A coming Massachusetts energy bill is expected to include regulations supporting the development of the Bay State’s vast offshore wind potential, state Senate President Stan Rosenberg said during a public forum on offshore wind held at the University of Massachusetts.
The omnibus bill should be submitted to the state Governor Charlie Baker by the end of July, and should encourage and support the creation of wind energy, specifically offshore wind, Rosenberg said during the UMass Amherst Public Forum on Offshore Wind in Massachusetts.
Other panelists at the forum included DONG Energy’s Thomas Brostrøm, Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, Erich Stephens, vice president of OffshoreMW, and Matthew Morrissey, executive director of OffshoreWindMA.
The forum was held shortly after the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board denied a two-year extension on a subsea cable permit to Cape Wind Associates for their 468MW offshore wind project in Nantucket Sound, saying that the project is unlikely to enter construction phase by mid-2017.
Referring indirectly to the Cape Wind project, Rosenberg said that offshore wind in Massachusetts had for the past fifteen years been identified with one project and the not so positive stories which had come out of it, and that it was a responsibility of that small group gathered at the forum to start telling a new story of offshore wind in Massachusetts.
Offshore WIND Staff