THE SOUTH COULD RISE ON OCEAN WIND

Southeast US needs to rethink policies for offshore wind to succeed, advocates say

Michael Copley, December 12, 2013 (SNL)

“The southeastern coast of the U.S. offers vast opportunities for offshore wind energy development, but regulatory and utility structures in the region currently provide few options for overcoming the sector's high cost of development, according to Perrin Dargan, an attorney with K&L Gates...[O]ffshore wind, therefore, is ultimately too expensive for utilities…Perhaps the industry's best hope, Dargan said, would be for lawmakers to allow utilities to recover the cost of ongoing construction of offshore wind projects through electricity rates, as some are currently able to do on fossil fuel assets…[N]o commercial offshore wind farms [are] operating or even under construction in the U.S…[The Southeast] holds 63% of the East Coast's shallow-water wind resource…” click here for more

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