Carcieri legacy tied to wind farm

While in office, Gov. Bruce Sundlun helped transform T.F. Green Airport. His successor, Gov. Lincoln Almond, has the University of Rhode Island’s Ryan Center on his resume. Will Gov. Donald L. Carcieri find his legacy tied to wind turbines spinning off the coast?
The potential for an offshore wind farm has dominated the Republican governor’s agenda for much of the last two years. In 2008, a team of his advisers met behind closed doors and announced the state would support efforts by New Jersey-based developer Deepwater Wind to construct two wind farms off the coast of Rhode Island.
The governor called the farms a way to spark economic development by creating a new industry. In his 2010 State of the State address he promised “thousands of additional jobs” to support the farm and others like it envisioned along the East Coast.
He’s pledged the turbines would produce clean energy and help Rhode Island meet his goal of drawing 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2016.
But before any of that happens, the governor and other supporters must gain key approvals for the first wind farm. And Carcieri, now in his eighth and final year of office, is running out of time to affect that often contentious process.
“Certainly the wind farm is connected in Rhode Island’s mind with Carcieri, and if he were to get this through, it would be a feather in his cap,” University of Rhode Island political science professor Maureen Moakley said.
Key approvals for a wind farm off the coast of Block Island could still be buttoned up by the time Carcieri leaves office in January. For the second time, The R.I. Public Utilities Commission is mulling approval of a contact between wind farm developer Deepwater Wind and the state’s largest utility, National Grid, after rejecting it once on account of price. And last week the commission rejected a request by an environmental group to delay the case.
Political observers say if the wind farm moves forward, Carcieri’s name would surely be tied to it. On the other hand, a rejection would deliver a blow to a governor preparing to exit office.
“To get this thing through would be part of his legacy,” Moakley said. “I think he sees it that way and … I think he genuinely believes in that project.” The first phase of the project would place eight turbines about three miles off the coast of Block Island for an estimated price tag of about $200 million. Deepwater wants the turbines spinning by the end of 2012 before federal development tax credits expire. Another, larger farm would come years later in waters 15 miles off the mainland.
The Block Island farm appears to be running neck-and-neck with a much larger farm proposed off Cape Cod to become the first farm in the nation. Rhode Island officials have continually said the Ocean State must deliver the first offshore wind farm to attract the ancillary businesses necessary to form a new industry.
And that drives the timeline rather than the day the governor leaves office, insists Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe.
“The governor doesn’t think in terms of legacy,” Kempe said.
Carcieri has sought to capitalize on pledged economic benefits of a wind farm, linking its creation to the emergence of an industry that would spring up around it. Moakley said the promised economic benefits of the farm enticed the Democrat-dominated General Assembly to work with the Republican governor and pass legislation critical to the farm’s development. Lawmakers, she noted, are also keen on their legacy in an election season.
The legislature may have come on board, but the PUC rebuffed the argument. In rejecting a contract between National Grid and Deepwater in March, the commission called the wholesale price of electricity too high. The price would start at 24.4 cents a kilowatt-hour and escalate 3.5 percent each year of the 20-year contract. Commissioners said it feared a contract would lead to higher electricity prices and hurt – not help – the economy.
The commission also criticized the R.I. Economic Development Corporation for failing to undertake studies or present a persuasive case that a wind farm in Rhode Island waters would create a new industry in the state.
After the commission rejected the contract, Carcieri and lawmakers passed a bill ordering the PUC to take a second look. National Grid and Deepwater returned with essentially the same contract. But this time the PUC needs to give more weight to the economic impact and by law, the EDC must deliver an advisory report about the economic development facet of a wind farm. The EDC expects to deliver that report July 20. The report, to be undertaken by Boston-based Levitan & Associates, will cost the state up to $73,250, said Fred S. Hashway Jr., the EDC’s director of government affairs and policy.
Levitan will also undertake a separate study relating to the cost of the electricity from the proposed Block Island wind farm. By law, Deepwater will reimburse the state for the $127,450 report, also expected on July 20.
And while the mantra of economic development dominates the speech of officials, a wind farm would also become part of Carcieri’s record on the environment. Moakley and the Conservation Law Foundation said Carcieri leaves a mixed bag. The governor promotes renewable energy at every turn and created the R.I. Office of Energy Resources. In 2006, Carcieri called for the state to draw 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2016, including 15 percent from wind. The R.I. Office of Energy Resources last week did not immediately respond to messages seeking information about how close the state is to meeting that goal.
But in moves disappointing for environmental groups, Carcieri supported efforts in Congress that would strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of its ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions. And while Rhode Island joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Carcieri was one of the last governors to sign on.
Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island chapter Director Tricia Jedele said the emphasis on the offshore wind farm threatened to divert attention from other initiatives, such as installations of small renewable energy systems on homes and businesses.
Jedele attributed the wind farm’s march toward approval to an appetite by officials to be seen as promoting economic growth and responding to climate change.
“The stage has been set by a collision of all those issues, and I don’t know I would credit this governor or any one individual with single-handedly setting that stage,” Jedele said.
In the end, Moakley says a wind farm will be approved because “this is the wave of the future.
“It’s not a question of if [in Rhode Island], it’s a question of when,” she said. •