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Collins Bill Would Back Wind Power Technology

November 17, 2009 - PORTLAND -- U.S. Sen. Susan Collins plans to introduce a bill Monday aimed at supporting the development of wind power projects in waters off the country's coastal states.

The bill would create a program in the Department of Energy that's dedicated to supporting research, development and commercialization of offshore wind power technology. It would call for $50 million a year for 10 years for the program, about half of what the federal government now spends annually on all aspects of wind power.

"We need to have a program in the federal Department of Energy that isn't year-to-year to indicate the United States is making a long-term investment," Collins, R-Maine, said Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

She covered topics ranging from wind power to health care reform to a pending congressional investigation of last week's shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.

Wind power, particularly deepwater, offshore wind power, has become a hot topic in Maine.

Gov. John Baldacci led a trade mission this fall to Spain, Germany and Norway to explore further development of wind power in Maine. Baldacci and representatives of the University of Maine and Collins' office forged an agreement with a Norwegian company to explore whether deepwater wind turbines might be feasible in the Gulf of Maine.

Representatives from that company, StatoilHydro, plan to visit Maine next week to further that relationship.

Collins said she secured a $5 million earmark for UMaine to establish an offshore wind center, and Maine's congressional delegation helped secure an $8 million grant for the university to develop technology.

Centers like the one at UMaine could apply for grants through the Department of Energy division that would be created through Collins' bill, she said.

The division would be for all offshore development, said Collins, but "I personally believe deepwater has the most potential, and avoids aesthetic and environmental issues" raised by development closer to land.

The federal government has a goal of generating 20 percent of the nation's power from wind by 2030, and her bill could help the country get there, Collins said.

On health care reform, Collins said she is concerned that bills under consideration wouldn't do enough to drive down the cost of health care, and could inadvertently raise it through "enormous new taxes and fees (that) will be passed on to insurance consumers."

"Those are issues that concern me greatly, and I'm working with senators on both sides of the aisle to try to address them," she said.

Collins said she is working with a group of centrist senators on amendments that might make the reforms more workable, in her opinion.

"The reality is that there are not 60 votes in the Senate right now for any of the bills, the three prominent bills, that are out there," she said. "That means that people are going to have to come together. We have done it before in the Senate. We've been able to come together and produce a better bill. I hope we can do it with health care."

Collins said she would like to see the federal government move toward a pay-for-performance system of health care reimbursement, instead of the current pay-per-procedure system.

That, she said, could decrease health care delivery costs by as much as 30 percent. And a reform of the country's medical liability laws could decrease costs by $54 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated, according to Collins.

"The president desperately wants to have a health care reform bill that he can sign into law," she said. "I believe he is willing to compromise and refocus."

Collins also said that after talking with Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, she thinks there are members of the Obama administration who believe the current bills wouldn't do enough to rein in the cost of health care.

"I think there's a split in the administration on what the focus should be, so that gives me hope," she said. "I want to see health care reform, but we've got to do this right."

By MATT WICKENHEISER, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, November 13, 2009


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