OREC Welcomes Two Summer Staffers
June 10, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Filed under Blog, OREC Newsroom
OREC is pleased to announce that we have two staffers on board for the summer - Alex Smith and Anthony Moliterno, who are students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and participants in the Washington Internship Institute Program. We’ll be keeping our staffers busy with all of the Hill and regulatory matters that will be ongoing this summer. However, if any OREC members are in need of assistance here in Washington where our staffers might be able to help out, please contact us.
In addition to these staffers, we are also supporting a student fellow through the Sea Grant Project under the supervision of Megan Higgins at Roger Williams University Law School’s Marine Affairs program. Our research fellow is exploring the viability of using MOUs (memorandum of understanding) to coordinate and expedite the FERC or MMS regulatory process. The final work product will be available in early September.
In 1998 and 1999 I was involved as a U.S. Coast Guard officer in developing a Memorandum of Understanding bewtweeen USCG and the Minerals Management Service in a similar case of defining agency jurisdiction and procedures for a new technology (floating offshore production facilities including floating production, storage, and offloading systems FPSOs). MMS was receptive to the idea of using a MOU to more clearly define agency roles and expectations (effectively drawing the lines between the two agencies). The USCG/MMS MOU has since been updated. The potential MOU between MMS and FERC on offshore renewable energy could be developed in a similar way. My experience is that you have to have a dedicated high-level “champion” in each agency to give the MOU process momentum or it will become just another assignment for mid-level staffers and may not be given priority. Active involovement and assistance from the industry (e.g. OREC) is also critical if you hope to develop a MOU that serves the needs of both the agencies and industry. Industry should be prepared to invest the resources needed to develop a “strawman” MOU for consideration of the agencies to “jumpstart” the process.
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