Wave energy developers face rougher waters

    By Todd Woody

    Wave farm developers must overcome more hurdles to get their projects approved under an agreement signed Thursday ending a feud between two federal agencies that warred over the regulation of offshore wind and wave farms.

    A jurisdictional dispute between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had left in limbo a number of wave energy projects planned for the outer continental shelf, particularly applications from Grays Harbor Ocean Energy of Seattle to build half a dozen combined wave-and-wind farms from New Jersey to Hawaii. The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service had challenged FERC’s right to approve approve projects on the outer continental shelf. Last month the agencies agreed to end the water fight but offered few specifics on how offshore wind and wave farms would be regulated.

    On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff signed an accord detailing how their agencies will deal with such projects. FERC will license the construction and operation of wave farms on the outer continental shelf but the Minerals Management Service will issue leases and rights-of-way for those projects. The Minerals Management Service also will be the sole agency to license wind and solar projects on the outer continental shelf.

    Previously, a wave energy developer applied to FERC for a preliminary permit to explore the feasibility of a project in a particular stretch of ocean. As such permits award developers first rights to build a project in a given locale, there’s been something of an offshore land rush over the past couple of years to stake claims on the best sites. (The city of San Francisco and Grays Harbor Ocean Energy, for instance, are feuding over competing claims.)

    Under Thursday’s agreement, FERC will no longer issue such preliminary permits for wave farms on the outer continental shelf and will not license any projects until developers first secure a lease or right-of-way from the Interior Department.

    That should slow the land rush as developers will now be dealing with two federal agencies when it comes to floating their projects.