42 USC 9119 – Prevention of interference with other uses of high seas
(a) License conditions
Each license shall include such conditions as may be necessary and appropriate to ensure that construction and operation of the ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship are conducted with reasonable regard for navigation, fishing, energy production, scientific research, or other uses of the high seas, either by citizens of the United States or by other nations in their exercise of the freedoms of the high seas as recognized under the Convention of the High Seas and the general principles of international law.
(b) Rules and regulations
Terms Used In 42 USC 9119
- Administrator: means the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See 42 USC 9102
- construction: means any activities conducted at sea to supervise, inspect, actually build, or perform other functions incidental to the building, repairing, or expanding of an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship or any of its components, including but not limited to, piledriving, emplacement of mooring devices, emplacement of cables and pipelines, and deployment of the cold water pipe, and alterations, modifications, or additions to an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship. See 42 USC 9102
- facility: means an ocean thermal energy conversion facility. See 42 USC 9102
- high seas: means that part of the oceans lying seaward of the territorial sea of the United States and outside the territorial sea, as recognized by the United States, of any other nation. See 42 USC 9102
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- licensee: means the holder of a valid license for the ownership, construction, and operation of an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship that was issued, transferred, or renewed pursuant to this chapter. See 42 USC 9102
- ocean thermal energy conversion facility: means any facility which is standing, fixed or moored in whole or in part seaward of the highwater mark and which is designed to use temperature differences in ocean water to produce electricity or another form of energy capable of being used directly to perform work, and includes any equipment installed on such facility to use such electricity or other form of energy to produce, process, refine, or manufacture a product, and any cable or pipeline used to deliver such electricity, fresh water, or product to shore, and all other associated equipment and appurtenances of such facility, to the extent they are located seaward of the highwater mark. See 42 USC 9102
- ocean thermal energy conversion plantship: means any vessel which is designed to use temperature differences in ocean water while floating unmoored or moving through such water, to produce electricity or another form of energy capable of being used directly to perform work, and includes any equipment installed on such vessel to use such electricity or other form of energy to produce, process, refine, or manufacture a product, and any equipment used to transfer such product to other vessels for transportation to users, and all other associated equipment and appurtenances of such vessel. See 42 USC 9102
- plantship: means an ocean thermal energy conversion plantship. See 42 USC 9102
- State: means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and any other Commonwealth, territory, or possession over which the United States has jurisdiction. See 42 USC 9102
- thermal plume: means the area of the ocean in which a significant difference in temperature, as defined in regulations by the Administrator, occurs as a result of the operation of an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship. See 42 USC 9102
The Administrator shall promulgate regulations specifying under what conditions and in what circumstances the thermal plume of an ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship licensed under this chapter will be deemed—
(1) to impinge on so as to degrade the thermal gradient used by another ocean thermal energy conversion facility or plantship, or
(2) to impinge on so as to adversely affect the territorial sea or area of national resource jurisdiction, as recognized by the United States, of any other nation.
Such regulations shall also provide for the Administrator to mediate or arbitrate any disputes among licensees regarding the extent to which the thermal plume of one licensee‘s facility or plantship impinges on the operation of another licensee’s facility or plantship.
(c) Coast Guard operations
The Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall promulgate, after consultation with the Administrator, and shall enforce, regulations governing the movement and navigation of ocean thermal energy conversion plantships licensed under this chapter to ensure that the thermal plume of such an ocean thermal energy conversion plantship does not unreasonably impinge on so as to degrade the thermal gradient used by the operation of any other ocean thermal energy conversion plantship or facility except in case of force majeure or with the consent of owner of the other such plantship or facility, and to ensure that the thermal plume of such an ocean thermal energy conversion plantship does not impinge on so as to adversely affect the territorial sea or area of national resource jurisdiction, as recognized by the United States, of any other nation unless the Secretary of State has approved such impingement after consultation with such nation.