[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 3, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S1022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself, Mr. Carper, and Ms. Collins):
  S. 3064. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 
a credit for the production of energy from deep water offshore wind; to 
the Committee on Finance.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise to speak about legislation that I am 
introducing today, the Deepwater Wind Incentive Act, which will provide 
a critical long-term renewable production tax credit for developing 
deepwater wind facilities in the U.S.
  Deepwater wind refers to a new offshore wind technology that utilizes 
advanced floating technologies to remove restrictions on the depth of 
the water and expand our offshore wind resource by nearly a magnitude 
of six. Last year, Popular Science named deepwater wind one of the 
eight technologies that can revolutionize our energy paradigm. I am 
pleased to have worked with Senators Carper and Collins, two longtime 
leaders on offshore wind development, on this proposal and look forward 
to discussing this bill with my Finance Committee colleagues.
  Currently, there is a race to develop deepwater offshore wind 
facilities that could eventually be placed throughout our world's 
oceans and our Great Lakes. A Norwegian company is now moving forward 
with deployment of the first deep-water offshore floating turbine, 
which will be located in more than 328 feet of water. The key point is 
that if you can successfully develop a floating turbine at that depth 
it can be replicated throughout the world. Our competitors are 
recognizing this opportunity and are aggressively pursuing this 
technology. In fact, earlier this year the European Union Industrial 
Initiative announced a roughly 6 billion euro plan to invest in next 
generation wind technologies, including deepwater wind, with a goal of 
supplying 20 percent of its electricity through wind power.
  Deepwater wind is a resource that provides a tremendous potential for 
our country and provides a more consistent resource than onshore and 
near shore wind. Specifically, the U.S. has over 1500 gigawatts of 
deepwater offshore wind generation within 50 nautical miles of the 
coastline, and if our country can develop these deepwater technologies, 
we will have the equivalent of 1500 medium sized nuclear power plants 
available within a close proximity to the electricity demand of the 
U.S.
  Accordingly, I have modeled this legislation after the current tax 
credits available for nuclear power that exists in the tax code. 
Specifically, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 provided a production tax 
credit for the first 6,000 megawatts from advanced nuclear power. The 
Deepwater Wind Incentive Act, follows this template and provides a 50 
percent bonus renewable production tax credit for advanced offshore 
wind facilities that are placed in service in more than 60 meters of 
water. The credit is capped at the first 6,000 megawatts to provide an 
incentive for companies to expeditiously research and deploy this 
technology.
  Time after time, the Department of Energy has indicated that wind can 
provide a substantial amount of electricity in our country. The 
Department's ``20 percent Wind Energy by 2030,'' outlined the policy 
steps that would move wind to be a major source of American power. In 
the report, the DOE states that the wind industry ``has responded 
positively to policy incentives when they are in effect.'' This tax 
policy provides a consistent and clear tax credit to achieve the 20 
percent by 2030 that is considered in the report. I thank Senator 
Carper and Senator Collins for their assistance in crafting this 
legislation and I look forward to working with them to enact this 
legislation into law.
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