The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has denied a Southern California company”s bid to develop wave energy off the town of Mendocino, while at the same time redoing its national guidelines for wave energy development.
Eight years ago, two competing federal agencies made Fort Bragg the center of their wave energy universes, coming to the city to meet with local officials and to launch competing programs on how to develop devices powered by motion from the ocean.
All the California wave energy proposals are now dead. Only the San Francisco Bay tidal energy project survives on FERC”s books.
Last week, Vince Yearick, FERC”s acting director of the Division of Hydropower Licensing shot down GreenWave LLC”s request for a new preliminary permit that would have given it exclusive study rights to an area that extended offshore from Little River to Point Cabrillo, for three years.
“GreenWave”s prior permit was canceled because it failed to timely file two six-month progress reports and neglected to file its NOI [Notice of Intent] and PAD [Pre-Application Document] as required by its permit. Commission staff gave GreenWave notices of probable cancellation on two occasions before canceling GreenWave”s prior permit,” Yearick wrote.
“For these reasons, I conclude that GreenWave did not demonstrate good faith and due diligence during the term of its prior permit. Accordingly, its application for a successive preliminary permit is denied,” Yearick wrote.
GreenWave was launched in 2009 when the company proposed a project off Mendocino and one of San Luis Obispo. Three housing developers, an engineer, and one of Southern California”s leading Republican politicians. Tony Strickland, composed GreenWave. Strickland claimed his profession as vice president of GreenWave in campaign literature and information.
GreenWave not only failed to complete FERC paperwork on time, it also never followed through on its promises to hold local meetings about the local project.
Motions to intervene were filed by the U.S. Department of Commerce”s National Marine Fisheries Service, the City of Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics, the Institute for Fisheries Resources, the Ocean Protection Coalition, Recreational Fishing Alliance, Inc., and Surfrider Foundation. The U.S. Department of the Interior filed a letter stating that it had no comments on the application, and an individual filed a letter in support of the development and use of hydrokinetic power.
“Many intervenors are concerned that GreenWave lacks genuine intent and resources to develop the proposed project and may instead be engaged in site banking. Intervenors also expressed concern that construction and operation of the project would adversely impact marine species and associated habitat, the local fishing and tourism industries, recreational and visual resources, and public safety. Because Commission staff is denying this application, these comments are moot,” Yearick wrote in the final action order in the GreenWave denial.
Strickland is now running for Congress. GreenWave was still described as his profession on his website last fall when the company filed again for permits. But now there is no mention of GreenWave by Strickland on his under-construction website.
FERC created its wave energy process behind closed doors back in 2004-2005. Although local governments and even the state of California, which has legal jurisdiction, were not invited by FERC, certain corporations were and got the jump on the process. The theory was that corporations could better plan in secret with federal officials than could be done in a public process involving multiple agencies and multiple jurisdictions. Chevron had the first permit on the site that GreenWave was rejected on.
The entire process became comical when it became clear that FERC had not understood any of the state processes and jurisdictions. In California, the State Lands Commission had jurisdiction but said publicly nobody from FERC had contacted them.
When Obama became president, his administration ended a decade-long rivalry between FERC and the Minerals Management Service. Later, Obama eliminated the Minerals Management Service after repeated scandals embarrassed his administration as it had the Bush Administration. One of the agencies created from the ashes of MMS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which now works with FERC on all wave energy applications to ensure continuity between the outer continental shelf and FERC”s close to shore jurisdiction.
FERC”s guidelines were not functional for the ocean, but did create an unexpected river permitting rush, in which hundreds of permits were granted for development of very small scale hydropower projects in the Mississippi and many other rivers across America, under the guidelines that were supposed to work for ocean energy but didn”t.
The river energy process is seen by some as a way to circumvent regulations regarding dams and create energy within the flow of rivers.
On July 19, the same day as the GreenWave denial, FERC and BOEM issued revised guidelines for wave energy and ocean current energy. These updated 2009 guidelines were created when the MMS-FERC feud was ended.
“These revised guidelines strengthen opportunities for testing wave energy and ocean current energy technologies on the OCS and reflect our ongoing collaboration with FERC to enhance efficiencies under our respective authorities,” said BOEM Director Tommy Beaudreau. “We will continue to work closely with FERC to provide a clearly defined path forward for the marine hydrokinetic industry in support of the administration”s “All-of-the-Above” energy strategy.”
The revised guidelines are easier to read than those in 2009, create a more streamlined process and offer a single point of contact at each agency. They also seem to make it easier for government agencies to apply for leases, including local governments, states and even Congress. Currently, the most active project impacted is a study by Florida Atlantic University on generating power from ocean currents, for which the university is seeking to use the new process for a lease.
The revised guidelines were announced July 19 by the two agencies at the HydroVision International conference in Louisville, Kentucky and are available at www.ferc.gov/industries//hydropower/gen-info/licensing/hydrokinetics/pdf/mms080309.pdf.
