CVE Board Secretary Honored
Demont & Associates, Inc. of Portland, Maine honored Walter G. Bruska of Burlington, for his half century of service in several top development posts including Cornell University and the University of Vermont where he hired and trained some of the most successful and notable development professionals in the country. He is currently an officer at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction, Vermont and Vice President of the Board at Prevent Child Abuse Vermont.The presentation was made at the second annual conference, Pathways and People That Make The Lasting Difference in Philanthropy on Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 at The Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. Proceeds of the conference will go to the Demont Difference Fund. The Fund endorses the creative efforts by not-for-profit organizations seeking to increase their long-term capacity to raise private support and/or broaden their volunteer base through matching grants to small not-for-profit organizations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont through the regional community foundations as well as pro-bono services.The inaugural Lasting Difference Awards were presented to three not-for-profit executives who have made a lasting impact on philanthropy in Northern New England. Along with Bruska, Peter C. Barnard of Scarborough, Maine and Terry D. Mayo of Amherst, New Hampshire were honored.Demont & Associates, Inc. is the New England region’s premier full-service fund-raising consulting firm providing comprehensive advancement and fund-raising counsel to not-for-profit institutions. The firms mission is to make a lasting difference for good by partnering with not-for-profit institutions to increase their voluntary giving. Founded in 1993, the firm is based in Portland, Maine. Robert D. Demont, CFRE, is President. For more information, please consult the web site at www.demontassociates.com(link is external).
On 26 June, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources will hold a legislative hearing on a bill that would amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to provide for a leasing programme for offshore renewable energy.If enacted, the bill would set up a National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Renewable Energy Leasing Program, alongside the country’s existing National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which would bring certainty to offshore wind developers and other stakeholders.“The Secretary shall prepare, periodically revise, and maintain a leasing program for the production of energy from sources other than oil and gas, and for supporting such production and the transportation or transmission of such energy,” one of the amendments to the OCS Lands Act reads.The bill requires the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to publish a regular leasing schedule and establishes a four-year leasing programme that schedules offshore wind lease sales, detailing the size, timing, and location of leasing activity. The National OCS Renewable Energy Leasing Program Act would also require DOI and the Department of Defence (DOD) to update the Memorandum of Agreement between the two authorities that governs their operations relationship on the OCS to include leases, easements, and rights-of-way pertaining to offshore wind leases.Currently, there is no scheduled process for holding wind leases on the OCS. The process begins with potential developers identifying parcels that may technically and economically support an offshore wind farm. Then, DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), coordinates with taskforces in affected States, and begins establishing parameters of the lease, the hearing memo for the bill explains.At this time, the process takes an estimated four years to execute a lease sale, and about seven years after the sale to begin construction. The environmental review requirements are completed after the lease is executed, adding uncertainty regarding milestone completions and presenting considerable legal exposure to the leaseholders, according to the bill memo.