Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his key staff held a Public Hearing in Atlantic City today to get input on the future of offshore energy. The hearing was attended by several hundred interested parties representing environmental groups, oil & gas producers, wind energy firms, and local & state government.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his key staff held a Public Hearing in Atlantic City today to get input on the future of offshore energy. Several hundred attended and Secretary Salazar was praised for taking the time to listen to comments from diverse groups representing environmental organizations, oil & gas producers and users, wind energy developers, fisherman groups, state and local governments, and other interested parties.
Comments from attendees on potential uses of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) followed two key themes: renewable energy sources such as wind, tide, and wave energy vs. the more traditional sources of oil and gas production.
Proponents of renewable energy sources kicked off the discussion. Daniel Cohen spoke in support of environmentally sound production of OCS energy using wind farms. As president of Fisherman’s Energy of NJ, he is working to gain approval for a 350 MW offshore wind project 10 miles of the NJ coast. Mark Rogers of Cape Wind said his company’s project to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound……
John Weber of the Surfrider Foundation spoke about actually being IN the Atlantic, not in a boat, or looking from the shore, but spending hours in the ocean. He said that a Facebook posting on Offshore Energy logged 21,000 people opposed to offshore oil & gas production. He noted that they were not opposed to wind projects.
Representatives of state governments in NJ, ME, MA, RI, CT, DE, and VA spoke from various points of view. Most were supportive of wind projects and not supportive of oil and gas projects.
One issue to understanding the potential for OCS oil and gas energy production is that the geological data has not been updated in 25 years. Now, the geology has not changed in 25 years, but research techniques have, and it would be good to update our knowledge of the OCS geology so we have a more accurate idea of the potential energy reserves off the Atlantic Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Pacific coast. Of these, the Gulf is the best known, and the Atlantic the least.
Several commenters did express support for oil and gas development and these tended to approach this issue from two points of view:
1. OCS oil and gas production can be done in an environmentally sound way.
2. We need to use all our resources to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and gas.
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Highlights of public comments include:
John Peterson, Congressman (former) of Pennsylvania spoke passionately about the need to open the OCS to oil and gas production. A main issue, he indicated, is that the winds do not always blow with enough force to generate power, so you need traditional power sources to ensure a reliable power grid when the winds are low. Therefore, he indicates, offshore wind will not reduce our need for coal-fired generation (or other sources of energy).
Richard Moskowitz, representing the American Trucking Association, spoke to our need to keep our trucking industry in diesel fuel, since almost everything we use moves by truck. This means we need to have enough oil and gas available.
Karen Bise, a geologist who has studied oil and gas reserves and climate change spoke to the desirability of integrating potential oil and gas production platforms with renewable energy capabilities such as wind and tide generation.
The morning session concluded around noon, and Secretary Salazar conducted a news conference. When asked if offshore drilling 100 miles offshore represents an environemental danger, he indicated that the agency does not know at this point. He indicated that a comprehensive energy policy is a key issue for President Obama, and the hearings being conducted on the potential for OCS energy development is an important part of developing this strategy.
