Mendocino Coast governments, organizations and individuals have made a record splash in the files of the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission, or FERC, over the wave energy project proposed off Mendocino.
By Monday, more than 30 parties had filed motions to intervene in GreenWave LLC”s proposal to claim offshore waters between Little River and Point Cabrillo for exclusive study.
That”s about three times more motions to intervene than in the average project, a study by this reporter found. Since 2004, FERC has issued more than 175 preliminary permits, giving exclusive rights for studying water motion energy to projects ranging from the Yukon River in Alaska to tidal flats on the East Coast.
A preliminary permit gives the first developer to apply exclusive study rights to claimed water for a period of three years. At the end of that time, the developer gets first chance for an exclusive license to those waters to develop electrical generation.
There are currently two wave energy projects proposed off the Mendocino Coast, the PG&E project off Fort Bragg and the GreenWave project off Mendocino. PG&E hopes to one day generate up to 40 megawatts of power, while GreenWave hopes for a 100-megawatt powerplant.
Environmentalists, ocean developers and federal officials have often recognized the Mendocino Coast as the national hotspot for shaping the process for wave energy; as much for the coast”s politically active residents as for its overactive waves.
GreenWave is a partnership headed by several major Southern California housing developers and a Republican Assemblyman.
A new legal challenge, filed in the GreenWave application file, seeks to slow down FERC”s fast-moving permitting process.
Motions by the City of Fort Bragg, County of Mendocino and the local FISH Committee cite federal laws, demanding FERC develop a comprehensive ocean plan before issuing the permit.
The motions, made separate from the 30-plus motions to intervene, ask that any subsequent preliminary permits include studies of the impacts on currents, wave heights, the seafloor and marine creatures.
Numerous fishing and ocean protection groups filed motions to intervene, from the Crab Boat Owners Association to the Sierra Club. PG&E was among those to file a motion to intervene. Most said the project raised concerns but took no position on GreenWave itself or the issue of wave energy.
“Almost half of Mendocino County”s General Fund comes from lodging taxes and over 8 percent of those taxes come from Little River Inn. Increases or decreases in this money affect every citizen in the county,” the inn”s motion to intervene said.
“Little River Inn is currently undecided whether wave energy generators would have a positive or negative effect on Mendocino”s tourist economy, but we do believe their effect will be felt. For this reason, Little River Inn is asking to be a party to the permit process.”
FERC”s national preliminary permitting process has been largely non-controversial, and mostly ignored outside of Mendocino County. Several local governments when contacted by this reporter didn”t even know their waters had been exclusively claimed by a private developer through the FERC process.
The large number of intervention filings by locals in the GreenWave filing contrasts with what happened when PG&E filed its preliminary permit. There, local governments found out about the intervention process late and were denied intervener status by FERC. Mendocino County later got FERC to reverse its position, giving the county intervener status.
FERC representative Ann Miles told a Fort Bragg audience recently that all properly filed motions to intervene are routinely granted. FERC also grants all preliminary permits which have been accepted by the agency. But few legal challenges have been filed until now.
In addition to the challenge by Fort Bragg, the county and FISH, a separate legal challenge has been filed by FERC”s main rival in Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 29, the Minerals Management Service filed a 30-page legal challenge to FERC”s preliminary permitting process, continuing and deepening the feud between the two federal agencies.
The Minerals Management Service, or MMS, claims regulatory authority more than three miles out, while FERC has asserted all regulatory authority over energy from the nation”s waters.
Because GreenWave”s project is within three miles from shore, it is not included in the MMS challenge. But the PG&E twin WaveConnect proposals off Fort Bragg and Eureka are subject to this new controversy, along with others in Oregon and Washington.
The Obama administration is expected to take a much firmer hand in directing MMS, especially in the area of regulation of oil and gas drilling. During the Bush administration, the MMS was attacked by its own inspector general for conflicts of interest involving oil companies, including wild parties.
But FERC is a historically independent agency free of oversight by the president and his Department of Energy.
President Barack Obama may not get to put his imprint on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission until 2010.
FERC has five commissioners, of whom only three can be from one political party, under federal law. They serve staggered 5-year terms, with one term ending on June 30 each year. The current commission includes three Republicans (Joseph Kelliher, Marc Spitzer and Philip Moeller) and two Democrats (Jon Wellinghoff and Suedeen Kelly).
When President Obama took office, Kelliher stepped down as chair and announced he was exploring other employment possibilities. Obama named Wellinghoff chairman. If Kelliher resigns, Obama would get his chance to change FERC to a Democratic majority. The commissioner whose term is up on June 30, 2009, is Kelly, a Democrat. Moeller”s term is up in 2010, which could be the first chance for Obama to change the majority.
