Last Friday, Minerals Management Service of the Department of Interior released its Draft Programatic Environmnetal Impact Statement for the Outer Continental Shelf. Stated another way, this means that the federal government has taken its first step in formulating policy for offshore renewables. The outer continental shelf or OCS is commonly defined as waters beyond the 3 mile coastal jurisdiction of states to 200 hundred miles offshore. The following editorial appears in today's Cape Cod Times, it it worth taking a look at.
For five years, we have been promoting an ocean zoning policy, a comprehensive plan to protect certain offshore areas from commercial development. While the commercial development of specific areas of federal waters is appropriate for renewable energy projects, the federal government, in consultation with state and local agencies and other stakeholders, should identify key areas that are off limits to development.
“At this early stage in the development of the program and regulations, the MMS did not want to limit the possibilities of development in federal waters by identifying locations with the best resources,” the document states. “In addition, MMS does not have (and cannot reasonably attain) the requisite information to ‘map-out’ the best areas for alternative energy project activity.”
They’ve got to be kidding.
First, the MMS contains a treasure trove of information about the Outer Continental Shelf, gathered from years of regulating the offshore oil and natural gas industry.
Second, where there are gaps in data, the MMS could propose to work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, state coastal zone management experts and oceanographers to identify appropriate offshore areas for renewable energy development.
For the entire story, click here - http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/commentary/editorials/2007/03/a_poor_start.htm
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Example one: GWB pledges in his state of the union address to vastly increase our use of ethanol in place of gasoline. Then he trots down to South America on a friendship tour, and makes it crystal clear that he is not willing to remove the tariff that blocks imports of Brazilian ethanol. Of course not- because then he would incur the anger of Iowa farmers and he needs their votes for the Republican party. So- our new policy is to grow all the needed ethanol from corn, except that we do not grow enough corn to do the job, and even if we did the project would increase the price we pay for meat, as almost all American livestock is fed with corn.
Here in Virginia, a project to build large wind turbines in Highland County was proposed. It immediately received a firestorm of criticism from those who worried about bird mortality, scenery degradation, or noise.
It's hard choices people. Do you want your great grandkids to be flooded out of Florida from melting glaciers in Greenland? No? Then you are going to have to make some hard choices and use renewables. Global warming is not a joke, it is a serious threat, and it requires serious answers.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976944424