Offshore Wind Wire

BOSTON — Governors of two coastal states last week called for faster federal permitting of offshore wind turbines.

Gov. Jack Markell (D-Del.) and Gov. Donald Carcieri (R-RI) each told the American Wind Energy Association’s offshore wind conference that the current permitting process would hamper the U.S. offshore wind industry.  Markell said the United States could lose a chance to become a world leader in offshore wind.

The “competitive lease process is just too long,” Markell said.  “We’ve got to expedite all the regulatory processes.”

Bluewater Wind is developing a project near Delaware, and Deepwater Wind LLC has two offshore wind farms planned near Rhode Island.  Carcieri told the conference that an offshore wind industry would provide a economic boost to his state.

“We need a real urgency about this,” he said.

In April, President Obama announced that the Department of the Interior had finalized the renewable energy framework that would govern offshore wind development in federal waters.  Federal government officials are hoping that the framework will spur the offshore wind industry, but many skeptics still look to the long-suffering Cape Wind development.  That project has been in development for almost a decade.  Federal officials are expected to make a final decision on Cape Wind permitting by the end of 2009.