The federal agency appointed in 2005 by Congress to oversee the development of offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy projects has released its proposed regulation. It is 450 pages and reported to be far from easy to understand.
Tom Jensen, a lawyer who helps wave and tidal start-up companies navigate the federal permitting process, says “On the surface at least. a set of new rules as thick as a phonebook sends a strong signal that the infant renewable energy industry should expect a very heavy regulatory hand from the Interior Department.”
Wendy Williams, a Cape Cod-based science writer, wrote an editorial this morning in the Providence Journal regarding the Minerals Management Service’s proposed regulations. She’s followed the Cape Wind Project and written a book about it.
There has been for some years a proposal to put a wind farm off of Cape Cod’s south shore. It has been very controversial and the politics has been nasty. One of the primary opposing groups, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, is a fossil fuel funded group. Ms. Williams and others see the hand of the Alliance’s cadre of attorneys in the proposed regulations.
Ms Williams states “The MMS proposed regulations call for a series of auctions for a particular site that proceed according to the sites use. A site will be opened for a bid for exploration of its feasibility, and, later another bid will occur for the final construction of a project. This means that a company could spend a lot of money finding out whether a particular site is appropriate for wind, wave, or tidal development, but,after gathering the data, not have enough money to succeed in the final bid to allow for project development. Some large company like Exxon could step in and take the site over.”
There’s nothing new in America’s industrial history about the pioneers get overwhelmed by monied interests. At least we could develop sensible governance of these emerging industries without ‘cooking the rules’ …which Ms. Williams implies. I’m still wondering if it is not easier to be fair in a principles-based governance vs a rules-based governance?
Richard Pace 