Offshore Wind Wire

Experts across Massachusetts gave positive reviews this week to the state’s ground-breaking Ocean Management Plan.

The plan, released Monday, zoned state waters for offshore wind development and is being promoted as the first of its kind in the country. It set aside two areas in the south of the state for large-scale commercial development and set out a framework for smaller projects elsewhere in Massachusetts.  State waters extend three miles from the shoreline.

The Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group that had been critical of concessions to local authorities over offshore wind zones, described the final plan in glowing terms.

“This plan is a milestone for Massachusetts and the country,” said Dr. Priscilla Brooks, director of the foundation’s Ocean Conservation Program.

Richard Delaney, executive director at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, took a similar position.

Energy and Environment Secretary Ian “Bowles and Assistant Secretary Deerin Babb-Brott and staff did yeomen’s work to develop such a comprehensive and high-quality plan within the very short timeframe,” Delaney said. “The final draft also clearly indicates that the outreach and public participation process … was productive and the changes to the final plan reflect issues and concerns raised by the public. This not only improves its substance but also helps with its implementation.”

John Miller, director of the New England Marine Renewable Energy Center at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, said that he was impressed by how the plan dealt with “ambiguity in many of the science based factors” and “encourages development but allows a level of local control.” He echoed state officials who called the plan an “adaptive, living document”.

“I think the state did a great job in a short time frame of incorporating a wide variety of stakeholder inputs,” Miller said. “I think everyone would agree that it is just a start.”

Both men applauded the plan’s delegation of responsibilities to Regional Planning Authorities, which was a matter of controversy before the final plan was released.

“There is a natural conflict between renewable energy projects, whose benefits tend to be widely distributed but whose cost are often local, and local jurisdictions,” Miller said. “Resolving that kind of conflict is what politics is all about.”

Let Vineyarders Decide, a Martha’s Vineyard group that had advocated for local control over any projects in state waters near the Island, could not be reached for comment.

Delaney said he has long supported the delegation of offshore wind regulation to local authorities, “especially with Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard because it acknowledges their existing authority, regional understanding and ability to engage decision-makers at a local level.”

“I believe that the changes represent a creative balance for sharing the responsibility for managing ocean resources,” he added.