MyShingle.com Meets Wave Energy

Posted by Jeff Lipshaw

If I make it through the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times before finishing my coffee and oatmeal, I read the Boston Globe (it’s a slightly longer read than the Indianapolis Star, but not by much).  There was an article today about a company developing wind and wave energy farms in the ocean off Nantucket and Block Island, and who should I find quoted but our friend, Carolyn Elefant, of MyShingle.com, demonstrating that solo practice need not be unsophisticated practice.  Here’s the relevant portion:

Carolyn Elefant, a lawyer based in Washington, D.C. who has advised ocean renewable energy developers for 15 years, says that in order to construct a wave farm, Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company would also need to secure a lease from the Minerals Management Service. Elefant said the regulatory process remains unclear in a way that gives companies the ability to “game” the system by potentially staking a claim to certain waters through one federal process that may be quicker and then selling those rights to another developer.

The permit applications, “should send a warning signal to the industry, to the agencies, to the Hill that this is an issue that needs to be addressed,” she said.