Obama admin: Wind, baby, wind

By Jim Tankersley

A Tribune D.C. bureau Earth Day exclusive:

The Interior Department has finalized sweeping rules that clear the way for the first offshore wind turbines to be erected along the Atlantic Coast, the most aggressive move yet from an administration that hopes to shift the nation's offshore energy goals from oil to wind power.

The rules will set long-awaited guidelines for offshore leases, easements and royalty payments, which the Bush administration worked on for years but did not complete. Without the guidelines, potential wind projects in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and several other coastal states could not begin construction.

The department will announce the rules today, Interior officials said, and President Obama will mention them in his Earth Day appearance at an Iowa wind turbine factory.

Offshore wind power is currently used to generate electricity in Europe, where land for traditional onshore turbines is hard to come by. But there are no offshore wind farms now operating in the United States.

The most prominent proposed development would be built on Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod. That project has been opposed by the Kennedy family and others in part because it would be visible from Martha's Vineyard and other scenic areas.

The new rules reflect the administration's desire to develop alternative energy sources to offset the need for additional offshore drilling for oil and gas. Last year, as gas prices soared, Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, both agreed to consider the expansion of offshore drilling, including along the California coast.

But since taking office, Obama has delayed a Bush administration plan to expand drilling while the Interior Department has focused on developing offshore wind. The department recently estimated that offshore wind turbines could someday supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current demand.

"There are many states, especially along the Atlantic seaboard, that are ready to move fast forward with this," Department Secretary Ken Salazar said in a recent interview, adding that he sees offshore wind as having "significant potential" to round out an energy policy that includes clean-coal research, land-based wind and solar energy generation, and potentially more offshore drilling.

Offshore wind is especially attractive to some because the wind blows stronger and more consistently offshore. More importantly, turbines off the Atlantic coast - and, eventually, the Great Lakes and deeper waters off California - would lie close to the population centers that use the most electricity. That would reduce the need to string high-voltage lines from land-based turbines on the Great Plains to population centers.

But offshore wind turbine cost more than traditional wind turbines. In addition, current technology limits the turbines to shallower waters such as those found off the East Coast, which has less powerful winds.

The administration is trying to change that. The Energy Department plans to spend economic stimulus funds on research to improve and test offshore turbine blades.

"To the extent that you can improve the reliability of the operation, the operating costs of offshore wind go down," said Matt Rogers, who oversees the department's stimulus spending. "And to the extent that you can improve the blade operation, the yield ... (goes) up significantly."

First, the government needs to help get offshore wind projects up and running.

The new rules are "an absolute necessity" for that development, said Michael Olsen, a former Interior official who now lobbies for wind- and other energy-industry clients at Bracewell and Giuliani in Washington. "No project can go in the water without them."

At least two projects appear set to go: a development by the company Cape Wind Associates, in Massachusetts, and one by Deepwater Wind, in Rhode Island. Others are close behind in New Jersey, Delaware and New York.

Cape Wind has long been controversial but, thanks to backing from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick CQ and other state political leaders, appears poised for construction by the end of 2010. "Our hope is that other projects will be able to stand on our shoulders and benefit from a more expedited review," said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman.

Rhode Island officials have inked a deal with Deepwater for an offshore farm that could be finished within three years. The state eventually hopes to draw 15 percent of its electricity from offshore sources, said Andrew Dzykewicz, Rhode Island's Office of Energy Resources commissioner. Deepwater also has agreed to manufacture the pilings for the turbines in-state, creating an estimated 800 jobs.

Developers have also proposed projects in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Pacific Ocean, which boasts some of the nation's strongest offshore wind. But those deep-water projects would be more expensive and would require the turbines to be built on floating platforms.

"There's definitely huge potential" on the West Coast, said Mike Dvorak, a Stanford University research assistant and engineering doctoral student who has studied California's offshore wind conditions extensively. "But it's more of a future game."