Gov. Jack Markell appointed Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara to lead the state’s delegation to the task force after receiving a request from the Minerals Management Service.

“Delaware is positioned to lead the nation in deploying the substantial offshore wind resource and moving toward a clean energy future,” said Markell. “We must work closely with our federal partners to ensure that bureaucratic delays do not slow the development of this critical resource in our efforts to maximize the economic, public health and environmental benefits for all Delawareans.”

“Delaware stands ready to chart a new course for the country in the effort to transition to clean, renewable energy which will strengthen our economy, enhance our national security and confront the growing challenges from climate change,” said O’Mara. “Working closely with the federal Minerals Management Service, through the first such task force in the country, is a critical step to ensuring an extremely efficient process to develop Delaware’s unique offshore renewable energy resource is used in the near future.”

Delaware is a national leader among all states in its consideration of adding offshore renewable energy to its portfolio of power generation resources. Since the Delaware General Assembly passed House Bill 6 in April 2006 directing Delmarva Power to contract with new power resources to guarantee a stable process for electricity, Delaware has achieved several milestones, including: the General Assembly’s amendment in July 2007 to the renewable portfolio standard requiring that 20 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2019; the selection of Bluewater Wind LLC’s proposal to construct an offshore wind facility in response to Delmarva Power’s November 2006 Request for Proposals for new electricity generation capacity; and the execution of a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement in July 2008 between Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind LLC for 200 megawatts of power from an offshore wind facility proposed on the outer continental shelf offshore of Rehoboth Beach. As a result of this progress, Delaware is widely recognized as the likely home of the first offshore wind development in North America.

President Barack Obama announced April 22 that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) finalized the framework for renewable energy generation on the outer continental shelf. The framework establishes an MMS program to issue leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe and environmentally responsible renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of offshore wind facilities on the outer continental shelf. The MMS is planning to consider a commercial leasing process offshore of Delaware and anticipates initiating this process in the coming months.

MMS leased offshore lands to Bluewater Wind to install a meteorological and environmental monitoring tower this past spring.

Delaware’s task force is composed of federal representatives from MMS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, and state representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Department of State, the Governor’s Office, the Public Service Commission, the Comptroller Generals’ Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the University of Delaware, local governmental representatives from Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach, the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware and the Nanticoke Indian Tribe.