocean renewable energy produced from tidal, current and wave
technologies.

Additionally, the bill includes language, similar to the
House version, that encourages the Secretary of Energy to provide funding for
the assessment of ocean energy technologies. Also, included in the Bill is a Federal Renewable Power Standard (RPS)
that has Ocean Energy listed as a qualified renewable. This RPS has a national goal of forcing the U.S.to derive
10% of its energy needs from renewables by the year 2020.

 Both H.R. 6 and S. 10, the House and Senate Bills, will go
into Joint Conference where differences in the two bills will be negotiated and
a final bill, if agreed upon, will be presented to the President for signing
into law.

“Fresh from this success, The Ocean Renewable Energy
Coalition (OREC) will continue to
promote our industry’s interests. We made the difference,” stated Sean O’Neill,
President of OREC. “Now, as we move into conference, it is important that we
get the House conferees to support the Senate’s position on including the
Production Tax Credit and National RPS in the final energy bill. Large interests can’t wait to eliminate
support for competing approaches, however small, so we need to maintain our
commitment to the promise ocean energy holds in helping to secure our energy
future.”

 
“As we all know, even modest support can help to produce
energy from cleaner, more reliable sources. Traditional energy players should, if anything, get behind the smallest
of investments with such bright and promising potential. Over time, through judicious and insightful
investments, many large gains that have redefined the energy playing field have
started as non-traditional initiatives,” O’Neill added.

Our thanks go out to the many friends who have written and
called their elected representatives in Washington and advocated on behalf of ocean renewable technologies. Special thanks are in
order for Senators Murkowski (R-Alaska)
and Cantwell (D-Washington), Congressman Inslee (D-Washington), Scott Sklar of
The Stella Group, Ltd., Henry Gentenaar of Reluminati, Damian Kunko and Scott
Lindsay of SMI; the teams at Verdant Power, the Ocean Renewable Power Company,
The Ocean Energy Council, RenewableEnergyAccess.com, and EnergyOcean2005.

“We began this campaign two months ago at the
EnergyOcean2005 Conference,” stated OREC CEO, Carolyn Elefant. “It was clear
the industry needed a voice in Washington.
Together, our voices have quickly become one unified, and effective,
chorus. Now it’s on to conference.”