OREC Secures Some Benefits for Ocean Energy in New Energy Bill…But Tax Credits Must Wait Until Next Year
On December 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Act 2007. OREC played an instrumental role in securing important benefits for the ocean and marine renewable energy industry, including: * Authorizing $250 million for Research, Development, Demonstration and Commercial Application to Expand Marine and Hydrokinetic Renewable Energy Production. * Authorizing the Secretary of [...]
President Sean O’Neill Gives Update on Legislative and Regulatory Developments
If you’d like to get a summary on what’s happening the wave and tidal industry, take a look at Sean O’Neill’s recent Ask the Expertscolumn that summarizes what’s been going on with wave and tidal energy over the past few months. There’s a run down on the status of tax incentives for the House and [...]
Inslee Bill Support Marine Renewables
Thanks to the vision of Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) and the hardwork of lots of stakeholders, a bill has been proposed that would provide funding for marine renewable research and provide low interest loans to finance demonstration projects and study environmental effects. What’s unique about the Inslee legislation is that it acknowleges uncertainty about marine [...]
OREC Works With Others To Secure Funding for Ocean Energy
Back in late fall 2005 and February 2006, OREC was hard at work, supporting legislative proposals like this and this to secure funding for wave, tidal and current renewable technologies. A few weeks ago, with the efforts of our allies in the ocean development community, we have moved closer to that goal, as described in [...]
OREC Supports Existing Procedures for Cape Wind
The Senate has started its debate over legislation to give Governor Mitt Romney the power to veto the the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind project, which would be located in Nantucket Shoals off the coast of Massachusetts. A Boston Globe story on the current status of the bill is available here. OREC opposed the original [...]
OREC Hits the Hill for Appropriations for Ocean Energy
OREC hit Capitol Hill last month to lobby for a $60 million appropriation for ocean energy. The request breaks down as follows: *Basic and applied technology research: $20 million [DOE] *Test Facility & Ocean demonstration projects: $30 million [DOE] *Identify location and permit test facility: $ [...]
OREC Opposes the Don Young Amendment
Yesterday, OREC sent out an action alert to our 500 person mailing list, asking for action to oppose an amendment by Congressman Don Young to the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act that would sink the Cape Wind offshore wind project and set dangerous precedent for any other offshore renewable project proposed in the United States. As [...]
For Posterity
The testimony that OREC submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee this past summer on a production tax credit for ocean renewables has been saved for posterity here in the Energy Bill archives.
OREC Comments on The National Energy Supply Diversification and Disruption Prevention Act
Here’s another reason to join OREC, if you haven’t already. Last week, OREC learned about this draft legislation, National Energy Supply Diversification and Disruption Prevention Act, sponsored by House Resource Committee Chairman Pombo. At first blush, the bill didn’t seem to be much more than another piece of Katrina-motivated, feel good policy. But upon closer [...]
OREC Summary of the Energy Bill
Here’s the conference version of the Energy Bill (pdf) (in all its 1724 page glory!). We weren’t able to highlight the provisions relevant to ocean but we’ve summarized them here. To navigate the bill, we recommend using Adobe’s word search feature to locate certain passages of interest. We’re happy to report that this is the [...]
