Obama administration announces deregulation of offshore wind power

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Reiterating the Obama administration’s commitment to offshore wind power, the U.S. Department of the Interior has announced an initiative it said will speed siting, leasing and construction of new projects on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. The department said the plan is modeled after its approach to solar development in the U.S. West, where eight large-scale projects have been approved since the beginning of October.

...

Salazar said in a press release, " ... to fully harness the economic and energy benefits of our nation’s vast Atlantic wind potential we need to implement a smart permitting process that is efficient, thorough and unburdened by needless red tape."

The point man on the Interior Department’s new approach is Michael R. Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE). His agency is proposing a revision to its regulations that would eliminate a second request-for-proposal step in the leasing process “in situations where there is only one qualified and interested developer,” the Interior Department statement said, trimming the leasing process by up to a year.

BOEMRE will work with states to identify “Wind Energy Areas” (WEAs) off the coasts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts within the next 60 days. The program will expand to other Atlantic States in 2011, potentially including offshore New York, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

“We believe the regulatory change we are proposing, along with our efforts to identify priority Wind Energy Areas offshore, will result in a more efficient and coordinated permitting process for offshore wind,” Bromwich said.

http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/11/feds-want-quicker-offshore-wind-process/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

They just keep it coming, eh? Many economic indicators are up (income & spending, jobs, record corporate profits, consumer sentiment, mortgage applications) and now we're going to de-regulate a new energy sector to speed up tapping into this resource and get folks to work more rapidly? Man, this really sucks.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Mr. Big Dog

[^_^ 5,021]

They just keep it coming, eh? Many economic indicators are up (income & spending, jobs, record corporate profits, consumer sentiment, mortgage applications) and now we're going to de-regulate a new energy sector to speed up tapping into this resource and get folks to work more rapidly? Man, this really sucks.

A few more months of this, and we'll all be Kenyan homosexuals. The man must be stopped!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

A few more months of this, and we'll all be Kenyan homosexuals. The man must be stopped!

I swear, he does this just to pizz off the Republicans. Must be because he can't be doing it for the country he hates so much.

[scandal 951]

A few more months of this, and we'll all be Kenyan homosexuals. The man must be stopped!

Wow, I've never been a Kenyan homosexual before. That sounds kind of interesting, actually.

Maybe it's worth letting him continue just a bit longer to see if it's as exhilarating as it sounds?

[JohnSmith2007 353]

They just keep it coming, eh? Many economic indicators are up (income & spending, jobs, record corporate profits, consumer sentiment, mortgage applications) and now we're going to de-regulate a new energy sector to speed up tapping into this resource and get folks to work more rapidly? Man, this really sucks.

Yeah, the economy is just peachy.

Fed lowers outlook for economy through 2011

(AP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials have become more pessimistic in their economic outlook through next year and have lowered their forecast for growth.

The economy will grow only 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent this year, Fed officials said Tuesday in an updated forecast. That's down sharply from a previous projection of 3 percent to 3.5 percent. Next year, the economy will expand by 3 percent to 3.6 percent, the Fed said, also much lower than its June forecast.

Fed officials project that unemployment won't change much this year, averaging between 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent. The current unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. Progress in reducing unemployment has been "disappointingly slow," the central bank said, according to the minutes of its Nov. 2-3 meeting.

The darker view helps explain why the Fed decided at its meeting earlier this month to launch another round of stimulus. The central bank plans to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next eight months in an effort to lower interest rates and spur more spending.

The Fed is slightly more optimistic about 2012, in part because officials expect the bond-buying program to have a positive impact. The economy should grow 3.6 percent to 4.5 percent that year, a tick better than June's forecast of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent.

The economy will also grow 3.5 percent to 4.6 percent in 2013, the central bank said, the first time it has issued projections for that year.

The economic outlook was prepared at the Fed's meeting earlier this month and released Tuesday. It reflects the views of the Fed's board of governors and its regional bank presidents.

The jobless rate will be 8.9 percent to 9.1 percent in 2011, Fed officials predict. That's much worse than June's projection of 8.3 percent to 8.7 percent.

By 2012, when President Barack Obama faces the electorate, unemployment will be 7.7 percent to 8.2 percent, up from the previous forecast of 7.1 percent to 7.5 percent.

The Fed's forecasts of a slow economy with only gradual improvement in the job market are broadly similar to those by private economists. An Associated Press survey of 43 leading economists last month found that they expect the economy to expand just 2.7 percent in 2011, after growing only 2.6 percent this year.

The unemployment rate will remain at 9 percent by the end of 2011, the economists said.

The Fed said that data released since its last projections showed the economy was weaker in the first half of this year than it previously thought. The economy grew at only a 1.7 percent annual pace in the April-June period, much lower than the first quarter's 3.7 percent rate.

Consumers are still holding back on their spending, the central bank said, and recent reports on housing, manufacturing, international trade and employment were all weaker than expected at the June meeting.

The central bank expects prices will remain in check. Inflation is projected to rise 1.1 percent to 1.7 percent in 2011, little changed from the previous forecast of 1.1 percent to 1.6 percent.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gmQPno2aRwKq-kJecOUpMoETcg-A?docId=2471df065e9045afb61de42418efb6ac

[lostinblue 1,989]

Inflation is projected to rise 1.1 percent to 1.7 percent in 2011

[peejay 327]

BOEMRE will work with states to identify “Wind Energy Areas” (WEAs) off the coasts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts within the next 60 days. The program will expand to other Atlantic States in 2011, potentially including offshore New York, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

And a lot of those states are deep in the heart of liberal Yankeeland. It will be fun to watch as these wind turbines spoil the pristine view of their shorelines. Then we will see who walks the walk and who talks the talk.

The first turbines in Massachusetts should be built directly offshore of the Kennedy compound off of Martha's Vinyard. That will be the test.

Actually, I'm not against this proposal. For decades the south central and southwestern Gulf of Mexico coasts have bore the brunt of offshore development of energy resources while the hypocrites in namby pamby land (California, Florida, etc.) soak up resources and whine NIMBY.

I say...put up or shut up!

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I'm not against this proposal.

peejay is now a Kenyan homosexual. let scandal know how it goes, he may join you.

[peejay 327]

peejay is now a Kenyan homosexual. let scandal know how it goes, he may join you.

You don't know how wrong you are.

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You don't know how wrong you are.

[scandal 951]

You don't know how wrong you are.

You mean you're an Ethiopian homosexual?