I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2148 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.

1.

Short title

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

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).

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.

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.