I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2148 

To promote the development and use of marine renewable energy technologies, 

and for other purposes. 

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 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marine Renewable En5 ergy Promotion Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITION. 

7 For purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘marine renewable 

8 energy’’ means energy from— 


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1 (1) waves, tides, and currents in oceans, estu2 aries, and tidal areas; 

3 (2) free flowing water in rivers, lakes, man 

4 made channels, streams, oceans, and tidal areas; and 

5 (3) differentials in ocean temperature (ocean 

6 thermal energy conversion). 

7 SEC. 3. RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION. 

8 (a) PROGRAM.—The Secretary of Energy shall estab9 lish a program of marine renewable energy research, sepa10 rated from the Wind and Hydropower program, focused 

11 on— 

12 (1) developing new marine renewable energy 

13 technologies; 

14 (2) reducing the manufacturing and operation 

15 costs of marine renewable energy technologies; 

16 (3) increasing the reliability and survivability of 

17 marine renewable energy facilities; 

18 (4) integrating marine renewable energy into 

19 the national electric grid; 

20 (5) identifying opportunities for cross polli21 nation and development of economies of scale be22 tween offshore wind and marine renewable energy 

23 sources; 


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1 (6) identifying the environmental impacts of 

2 marine renewable energy and ways to address nega3 tive impacts; and 

4 (7) application of advanced systems engineering 

5 and system integration methods to identify critical 

6 interfaces and develop open standards for marine re7 newable energy, the transfer of the resulting intellec8 tual property to industry stakeholders as public in9 formation through published interface definitions, 

10 standards, and demonstration projects, and the de11 velopment of incentives for industry to comply with 

12 such standards. 

13 (b) MARINE-BASED ENERGY DEVICE VERIFICATION

14 PROGRAM.— 

15 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of En16 ergy shall establish a Marine-based Energy Device 

17 Verification Program (MEDVP) to provide a bridge 

18 from the wave, tidal, or current energy capture de19 vice design and development efforts underway across 

20 the industry to commercial deployment of marine re21 newable energy devices. 

22 (2) PURPOSES.—The Marine-based Energy De23 vice Verification Program shall fund, facilitate the 

24 development and installation of, and evaluate marine 

25 renewable energy projects, in partnership with the 


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1 Electric Power Research Institute, the National Re2 newable Energy Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest 

3 National Laboratory Marine Sciences Laboratory, 

4 the Sandia National Laboratories, in conjunction 

5 with universities and private companies, and other 

6 appropriate organizations, in order to— 

7 (A) increase marine renewable energy ex8 perience; and 

9 (B) build and operate enough candidate 

10 devices to obtain statistically significant oper11 ating and maintenance data. 

12 (3) OBJECTIVES.—Specific objectives for the 

13 Marine-based Energy Device Verification Program 

14 shall include— 

15 (A) verifying the performance, reliability, 

16 maintainability, and cost of new marine renew17 able energy device designs and system compo18 nents in an operating environment; 

19 (B) providing States, regulators, utilities, 

20 and other stakeholders with a valid opportunity 

21 to test and evaluate marine renewable energy in 

22 new areas; 

23 (C) documenting and communicating the 

24 experience from these projects for the benefit of 

25 utilities, independent power producers, other 


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1 nonutility generators, device suppliers, and oth2 ers in the marine renewable energy development 

3 community; and 

4 (D) resolving environmental issues through 

5 robust characterization, reliable impact pre6 diction, effective monitoring, development and 

7 use of adaptive management, and informing en8 gineering design to improve environmental per9 formance. 

10 (c) ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL

11 FUND.— 

12 (1) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that— 

13 (A) the use of marine renewable energy 

14 technologies can reduce contributions to global 

15 warming gases, and such technologies can be 

16 produced domestically; 

17 (B) marine renewable energy is a nascent 

18 industry; and 

19 (C) the United States must work to pro20 mote new renewable energy technologies that 

21 reduce contributions to global warming gases 

22 and improve our country’s domestic energy pro23 duction. 

24 (2) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of En25 ergy shall establish an Adaptive Management and 


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1 Environmental Fund, and shall provide grants from 

2 that fund to entities for the purpose of compliance 

3 with Federal, State, or local regulatory permit re4 quirements to assess and demonstrate the environ5 mental effects of marine renewable energy projects. 

6 Compliance costs for which funds made available 

7 under this paragraph may be used include environ8 mental studies, design, fabrication, deployment, op9 erating, monitoring, environmental mitigation, and 

10 decommissioning costs. 

11 (3) ELIGIBILITY.—In order for an entity to be 

12 eligible for a grant under this subsection, the regu13 latory permit must include conditions for the re14 moval of the marine renewable energy project based 

15 on findings by the permitting authority that the ma16 rine renewable energy project has unacceptable ad17 verse impacts on the environment. Project removal 

18 shall not be required in the absence of findings by 

19 the permitting authority that the project has such 

20 unacceptable adverse impacts. 

21 (4) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The results of any 

22 assessment or demonstration funded under this sub23 section shall be made available to the public, except 

24 to the extent that they contain information that is 


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1 protected from disclosure under section 552(b) of 

2 title 5, United States Code. 

3 (5) AUDIT REQUIREMENTS.—Any developer ac4 cepting funding from the Adaptive Management and 

5 Environmental Fund shall be required to track pay6 ments received from the Fund, and certify annually 

7 that Fund payments were utilized only for purposes 

8 authorized under this subsection. The Secretary of 

9 Energy shall establish rules to oversee and audit de10 veloper use of funds. At a minimum, audits must 

11 take place on an annual basis. The Secretary of En12 ergy may declare a developer ineligible for continued 

13 participation in the Adaptive Management and Envi14 ronmental Fund upon a finding of inappropriate use 

15 of funding. 

16 (6) SUNSET.—The Secretary of Energy shall 

17 transmit a report to the Congress when the Sec18 retary of Energy determines that the technologies 

19 supported under this subsection have achieved a 

20 level of maturity sufficient to enable the expiration 

21 of programs under this subsection. The Secretary of 

22 Energy shall not make any new grants under this 

23 subsection after the report is transmitted under this 

24 paragraph. 


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1 (7) ADDITIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDS.— 

2 State resource agencies that are processing applica3 tions for permits required for marine renewables 

4 projects that have received disbursements from the 

5 Fund under this subsection are eligible to seek fund6 ing to assist staff with understanding and evaluating 

7 applications and participating in the Federal Energy 

8 Regulatory Commission or Minerals Management 

9 Service regulatory process. 

10 (8) NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT OF

11 1969.—Nothing in this subsection shall be construed 

12 as eliminating or minimizing a developer’s obliga13 tions to comply with the requirements of the Na14 tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969. 

15 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of En17 ergy for carrying out this section $250,000,000 for each 

18 of the fiscal years 2010 through 2021. 

19 SEC. 4. 5-YEAR ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION PERIOD FOR 

20 EQUIPMENT WHICH PRODUCES ELECTRICITY 

21 FROM MARINE RENEWABLES. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subclause (III) of section 

23 168(e)(3)(B)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

24 amended to read as follows: 


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1 ‘‘(III) is described in section 

2 45(d)(11) (without regard to any 

3 placed in service date), and converts 

4 marine and hydrokinetic renewable 

5 energy (as defined in section 

6 45(c)(10)) into useable energy/elec7 tricity, and’’. 

8 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

9 this section shall apply to property placed in service after 

10 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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