US streamlines offshore energy approval processes

Two US government agencies with direct responsibility for renewable energy projects yesterday inked a major new agreement designed to accelerate project approval processes and remove the risk of departmental "turf battles".

The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that they had agreed to divide up responsibility for different types of offshore renewable technology, bringing to an end potential bureaucratic overlap between the two agencies.

"Our renewable energy is too important for bureaucratic turf battles to slow down our progress," said interior secretary Ken Salazar. "This agreement will help sweep aside red tape so that our country can capture the great power of wave, tidal, wind and solar power off our coasts."

Staff at the two agencies are now preparing a memorandum of understanding to underpin the deal, but the DOI is expected to take responsibility for offshore wind and solar energy projects, while FERC will have jurisdiction over marine energy projects that generate power from waves and tides.

FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff said that the new streamlined permitting processes would "help get renewable energy projects off the drawing board and onto the Outer Continental Shelf".

The announcement came as Salazar provided evidence to the Senate Energy Committee, detailing the full extent to which government land could be used to generate renewable energy.

He said that the Bureau of Land Management had identified about 20.6m acres of public land with wind energy potential and 29.5m acres with solar energy potential, while there were also more than 140m acres of public land in western states and Alaska with geothermal resource potential.

He added that the National Renewable Energy Lab has identified more than 1,000GW of wind potential off the Atlantic coast, and more than 900GW of wind potential off the Pacific coast.

FERC commissioner Philip Moeller also told the Committee that interest in marine energy was expanding rapidly, with the agency having already issued 170 preliminary permits for projects designed to deliver a total of 10,000MW of energy.