(I hope you appreciate the shout-out, Jarret).

It looks like a massive new clean energy project is coming to the Armpit of America (energy-independent deodorant, if you will). According to the New York Times:

Regulators in New Jersey awarded the rights on Friday for construction of a $1 billion offshore wind farm in the southern part of the state to Garden State Offshore Energy. The rights, which include access to as much as $19 million in state grants, is part of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan, which calls for 20 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. The decision comes on the heels of decisions by Delaware and Rhode Island to allow the installation of offshore wind farms.

Once again, state governments that have realized the value of clean energy development. The kind of message that that one billion dollar figure sends is enormous. The momentum resulting from this investment will likely facilitate similar developments in New York.

The new technology being used in New Jersey will allow turbines to be placed even farther offshore than before, leading to more reliable wind sources (as wind is much stronger out off the coast). As a result, not only will it be able to power tens of thousands of homes, but it also makes opposition of the Cape Wind sort even less likely for future offshore wind developments. Hopefully we'll never see anything like this again:

Ok, so Ted Kennedy isn't perfect, in case you forgot over the last few months. After all, look what the windmills would have done to his Nantucket view:

(Cape Wind would have been 4-11 miles off coast. The New Jersey project is 16-20 miles. )

On another renewable energy note, for once the federal government hasn't left innovative states behind, in case you didn't look at the details of the bailout package:

The legislation extends for one year the production tax credit for wind energy, with an eight-year extension for investment tax credits for businesses and homeowners to install solar energy equipment.

Buyers of plug-in electric cars would receive tax credits ranging from $2,500 to $7,500.

Are the tax extensions perfect? No. A one year tax extension for wind is hardly sufficient for long term investments (even if it will carry us over to an Obama Administration). There are also credits for refineries processing oil from tar sands and shale, things that we certainly shouldn't be paying for. I'm not arguing that there aren't things to criticize with the bailout package; However, it's important to remember that some good came out of the 400+ pages that were tagged on to the original three page proposal.