Two inland members of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors didn”t think it was worth sending a top county staffer to a wave energy hearing in Portland, Ore. on Tuesday, Oct. 2. The board met at Fort Bragg Town Hall Sept. 18.
But faced with a crowd of coast residents enthusiastic for the county to do that and more, the other three supervisors voted yes, putting Paul Cayler, deputy chief executive officer, on a plane to Oregon.
“If we lose the opportunity to be at the table, we will just be responding and not in a proactive mode,” said Chairwoman Kendall Smith.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is developing a licensing process for wave energy that can be completed in as few as six months, which may lead to a short-term license (five years) that allows developers to generate while testing.
FERC will host a technical conference in Portland to present the proposed faster licensing process and to seek feedback from representatives from industry and local and federal government. Pacific Gas & Electric has proposed a wave energy station off Fort Bragg that would qualify for the shorter time frame. A similar plan by Chevron off Mendocino was dropped recently.
Fort Bragg Mayor Doug Hammerstrom told the board now is the time for leadership by the county.
“There may be some jurisdictional advantage to having the county take the lead,” said Hammerstrom.
Zoning of the ocean might be one such area.
“It seems like an omission that zoning is only for land, when the ocean environment affects us just as the land does,” said Hammerstrom.
But Supervisor Michael Delbar of Ukiah questioned the need for the hearing.
“I”m not quite sure what the impetus was to have this on the agenda. If there is an interest in continuing this, we should refer it to committee,” Delbar said.
Most speakers praised Smith for holding the hearing and all asked the county to get involved in the complex issue.
“Because this issue is moving faster and faster, please send somebody to the Oct. 2 daylong conference in Portland, Ore.,” said Richard Charter of Defenders of Wildlife. “This technology is not without impacts. It falls on the county to make sure those impacts are addressed ? nobody is going to do that for you ?.”
Charter said Chevron”s “jumping in and out,” with no explanation, could be part of a global picture invisible to locals.
“You could become a pawn, as a county, in a global game being played by corporations with more attorneys and more resources than most third world countries,” he said.
Charter has asked members of Congress to put aside money to help mitigate the impact of counties like Mendocino having to deal with an issue of such global scale and complexity.
Coastal counties in Oregon, especially Lincoln County, have taken the lead in the issue for the past year, despite the expense for those rural governments.
Charter said there is still time for Mendocino County to extend its zoning authority into the ocean, but perhaps not if FERC approves the accelerated permit.
Charter explained how FERC took charge of the process when an Indian tribe in Washington in 2001 proposed building a wave energy device in a National Marine Sanctuary.
FERC stepped in, using the process created for dam building to authorize that proposal.
“Nobody has technically granted FERC the first three miles off the California Coast,” Charter said.
Charter said although Oregon is precluded from controlling energy from the waters off its coast, California has always claimed those waters.
“The State Lands Commission is starting to poke around in this area. FERC may not have the authority they claim they have,” Charter said.
Rachel Binah, a prominent coast Democrat and longtime opponent of offshore oil and gas development, has been trying to get Lt. Gov. John Garamendi to come to Fort Bragg to explain the state”s approach. She encouraged other locals to get involved in that effort. Garamendi is one of the three people on the State Lands Commission.
“It might also be worthwhile to ask our attorney general to look into this,” Binah said.
This newspaper has also been seeking comment from the state on their response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Sandy Cooney, spokesman for the California Resources Agency, said the issue is being studied.
“There has been some discussion that this issue could be on the agenda for the Ocean Protection Council soon,” Cooney said.
Ian Caliendo, a government relations consultant from PG&E, was as mystified as Charter by Chevron pulling out.
He will come to a Friday, Oct. 5 meeting being held by the Alliance for Democracy, Ocean Protection Coalition, Noyo Headlands Unified Design Group, and Mendonoma Marine Life Conservancy, and a Saturday, Oct. 27 meeting hosted by the North Coast Fisherman”s Association to hear from locals.
“PG&E is interested in talking to the community and hearing what your hopes and dreams are for this,” Caliendo said.
Activist George Rinehardt noted fishermen”s worries about clusters of wave energy plants extending from Mendocino to Washington.
“I can”t see the fear that George spoke of earlier ? There are too many factors, this is not operating in a vacuum,” Caliendo said.
He said PG&E expected to be further along by now but still has just a preliminary permit.
“We expected a faster turnaround from FERC. They are pausing and looking more closely at this process,” Caliendo said.
Supervisor David Colfax said all the excitement for a technology that”s still untested was disconcerting. He said corporations interested in oil and controlling the ocean might have other motives.
“The difference I see between now and 30 years ago when this technology was bandied about is the involvement of megacorporations and utilities right out of the gate,” Colfax said.
The world”s hottest smaller corporation in wave energy, Finavera Renewables, sent Mary Jane Parks to the meeting.
She”s been participating in a public process in Humboldt County, where PG&E also has proposed a twin to the plan in Fort Bragg. The company is involved all over the globe in the issue.
“I think it”s an important step you have taken to have this open house,” Parks said.
She answered a question by Colfax, who wondered why power estimates ranged wildly. She said the technology is new but growing fast.
“Ocean energy is 20 years behind wind energy and most other renewables right now,” Parks said. “We”d like to change that.”
Steve Heckeroth spoke on behalf of Coast Economic Localization Link, saying that the county has an obligation to explore any alternative energy source that could keep energy income local. On the other hand, he cautioned that the county”s long history of allowing its resources to be claimed and exported by outside corporations not be repeated.
“[Don”t] allow corporations to benefit at the expense of citizens in this county,” he said.
Hammerstrom hopes that the Community Choice Aggregation process will allow local ownership.
“If we pledge to buy our energy from these wave producers, there may be some leverage to get an equity interest,” he said.
Hammerstrom said local input might help select a less visible technology and one tailored for local energy needs, such as the coast”s peak winter heating, rather than summer cooling, demand.
“We have a unique opportunity ? when it isn”t crystallized to help shape the process and have input as a community,” he said.
John Innes, of the North Coast Fishing Association, said federal authorities are establishing marine sanctuaries up and down the coast.
“If we lose area to marine sanctuaries, we lose a significant amount to wave energy farms, what”s left for recreational and commercial fishing,” Innes said. He also worried about whale migration impacts.
Innes worked in Alameda County on a wind energy array, where venture capital firms built turbines, then went bankrupt.
“These wind generators are now trash sitting on those hills. It is going to cost $200 million to clean that up,” he said.
Jim Martin, of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, added that federally pushed fish farming would take up even more of the ocean. Martin said electromagnetism from wave farms must be studied, along with many other issues.
“What happens if a vessel is disabled outside of one of these and gets swept in?” Martin asked.
Cindy Arch, of the Ocean Protection Coalition, quoted a study that says waves will get bigger and stronger due to global warming.
“As leaders your vigilance on this complex issue is greatly needed and much appreciated,” Arch said.
Fort Bragg Vice Mayor Dave Turner said big corporations would rather deal with a single entity like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“Supervisor Colfax, now is the time,” Turner said, responding to Colfax”s concerns that the technology is unproven. “If we wait,? it will be too late. We need to exert control and look into the future.”
In voting no on further study and the trip to Oregon, Supervisor John Pinches didn”t want Cayler to have to be out of town on the first day on the job for the new county CEO.
Joining coastal supervisors Colfax and Smith, Jim Wattenburger was the lone inland supervisor in favor of getting more information at the conference.
“Contrary to some things said earlier, it is appropriate for the county to be looking into this,” Wattenburger said.
“This is where the county belongs, not only to look into alternative energy technology but to safeguard our coast.”
Public meetings
PG&E is making two presentations today Thursday, Sept. 27, at the invitation of North Coast Fishing Alliance Director John H. Innes.
A representative from the utility will speak to the Mendocino Rotary Club at 12:15 p.m at the Hill House Restaurant in Mendocino.
Then, the public is invited to a North Coast Fishing Association meeting at Fort Bragg Town Hall at 6 p.m.
On Friday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m., Richard Charter, Hammerstrom and Reinhardt will discuss “Wave Energy: Opportunity or Boondoggle?” at Fort Bragg Town Hall. Radio station KZYX&Z FM News Director Annie Esposito will moderate. A report will be made on the Oct. 2 FERC meeting. A courtyard mixer begins at 6:30 p.m. For information or to carpool, call 964-9777.
