OREC Summary- DOE Offshore Renewable Energy Conference
As previously posted here, on June 23 and 24, the U.S. Department of Energy held an Offshore Renewable Energy conference on June 23rd and 24th. It was a public meeting on information needs for resource assessment and design conditions. The purpose of the meeting was the focus on the critical and meteorological and oceanographic measurements [...]
OREC Files Comments on US Army Corps of Engineers Proposal
Yesterday, OREC filed comments on the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers proposal to create a Nationwide Permit for water-based renewable energy projects. You can view the filed comments here. In our comments, OREC commended the Corps on this important step towards streamlining the permitting process and offered constructive recommendations for improving the new nationwide [...]
Guidelines for MMS Renewable Energy Framework
MMS has just posted guidelines that provide details of the types of information required in making application for interim and commercial leases on the OCS and also for implementation of the MOU between MMS and FERC. From the issuance: These guidelines will evolve and will be revised and updated as necessary as we implement the [...]
President Obama Announces Ocean Task Force
On June 12, 2009, President Obama announced the formation of an Oceans Task Force, comprised of heads of various federal agencies, to develop a national policy on oceans that “ensures the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the health of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems and resources, enhances the sustainability of ocean and coastal economies, [...]
OREC Summary of MMS Regulatory Framework
As you know from our earlier post, the MMS regulations for leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf which issued back in April will take effect on June 22, 2009. In anticipation of the regulation effective date, MMS is conducting a series of workshops to describe this new Regulatory Framework and to respond to questions. For [...]
FERC FY10 Budget Shows Limited Growth For Marine Renewables
We at OREC recently reviewed FERC’s FY10 Budget to see if we could glean any insights about the future of the marine renewables industry. Going by FERC’s budget predictions, there won’t be much significant growth in the marine renewables industry, at least over the next two years. From the budget document: Since FY 2007, FERC [...]
President Obama, Secretary Salazar Announce Framework for Renewable Energy Development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf
The MMS Rule is out. Here’s a synopsis and News Release. The 579 page document is available online at: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-09462_PI.pdf. We’ll post a synopsis as soon as we’ve had time to absorb this. Sean and Carolyn will also be participating in tomorrow’s MMS conference call on the rule and we’ll update you if we learn any [...]
Memorandum of Understanding signed April 9,2009
On April 9, 2009, Commissioner Wellinghoff of FERC and Secretary Salazar of DOI signed a Memorandum of Understanding to clarify “jurisdictional understandings” regarding renewable energy projects in waters on the OCS. Salient features of the MOU along with my comments are listed below. 1. Acknowledgment of Jurisdiction: The MOU acknowledges that MMS has exclusive jurisdiction [...]
Breaking News: FERC and MMS Announce Agreement on Offshore Renewable Energy Development
On March 17, 2009, FERC and MMS announced an agreement to resolve the jurisdictional disputes which have stymied offshore renewables development. We’ve included the Press Release at the end of this post. Over the years, OREC and its members’ consistently supported a negotiated resolution of the MMS/FERC dispute and we are gratified that the agencies [...]
Background on FERC-MMS Juridictional Dispute
In the next week, we may see Congressional hearings on how to resolve the FERC-MMS jurisdictional dispute on the Outer Continental Shelf. The Congressional Research Service issued this paper on the topic in October 2008 (click here) and our counsel, Carolyn Elefant wrote an extensive post on the topic at her Renewables Offshore Weblog. Here’s [...]
