Rep. Hansen offered the following concurrent resolution:

            House Concurrent Resolution No. 39.   

A concurrent resolution to urge the Governor and the Attorney General to do all they can to put in place a moratorium on permitting, leasing, and public engagement for offshore wind development in Michigan until a comprehensive statutory structure is developed and enacted.

            Whereas, Recently, a Norwegian wind developer announced plans to install wind turbines offshore in Lake Michigan. The company, along with a Minnesota-based firm, is proposing to erect 100 to 200 wind turbines two to four miles offshore in Lake Michigan west of Oceana and Mason counties. These plans are shocking because a process for approving or denying offshore use of Michigan’s Great Lakes bottomlands for wind energy does not currently exist; and

            Whereas, Offshore siting statutes are needed to ensure that wind energy systems are not constructed in locations that would unduly degrade Michigan’s tourism, recreation, shipping, or fishing industries, its wildlife populations, its property values, or its quality of life. A September 2009 report by the Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council stated that, If an application were received today, the state’s review process would prove inadequate and would likely lead to confusion within government agencies as well as for the applicant and the public; and

            Whereas, Before any offshore wind developments are discussed at any level, legislation should be enacted to specify the public engagement process, permitting review criteria, and leasing structure for the use of the state’s bottomlands. Allowing offshore wind development before a regulatory and statutory framework is in place would be reckless and would put the state's most precious natural resource at risk; and

            Whereas, The state should also ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to examine potential impacts, jurisdictional issues, and agency roles as part of an offshore wind development program in the Great Lakes; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That we urge the Governor and the Attorney General to do all they can to put in place a moratorium on permitting, leasing, and public engagement for offshore wind development in Michigan until a comprehensive statutory structure is developed and enacted; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the Office of the Governor, the Attorney General, and the directors of the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment.