Speaking at a press conference at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, MD, Salazar dubbed the initiative “Smart from the Start.” The new, streamlined permitting process for offshore wind development would be “unburdened by needless red tape,” Salazar said.
Salazar was joined at the conference by Interior Department Deputy Secretary David Hayes, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Delaware Senators Thomas Carper and Christopher Coons, and Jim Lanard, president of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition.
The new initiative comes as a response to drawn-out process currently required to obtain the required offshore wind development permits. For the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts that process took over nine years.
As part of the “Smart from the Start” initiative, BOEMRE will work with states along the Atlantic Coast to preemptively identify areas for wind development. This process is set to being within the next 60 days, although some states, such as Massachusetts, have already gone through this process.
Lanard, who represented the offshore wind industry at the event, praised the new policy.
“Offshore wind developers and their supply chain partners need regulatory certainty as they consider when and where to invest in projects and manufacturing facilities,” Lanard said. “The steps Secretary Salazar has taken today reinforce the Obama Administration’s commitment to offshore renewable wind energy and show the industry the path to permitting and constructing these long-awaited projects, each costing more than a billion dollars to build.”
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