[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2148 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2148

     To promote the development and use of marine renewable energy 
                 technologies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 2009

Mr. Inslee (for himself, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Wexler, Mr. 
Delahunt, Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Engel) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on Science and Technology, and in 
 addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
                        the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To promote the development and use of marine renewable energy 
                 technologies, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Marine Renewable Energy Promotion 
Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION.

    For purposes of this Act, the term ``marine renewable energy'' 
means energy from--
            (1) waves, tides, and currents in oceans, estuaries, and 
        tidal areas;
            (2) free flowing water in rivers, lakes, man made channels, 
        streams, oceans, and tidal areas; and
            (3) differentials in ocean temperature (ocean thermal 
        energy conversion).

SEC. 3. RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION.

    (a) Program.--The Secretary of Energy shall establish a program of 
marine renewable energy research, separated from the Wind and 
Hydropower program, focused on--
            (1) developing new marine renewable energy technologies;
            (2) reducing the manufacturing and operation costs of 
        marine renewable energy technologies;
            (3) increasing the reliability and survivability of marine 
        renewable energy facilities;
            (4) integrating marine renewable energy into the national 
        electric grid;
            (5) identifying opportunities for cross pollination and 
        development of economies of scale between offshore wind and 
        marine renewable energy sources;
            (6) identifying the environmental impacts of marine 
        renewable energy and ways to address negative impacts; and
            (7) application of advanced systems engineering and system 
        integration methods to identify critical interfaces and develop 
        open standards for marine renewable energy, the transfer of the 
        resulting intellectual property to industry stakeholders as 
        public information through published interface definitions, 
        standards, and demonstration projects, and the development of 
        incentives for industry to comply with such standards.
    (b) Marine-Based Energy Device Verification Program.--
            (1) Establishment.--The Secretary of Energy shall establish 
        a Marine-based Energy Device Verification Program (MEDVP) to 
        provide a bridge from the wave, tidal, or current energy 
        capture device design and development efforts underway across 
        the industry to commercial deployment of marine renewable 
        energy devices.
            (2) Purposes.--The Marine-based Energy Device Verification 
        Program shall fund, facilitate the development and installation 
        of, and evaluate marine renewable energy projects, in 
        partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute, the 
        National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest 
        National Laboratory Marine Sciences Laboratory, the Sandia 
        National Laboratories, in conjunction with universities and 
        private companies, and other appropriate organizations, in 
        order to--
                    (A) increase marine renewable energy experience; 
                and
                    (B) build and operate enough candidate devices to 
                obtain statistically significant operating and 
                maintenance data.
            (3) Objectives.--Specific objectives for the Marine-based 
        Energy Device Verification Program shall include--
                    (A) verifying the performance, reliability, 
                maintainability, and cost of new marine renewable 
                energy device designs and system components in an 
                operating environment;
                    (B) providing States, regulators, utilities, and 
                other stakeholders with a valid opportunity to test and 
                evaluate marine renewable energy in new areas;
                    (C) documenting and communicating the experience 
                from these projects for the benefit of utilities, 
                independent power producers, other nonutility 
                generators, device suppliers, and others in the marine 
                renewable energy development community; and
                    (D) resolving environmental issues through robust 
                characterization, reliable impact prediction, effective 
                monitoring, development and use of adaptive management, 
                and informing engineering design to improve 
                environmental performance.
    (c) Adaptive Management and Environmental Fund.--
            (1) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
                    (A) the use of marine renewable energy technologies 
                can reduce contributions to global warming gases, and 
                such technologies can be produced domestically;
                    (B) marine renewable energy is a nascent industry; 
                and
                    (C) the United States must work to promote new 
                renewable energy technologies that reduce contributions 
                to global warming gases and improve our country's 
                domestic energy production.
            (2) Establishment.--The Secretary of Energy shall establish 
        an Adaptive Management and Environmental Fund, and shall 
        provide grants from that fund to entities for the purpose of 
        compliance with Federal, State, or local regulatory permit 
        requirements to assess and demonstrate the environmental 
        effects of marine renewable energy projects. Compliance costs 
        for which funds made available under this paragraph may be used 
        include environmental studies, design, fabrication, deployment, 
        operating, monitoring, environmental mitigation, and 
        decommissioning costs.
            (3) Eligibility.--In order for an entity to be eligible for 
        a grant under this subsection, the regulatory permit must 
        include conditions for the removal of the marine renewable 
        energy project based on findings by the permitting authority 
        that the marine renewable energy project has unacceptable 
        adverse impacts on the environment. Project removal shall not 
        be required in the absence of findings by the permitting 
        authority that the project has such unacceptable adverse 
        impacts.
            (4) Public availability.--The results of any assessment or 
        demonstration funded under this subsection shall be made 
        available to the public, except to the extent that they contain 
        information that is protected from disclosure under section 
        552(b) of title 5, United States Code.
            (5) Audit requirements.--Any developer accepting funding 
        from the Adaptive Management and Environmental Fund shall be 
        required to track payments received from the Fund, and certify 
        annually that Fund payments were utilized only for purposes 
        authorized under this subsection. The Secretary of Energy shall 
        establish rules to oversee and audit developer use of funds. At 
        a minimum, audits must take place on an annual basis. The 
        Secretary of Energy may declare a developer ineligible for 
        continued participation in the Adaptive Management and 
        Environmental Fund upon a finding of inappropriate use of 
        funding.
            (6) Sunset.--The Secretary of Energy shall transmit a 
        report to the Congress when the Secretary of Energy determines 
        that the technologies supported under this subsection have 
        achieved a level of maturity sufficient to enable the 
        expiration of programs under this subsection. The Secretary of 
        Energy shall not make any new grants under this subsection 
        after the report is transmitted under this paragraph.
            (7) Additional environmental funds.--State resource 
        agencies that are processing applications for permits required 
        for marine renewables projects that have received disbursements 
        from the Fund under this subsection are eligible to seek 
        funding to assist staff with understanding and evaluating 
        applications and participating in the Federal Energy Regulatory 
        Commission or Minerals Management Service regulatory process.
            (8) National environmental policy act of 1969.--Nothing in 
        this subsection shall be construed as eliminating or minimizing 
        a developer's obligations to comply with the requirements of 
        the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary of Energy for carrying out this section 
$250,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2021.

SEC. 4. 5-YEAR ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION PERIOD FOR EQUIPMENT WHICH 
              PRODUCES ELECTRICITY FROM MARINE RENEWABLES.

    (a) In General.--Subclause (III) of section 168(e)(3)(B)(vi) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
                                    ``(III) is described in section 
                                45(d)(11) (without regard to any placed 
                                in service date), and converts marine 
                                and hydrokinetic renewable energy (as 
                                defined in section 45(c)(10)) into 
                                useable energy/electricity, and''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
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