On October 28, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit) vacated and remanded the Federal Aviation Administration’s (“FAA”) “No Hazard” determinations for the Cape Wind Associates’ proposed wind farm off of the Nantucket Sound (“Cape Wind project”).  The DC Circuit ruling is another major setback to the Cape Wind project that had its loan program put on hold earlier this year by the Department of Energy (see May 23, 2011 edition of the WER).

On October 23, 2012, the Department of Interior (“DOI”) announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) will lease 96,430 acres of federal waters off the coast of Delaware to NRG Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC (“NRG”).   The lease is the first under DOI’s “Smart from the Start” initiative, which aims to streamline the process for developing wind in the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) by identifying areas for wind development through a “coordinated environmental analysis, public review and large-scale planning.”

On October 6, 2010, Secretary Salazar and Cape Wind Associates, LLC signed the first lease for commercial wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”), the Cape Wind Project.  The Cape Wind Project has 130 planned wind turbines which could then create up to 468 megawatts, with an average output of 182 megawatts.  The Cape Wind Project could power over 200,000 homes in Massachusetts, roughly 75 percent of electricity demand in Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Island.  The lease for the Cape Wind Project is for 28 years and will cost Cape Wind Associates a 2 to 7 percent operating fee while in production which equals $88,278 a year.

Summary of NOPR

On September 19, 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) proposing to revise its regulations implementing Sections 201 and 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) in light of changes in the energy industry since 1978.[1]