Patrick looks forward to offshore wind power auction
Reflecting on his administration's economic and criminal justice initiatives over the past eight years, Gov. Deval Patrick cast his gaze Tuesday toward his remaining weeks in office when he said there would be a substantial auction for offshore wind power developers.
Speaking in a one-on-one discussion with public relations executive Helene Solomon, Patrick said that in December the federal government would auction off a large tract south of Martha's Vineyard that he said had the potential to power 60 percent of the state's households.
In June, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Acting Director Walter Cruickshank and Patrick announced that more than 742,000 acres offshore Massachusetts would be available for commercial wind energy leasing.
According to the federal government, the proposed area is "the largest in federal waters and will nearly double the federal offshore acreage available for commercial-scale wind energy projects."
In written testimony, state Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett has recommended that the federal board reduce its minimum bid of $2 per acre for each lease area to $1 "because of the relatively large size of these lease areas" and the depth - 50 feet - of the waters in many areas, which she said could cause development to lag behind areas with shallower waters. Bartlett also recommended reducing rent and operating fees to increase the likelihood of development.
"The scale of development will help mitigate the impact of climate change, improve the air our citizens breathe, and create thousands of jobs not just in the Commonwealth, but all along the East Coast," Bartlett wrote in an Aug. 18 letter to Cruikshank.
Patrick has long supported the Cape Wind energy project planned for the waters of Nantucket Sound. While still in the works, that project has still not taken off and continues to face opposition.
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