Offshore Wind Wire

By Peter Brennan

Massachusetts officials are working with the town of Gosnold to develop an offshore wind leasing process for that region in southeastern Massachusetts, a senior ocean planning official said today.

State officials are also developing rules and regulations to implement the overall Ocean Management Plan, the nation’s first attempt to zone offshore wind development in state waters and comprehensively manage ocean resources.  That plan identified two sites for large-scale offshore wind development, southeast of Gosnold and south of Martha’s Vineyard.  Gosnold, with a population of less than 100, has embraced the plan.  Officials on Martha’s Vineyard were more skeptical and were given the right to determine the “appropriate scale” of any development in their waters.

“We are working with the town of Gosnold to develop the process going forward that could lead to an RFR for that designated site,” said Deerin Babb-Brott, the assistant secretary for oceans in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.  “The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is currently developing planning guidelines for wind development in their jurisdictional waters … any future development will be predicated on the outcome of their planning process.”

Sources in Gosnold confirmed that there have been meetings between town and state officials, although they said that nothing concrete has been decided at this point.  Another meeting is scheduled for early March.

Babb-Brott said implementation of the Plan will take place on two tracks, substantive and administrative.

“On the administrative side, some rulemaking and internal regulatory work will be done in the coming months to layer the Plan into the state’s regulatory plan” he said.

On the substantive track, Babb-Bott highlighted the federal-state task force that is helping with the leasing process.

“The task force has met twice already and is developing a request for interest for areas in federal waters off of Massachusetts that will be available to potential developers,” he said.

State officials are also improving and refining their data on ocean use and habitat, as required by the Plan.  Researchers are gathering more data on human uses of Massachusetts waters, such as recreational boating, recreational fishing and commercial fishing.  The state is working with researchers from the University of Massachusetts to refine their ocean current circulation model.  Babb-Brott pointed out that the current work on science and data requirements is funded through a $2 million grant from the Massachusetts Ocean Partnership.