Email

Print

  Wind News

East Coast states pledge to develop offshore wind resources

The Memorandum of Understanding will foster federal-state cooperation in the development of offshore wind resources

Offshore oil exploration may have come to a halt in the light of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, but US states along the East Coast are all signed up to pursue America’s offshore wind energy resources.

The governors of 10 states lining the Atlantic agreed with the federal government yesterday to work to encourage the safe and responsible development of offshore wind farms.

The Memorandum of Understanding with US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar established an Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to take a regional approach to developing wind power around the Outer Continental Shelf.

The Consortium includes the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina have established the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium.

The agreement will form the basis of federal-state cooperation and collaboration on issues of mutual interest. It will see an action plan developed to set out priorities, goals, recommendations and steps required to develop offshore wind along the East Coast.

The Department’s new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will over see the development of renewable energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Jobs

Top ten: All states on the Atlantic coast were invited to join, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina now form the Atlantic Offshore Wind Consortium (pictured in blue)

“Renewable energy resources hold great economic promise,” Secretary Salazar said. “Appropriate development of Outer Continental Shelf wind power will enhance regional and national energy security and create American jobs through the development of energy markets and investments in renewable energy technologies.”

Several offshore wind projects have already been proposed for East Coast states, including the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts, the Block Island wind farm in Rhode Island, along with projects in Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.

Developing an offshore wind industry in the US could create thousands of manufacturing, construction, operations and maintenance jobs.

Secretary Salazar said: “By one estimate, if our nation fully pursues its potential for wind energy on land and offshore, wind can generate as much as 20 percent of our electricity by 2030 and create a quarter-million jobs in the process.”

Regional

As part of efforts to drive the development of offshore wind resources, the Department of the Interior also said yesterday it will set up a new regional renewable energy office in Virginia.

Virginia Governor Robert F McDonnell said his state’s shallow waters and deepwater port access meant it would be able to “move quickly to harness wind energy and bring it to market”.

He said: “By signing this Memorandum of Understanding with my fellow east coast governors and Secretary Salazar, we have indicated a mutual desire for federal-state cooperation on wind energy that will lead to greater production, and more jobs, not just in Virginia but all along the east coast.”