by Bruce Goodman

A road map for the development of offshore wind energy resources in the Great Lakes was handed to Governor Granholm by the Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council in early September. The report finds that 20% of the state owned bottomlands in the lakes has a depth of 30 meters or less, which makes it practicable for offshore wind farms.  Among its recommendations, the report suggests a 6-mile buffer zone from ordinary shorelines and a 13-mile buffer from national park shorelines, as well as listing other unsuitable development areas. It recommends that the state consider financial incentives for developers, such as tax incentives, grants, pricing, cost recovery guarantees, and favorable bottomlands lease rates. The report identifies “lessons learned” from experiences in other countries, and recommends that the Council’s life be extended through September 1, 2010 to continue its work.  That recommendation has been accepted and future meetings have been scheduled.

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 by Bruce Goodman

For some time there has been a cry for a comprehensive national energy policy.  Reliance on the free market to drive energy outcomes has led to a place the country does not want to be.  Clean power technology development has been left to others, principally Europe.  Oil imports to feed the nation’s transportation needs have driven foreign policy decisions and created economic insecurity.  Foreign automobile makers are ahead on energy efficiency and energy technology.  Climate change appears to be upon us whether we are ready or not.  The popular answers to these challenges are aimed at new and different price signals to the marketplace—gasoline tax, carbon tax, cap and trade, cash for clunkers, tax incentives, tax credits, tax rebates, grants, feed in tariffs–and some thought it difficult to solve an algebraic problem with only three variables.  Can there be a single “energy policy”?

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