Paperwork fixed, a Southern California development company is finally back on track to get a three-year exclusive wave energy study preliminary permit for the waters off the town of Mendocino.
Green Wave Energy Solutions has again proposed an eventual project of 150 to 680 wave energy converters having a total installed capacity of 100 megawatts, a proposed 2- to 3-mile-long, 36 kilovolt, 4-inch-diameter, three-phase AC submarine cable; and appurtenant facilities.
Green Wave has been working on this same basic Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) project, along with one off San Luis Obispo, since 2008. Due to late paperwork, general answers to specific questions and unfulfilled promises, the company”s first permit was revoked by FERC two years ago.
During that four-year time period, other California wave energy proposals have been abandoned, but in the rest of the world wave energy has been moving forward. A huge project is under way off Kenya and one is in the works off Mexico. Scotland, where in 1974 a professor invented Salter”s Duck, the first modern wave energy device, continues to lead the world in wave energy development.
Although critics have said Green Wave”s real purpose is to give “green” credibility to the California State Senate campaign of Tony Strickland, Green Wave has filed its most detailed and complete application so far.
In the past, Mendocino County, the local Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics (FISH) committee and others have filed motions to intervene with FERC. The deadline for such motions is April 6 this time. As of Feb. 21, no motions had been filed. Most came in the last few days in the past.
On September 23, 2011, Green Wave Energy Solutions returned to FERC and again applied for preliminary permits for wave energy development off Mendocino and San Luis Obispo. Those applications were sent back with questions, which the company answered, refiling the permits in January. In early February, the revised application for the Mendocino project was accepted. The San Luis Obispo project was sent back once again for revision because it included development in waters more than three miles offshore (federal jurisdiction waters). FERC is operating on agreements struck during the Obama administration that ended a feud with another federal agency. FERC also struck an agreement with the state of California, which had initially been left out of the loop by FERC.
Those agreements preclude FERC from issuing permits in federal waters.
Green Wave has always been composed of attorney Wayne Burkamp, engineer Bill Bustamante, developer Dean Kunicki, developer Gary Gorian and State Senator Tony Strickland, a top GOP politician. Strickland”s website still identifies him as vice president of Green Wave.
Strickland was criticized for using Green Wave to make himself one of the state”s most conservative members of the legislature, appear environmentally sensitive, while the company in fact existed only on paper. Strickland is in a tight race to win the new Senate District 27, recently created by redistricting.
In 2010, Green Wave promised FERC meetings would be held on the Mendocino Coast involving the firm; those meetings were never held. The company did hire a top consultant and form a partnership with a company actively developing wave energy on the West Coast, but never made any public appearances at numerous public forums on wave energy here, or met with county or city officials. Burkamp did appear at a PG&E event and talked with many stakeholders.
The preliminary permit holds the area exclusively for the applicant during a three-year period, although any serious study activities would require state and local permits. At the end of the study period, the applicant has the first right to apply for a license. FERC licenses have traditionally been 25, 50 years, or more, but wave energy licenses discussed so far have contemplated much shorter permits.
More information about this project, including a copy of the application and how to file comments or motions to intervene, can be viewed or printed on the “eLibrary” link of FERC”s website. Go online to http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/elibrary.asp. Enter the docket number (P-14291) in the docket number field to access the document.
For assistance, contact FERC online support at FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or toll free at 1-866-208-3676.
