Steps are being taken by Barack Obama’s new administration to begin leasing tracts off U.S. shores for electricity generation projects which are making use of wind and ocean currents.
Obama said that the initiatives will open many ways to “large investments” in projects on the outside of the continental shelf and that there is already large interest in putting wind-power turbines offshore at the coasts of New Jersey and also the state of Delaware. Obama also said that he will rigorously continue to pursue “market-based caps” for emissions of CO2, a gas linked to climate change.
“The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy,” Obama said in Newton, Iowa. “America must be that nation.”
In Iowa, Obama delivered his “Earth Day” message and said that he is trying to rebound from the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs and to replace them with work tied to alternative energy. While promoting his budget plans, the president said that he will tie the goal of greater energy production with building a sustained economic recovery.
Obama also visited a plant operated by Trinity Structural Towers Inc. in Newton, Iowa which manufactures towers for wind turbines.
In regards to jobs and energy, Obama said that wind turbines could generate as much as 20 percent of the US total electricity by the year 2030 and has the potential to create up to 250,000 new jobs.
“The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy; it’s a choice between prosperity and decline,” Obama said.
The US has vast areas available off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts which have the potential for 1,900 GW of electricity, which is more than twice the nation’s current power capacity. Additionally to this, there is also huge potential for power from wave and tidal projects offshore.
Lease Process
A Lease Process framework announced by Obama will establish a process for companies to get leases in order to develop offshore renewable resources as well as revenue-sharing methods for adjacent states.
While Obama thinks that the country’s electricity grid is in urgent need of an update, he is focusing the “bulk” of his energy policy on reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil as well as cutting overall carbon pollution.
