From: Providence Journal 

By Alex Kuffner/Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — As states around the country start to determine the best locations to develop offshore wind energy, a Rhode Island ocean zoning plan is being held up as a model that they can emulate. 

Last week, the Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island hosted a three-day workshop to teach planners from coastal and Great Lakes states about the two-year, $8-million effort to create the Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a document based on the work of dozens of scientists that recommended two general areas off the coast of Rhode Island where offshore wind farms can be built.

 About 40 state and federal officials, academics and environmentalists from Massachusetts, Delaware, Michigan, Hawaii, New York and other parts of the country attended. A university professor from Spain also took part. 

The workshop comes as the federal government is pushing for states to start working together to develop plans regulating the use of their waters. As more developers come forward with proposals for offshore wind projects, the need for zoning plans to balance competing interests from fishermen, recreational boaters, conservationists and others is increasing. 

“Wind development is not waiting for these plans,” said Grover Fugate, executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, which oversaw development of the SAMP. “There’s a lot of activity that’s going forward already.  

Deepwater Wind, of Providence, has proposed two wind farms off Rhode Island — an eight-turbine demonstration project and a 200-turbine development — as well as projects off Long Island, and New Jersey. Cape Wind Associates is moving forward with a 130-turbine project in Massachusetts. And additional proposals have been put forward off New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

 The idea behind the SAMP was to have the state — not developers — identify the most appropriate places for offshore wind turbines. Planners considered distances from shore, wind speeds, sediments and water depth to narrow down areas, Malcolm Spaulding, professor of ocean engineering at URI, said during a presentation at the workshop last Tuesday. Then, he said, they looked at other uses, such as shipping channels, fishing grounds, marine habitats and Navy submarine lanes.  

“We were using the science — the best available information — to make decisions,” said Jennifer McCann, director of U.S. coastal programs at the Coastal Resources Center.

 Although the SAMP sought to minimize conflicts, Rhode Island’s commercial fishermen have raised objections to one of the general locations selected for offshore wind development. The swath of ocean between Rhode Island and Massachusetts includes Cox Ledge, an important fishing ground. Fishing groups have raised concerns that development of wind farms in the area will disrupt their livelihood.

Fugate acknowledged the criticism — and the fear of developing offshore wind, which has been done in Europe and China but not yet in the United States.

“There are a lot of unknowns with a wind farm here,” he said.

Alison Bates, a graduate student in marine policy at the Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration at the University of Delaware, said her state is gearing up to create an ocean plan. Bates, who said she’s most interested in the impact of offshore wind development on marine mammals, came to the workshop to see what Rhode Island has done.

“There are some parallels,” she said. “We’re trying to take the broader concepts and apply them at the state level in Delaware.”

Those involved in the SAMP said the lessons learned in Rhode Island can help other states.

“A lot of the issues are the same,” said Susan Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the Coastal Resources Center. “You’re telling a whole lot of people to come to the table and work out a compromise.”

akuffner@projo.com