While the Obama administration has touted offshore renewable energy development, a turf fight between two federal agencies has stymied the government’s ability to issue rules needed to approve wind energy projects off America’s coasts.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the infighting has got to stop.

“It will be resolved,” Salazar said in response to questions about the dispute. “We will not let any of the jurisdictional turf battles of the past get in the way of our moving forward with the renewable energy agenda.”

The dispute, which dates to late 2007, pits the Interior Department against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over which entity should approve projects that use coastal waves and currents to produce power.

Offshore wind development has been entangled in the dispute because Interior’s Minerals Management Service does not want to separate wind projects from the tidal wave, or hydrokinetic power, programs — which FERC in turn has refused to surrender, according to several officials who have followed the dispute. By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer Source: Associated Press/Yahoo. Click here to read more.

ForBarackObamaOnline.com