Rhode Island considers 1-year ban on offshore wind power
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Environmental regulators decided Tuesday they need more information before banning offshore wind turbines and wave energy developments in Rhode Island for at least one year, including projects like the 100 wind turbines Gov. Don Carcieri has proposed building off the coast.
If approved, the temporary ban would greatly hamper Carcieri's already longshot plan to get 15 percent of the state's electricity from wind power in three years. And environmentalists say with electricity prices rising and global warming worries growing, now is not the time to shy away from alternative energy projects.
"This is the time to be getting going," said Cynthia Giles, an attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, which opposes the moratorium.
Members of the Coastal Resources Management Council, which regulates state waters, said they cannot vote until getting more information on a $6 million study that would be conducted during the proposed moratorium.
CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate told the council members that Rhode Island lacks in-depth regulations for wind farms. His staff has requested the one-year ban so it can start a zoning plan for state waters. The goal is to find locations that could be appropriate for wind farms and other projects.
He said reaching a public consensus about the best spots for wind farms could help avoid the public opposition that has delayed for six years a major wind turbine project proposed for Nantucket Sound in neighboring Massachusetts.
But wind power advocates -- including the governor -- fear the moratorium could cause unnecessary delays.
New York-based Allco Renewable Energy Group has proposed building up to 338 turbines off Rhode Island. Company spokesman William Fischer asked the council whether its proposed moratorium could stop developers from building offshore stations to collect wind information.
In general, banks will not invest in wind power projects without at least two years of wind data, he said.
New Englanders pay some of the most expensive electricity bills in the nation, largely because the region depends heavily on expensive natural gas. Rhode Island lacks a single, major wind turbine but political leaders here have called for harnessing the wind that ripples along the coastline as a cheap and pollution-free energy source.
Lawmakers in the General Assembly unveiled bills this month to stimulate renewable energy development by forcing National Grid, the state's largest energy company, to buy electricity from wind turbines and other renewable sources.
Carcieri also has proposed building enough offshore wind turbines to generate about 15 percent of the state's electricity needs by 2011, a deadline his chief energy adviser has said is nearly impossible to meet. The moratorium would apply to state waters up to three miles off the coast, a zone that includes about three-quarters of the potential wind farm sites identified by Carcieri's administration.
Carcieri sent his top energy adviser to argue against the moratorium.
"The signal we want to send is that we are moving full speed ahead on developing these renewable energy projects," Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said. "A moratorium sends a conflicting message." 