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Get ready for the offshore wind boomNew permitting rules open up a huge renewable resource
Some of the principal obstacles to the development of clean energy are not economic or technological, but regulatory. America’s government consists of myriad fiefdoms, divided by geography and administrative function, each presiding over a crazy quilt of rules that often reflect outdated historical circumstances. Regulatory reform is desperately needed, but it’s also one of the most boring topics in the universe, which perhaps explains why the issue gets so little attention. So, anyway, good for Obama for issuing rules that will finally make it easier to develop offshore wind farms. Offshore wind has incredible potential in the United States, but projects are often hamstrung by the permitting process. Presently, energy developers have to deal with the Council on Environmental Quality, Fish and Wildlife Service, the coast guard, the EPA, NOAA, and a host of other agencies when seeking approval for an offshore wind farm. Under the new set of regulations, developers can go to a simple web site, enter a driver’s license number and a credit card, and within 30 seconds receive approval for offshore wind farms up to 500 megawatts in size, as long as they promise not to site the turbines on top of any whales. OK, I made up everything in that last paragraph. Permitting a new facility is still a long and complicated process (pdf), but it’s now one with clear rules. Wind developers are ecstatic:
Now the administration just needs to start banging heads on rules surrounding the electrical grid, and we might start to get somewhere with this whole clean energy thing. Comments
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Off shore wind takes a little of the urgency out of grid improvements because most of the US' wind resources are just off shore of most of our consumers, even for Chicago and the Midwest: almost the entire surface of the Great Lakes is an excellent wind source. See
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_maps.asp
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And so what's wrong with siting on whales?
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i have to say that i am very saddened that the human race has gotten itself into such a pickle as to have to install permanently metal/electrical type structures anywhere, inour oceans or great lakes. why are we not backing up and saying 'oh my god, what have we done, where did we go wrong and why' and why are we not saying "STOP!" We have gone too far. it doesn't matter if the mills are 2 or 5 or 10 miles off shore, they will be being seen by someone and will definately be being noticed by marine life. get a back bone america and grow up, just "STOP!" all your consuming and polluting. this is not OK, to just keep pushing farther and farther out, into the back country, wilderness, oceans, lakes, everywhere and develop energy producing structures. sure we have the technology but more importantly we should have the core knowledge that it is all wrong, exploiting the few last open areas. i am an Oregonian and an avid naturalist and i am angry at you, the general populace, on this planet. grow up. wake up. STOP. use your energy to change your lifestyles and habits instead of trying to create more ways to litter the earth with structures and things. we have the spiritual basis now, to be enlightened enough to STOP and to know that we have to say no to supply and demand. we have to merely CHANGE. there is a new sustainable way. less is more. find the peace that having less brings. we haven't much left. let it go. let it be. change yourself first, change your neighbors and community next. use your energy to do this, to create sustainable change, please.
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Well said anon. Unfortunately our cries will not be heard by many, but we must continue to live our lives in a responsible way.
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