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Posts Tagged ‘Mendocino Wave Energy’

Editor’s Note: The family of Allison Krause seeks and supports the creation of Four Days In May, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, a collaborative, multimedia, sharing event to dialog, document, discover and uncover the truth in the events leading to the killing of four students and wounding of nine at the Kent State Massacre.
On [...]

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Editors Note:  On June 9, 2009, PG&E filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a petition to release the Mendocino WaveConnect preliminary permit.
MendoCoastCurrent, May 11, 2009
In early May 2009, PG&E’s WaveConnect team decided to cancel the Mendocino WaveConnect project because the Noyo Harbor didn’t pass muster and was deemed insufficient in several engineering aspects, [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 31, 2009
On January 26, 2009, Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies agreed to work together to develop a commercial-scale wave energy project off the coasts of Oregon or California.
OPT is providing their expertise in project and site development as they build the plant’s power take-off and control systems with their PowerBuoy for electricity [...]

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Editors Note:  On May 11, 2009, PG&E pulled-out of Mendocino WaveConnect, read it here: http://tinyurl.com/qwlbg6 . The remains of the $6M are now solely allocated to Humboldt WaveConnect.
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
PG&E caught a major renewable energy wave today as the California Public Utilities Commission approved $4.8 million in funding their centerpiece wave energy [...]

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Please Take Action By MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2009 before 2:00 pm!
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
Just a couple of weeks ago, Ann Miles, Director of Hydropower Licensing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission visited the Mendocino coast.  The centerpiece of her presentation on January 13, 2009 at Fort Bragg Town Hall was to explain the FERC Hydokinetic [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 17, 2009
Here’s the post from MendoCoastCurrent in the Citizen’s Briefing Book at President-elect Barack Obama’s change.gov site:
Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force
Immediately establish and staff a Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force chartered with exploring and fast-tracking the development, exploration and commercialization of environmentally-sensitive renewable energy solutions in solar, wind, wave, green-ag, et [...]

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FRANK HARTZELL’s article with MendoCoastCurrent edits, January 15, 2009
After nearly two years of local pleas for specifics on the WaveConnect project, PG&E representatives surprised Fort Bragg and Mendocino County representatives with many new details.
Those included the promise by PG&E that all environmental studies would be public, not private information. In the recent past, PG&E had [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 7, 2009
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher today issued the following statement:
Today I announce my intention to step down as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), effective January 20, 2009. Although my term as commissioner does not end until 2012, I will also immediately begin to recuse myself from [...]

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Excerpts from article by FRANK HARTZELL, The Mendocino Beacon, December 24, 2008
On January 13, 2009, from 5-7p.m. at Fort Bragg Town Hall, a “top official from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will appear to explain the agency’s strategy on developing what it calls “hydrokinetic” power as an alterative energy source.
Ann F. Miles, FERC’s director [...]

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JOHN DRISCOLL, The Times-Standard, December 15, 2008
A white paper commissioned by the state of California says that tapping the ocean for power should be done carefully.
The report for the California Energy Commission and the Ocean Protection Council looked at the possible socio-economic and environmental effects of the infant industry, including what it might mean for [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article at the Mendocino Beacon, December 11, 2008
On December 9, 2008  “the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a Southern California development company exclusive rights to 17 square miles off the town of Mendocino for a wave energy study.
GreenWave LLC’s intent is to eventually produce a 100 megawatt wave energy power [...]

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KEVIN FERGUSON, The Information Week, November 24, 2008
Where is President-elect Barack Obama headed with environmental protection and renewable energy? The answer lies not so much in the encouraging but ultimately self-serving video posted on the transition team’s Web site, but rather on links elsewhere on the page. In particular, look at the appointment of senior transition [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, November 18, 2007
Developing Wave Energy in Coastal California: Potential Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects, authored by a team of scientists from H.T. Harvey and Associates, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, UC Santa Cruz, the Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research, Planwest Partners and Humboldt State University, and jointly funded by the California Ocean Protection Council and the California [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, November 9, 2008
MendoCoastCurrent applauds Frank Hartzell’s reporting in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon, and in winning reporting awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest for work published in 2007. The awards were recently announced at CNPA’s annual awards luncheon in late October 2008.
Reporter Frank Hartzell’s on-going, in-depth and [...]

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MATT NAUMAN, San Jose Mercury News, October 27, 2008
The California Public Utilities Commission rejected a Pacific Gas & Electric contract for wave energy, saying the utility was going to pay too much for a technology that’s still largely experimental.
Last December, PG&E said it would be the first utility in the nation to get energy from [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, October 16, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) claimed that it has jurisdiction over hydroelectric projects located on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), pointing to laws that define its role.
FERC addressed the jurisdictional question, raised by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Mineral Management Service (MMS), in the context of a rehearing order on [...]

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KATE GALBRAITH, The New York Times, September 23, 2008
For years, technological visionaries have painted a seductive vision of using ocean tides and waves to produce power. They foresee large installations off the coast and in tidal estuaries that could provide as much as 10% of the nation’s electricity.
But the technical difficulties of making such systems [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News, September 18, 2008
PG&E “expects to be granted $1.2 million this week by the U.S. Department of Energy to study wave energy off Fort Bragg and Eureka” and is seeking “the new money earlier this summer to move its local wave energy study under a Federal [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, September 9, 2008
Fort Bragg, California City Council has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Concerns escalated last August when FERC denied Fort Bragg’s second request for a rehearing on FERC’s national licensing policies for wave energy or hydrokinetic energy projects. The community stakeholders, [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article at the Mendocino Beacon, September 4, 2008
PG&E decided last week not to be the national test case for the Minerals Management Service’s wave energy program.
Just two weeks earlier, the utility officially filed paperwork to pursue those same far offshore wave energy leases. None of the filings have yet been provided [...]

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GABE MELINE, Bohemia.com, September 3, 2008
While presidential candidates call for alternative forms of energy and “sustainable” is the word of the year, the idea of ocean-wave buoys along the Sonoma and Marin coast continues to attract attention as a potentially viable form of energy.
Though no firm proposal is in place, the wheels have been turning [...]

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MendoCoastCurent, August 12, 2008
Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its latest denial for a rehearing on the Mendocino Wave Energy project on the Northern California coast.
The denied Petitioners include Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics (FISH) with Attorney Elizabeth Mitchell, Mendocino County, Fort Bragg, Lincoln County in Oregon and others representing concerned citizens, [...]

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MADDALENA JACKSON with MendoCoastCurrent edit, The Sacramento Bee, August 11, 2008
Oil companies, some politicians and commuters paying $4 for a gallon of gas might look at California’s coast and think of crude oil pooled below the sea floor.
California’s North Coast, however, holds promise of another energy bounty.
In less time than it would take to fire [...]

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JOHN DRISCOLL, The Times-Standard, July 24, 2008
The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has cleared another hurdle toward developing wave energy projects off the Humboldt and Mendocino county coasts.
Recently the U.S. Minerals Management Service announced that it would go forward with analyzing limited leases for alternative energy projects on the outer continental shelf. It follows a [...]

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DAVID R. BAKER, The San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 2008
The U.S. Interior Department ratcheted up the pressure on Congress Wednesday to open more of the country’s coastline to offshore oil drilling, a move petroleum companies have sought for decades.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said his department will lay the groundwork for selling undersea oil-drilling leases on [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 9, 2008
ACT NOW! – ‘MMS Rulemaking’ Public Review & Comments Accepted Thru September 8, 2008
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that will regulate alternative energy production activities and alternate uses of existing facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 8, 2008

Act Now! Related ‘MMS Rulemaking’ Public Review & Comments Accepted Thru September 8, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC – The Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced today that it is proceeding with the consultation and analyses necessary to move toward the issuance of limited leases under its interim policy for authorizing alternative energy data collection [...]

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DAVID R. BAKER, Village Green/SFGate.com, July 23, 2008
Drilling for undersea oil along the east and west coasts has quickly turned into one of America’s loudest political fights, as anyone reading the comments on SFGate can attest. But it’s not the Bush administration’s only plan for offshore energy.
For the past few years, the administration has been [...]

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Publishers Note: In early August 2008, FERC Denied Rehearing the Mendocino Coast related to the following post. This is one in a series of actions that Federal Government has taken to obstruct community involvement and begin the necessary dialog on environmental concerns.
MendoCoastCurrent, July 21, 2008
An alliance of Northern California coast commercial and recreational [...]

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Publisher’s Note: This May 21, 2008 FERC ruling rejects requests of FISH, Fort Bragg, Mendocino County and local stakeholders’ to rehear their right to participate in this wave energy development project. It is noted since onset of the Mendocino wave energy agenda, FERC and PG&E continue to swiftly move toward their goals [...]

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Minerals Management Service, April 17, 2008
Issues Notice to Determine Competitive Interest in Nominated Areas
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service today designated five areas on the Outer Continental Shelf as priority areas for alternative energy research in federal waters.
The five areas are offshore New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia, Florida and California. The agency [...]

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Publisher’s Note: On May 21, 2008 FERC rejected the Requests for Rehearing from Fort Bragg, Mendocino County & FISH. The article below was written before that decision was handed down.
MendoCoastCurrent, May 6, 2008
On May 5, 2008, Mendocino County filed their response to PG&E’s comments related to Mendocino County’s Request for Rehearing on the Wave [...]

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From Green Wombat, May 1, 2008
“Years ago we came to the conclusion that global warming was a problem, it was an urgent problem and the need for action is now. The problem appears to be worse and more imminent today, and the need to take action sooner and take more significant action is greater than [...]

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April 29, 2008 – CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION’S DRAFT INTERIM OPINION AUTHORIZING EMERGING RENEWABLE RESOURCE PROGRAMS
Excerpts of CPUC Decisions RE PG&E Wave Energy Conversion Project Funding
Summary — Today’s decision authorizes Emerging Renewable Resource Programs (ERRP) for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) (Joint Applicants). The adopted ERRP [...]

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Publisher’s Note: On May 21, 2008 FERC Rejected Mendocino’s Request for Rehearing so the granting of the Rehearing was short-lived and only because FERC required more time to consider the rehearing further. Interesting that FERC doesn’t suffer from ‘out of time’ issues!
MendoCoastCurrent, May 1, 2008
Learned today the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, April 24, 2008
Since late 2007 PG&E has dispatched government relations and program managers to broadcast their pledge and intention to work with Mendocino County Supervisors, Fort Bragg Councilpersons, FISH (Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics) and Concerned Coastal Residents as they move swiftly to explore wave energy development off the Mendocino Coast. Based on current [...]

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Updates from Frank Hartzell’s article announcing FERC’s granting of GreenWave’s application:
On December 9, 2008  “the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a Southern California development company exclusive rights to 17 square miles off the town of Mendocino for a wave energy study.
GreenWave LLC’s intent is to eventually produce a 100 megawatt wave energy power plant, [...]

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TIMM HERDT, Ventura County Star, April 23, 2008
Former Assemblyman Tony Strickland of Moorpark, who has spent his entire adult life either working in the Legislature or running for political office, has decided to present himself to voters this year wearing the mantle of a newfound vocation: “Alternative Energy Executive.”
That is the ballot designation Strickland, a [...]

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MMS nominated both Humboldt and Mendocino lease areas last Friday. See following for full details, emphasis added.
Federal Register: April 18, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 76)
———————————————————————–
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Minerals Management Service – Docket No. MMS-2008-OMM-0020
Notice of Nominations Received and Proposed Limited Alternative Energy Leases on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and Initiation of Coordination and [...]

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Dear Ocean Guardians:
Now that corporations and Washington D.C. have started claiming our coast for wave energy development, we must take a stand. We are called on behalf of our beloved Mendocino coast and the organisms inhabiting the vast and mighty ocean, source of all life on our Earth.
We embrace a focused intention to [...]

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This is an older FERC map showing detail of Oregon & Washington best.

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Recently on April 3 & April 4, 2008, the County of Mendocino and the City of Fort Bragg respectively filed Motions for Rehearing to Intervene in the proposed FERC and PG&E hydrokinetic projects off the Fort Bragg coastline.
To read the Fort Bragg Motion for Rehearing, go here;
To read the County of Mendocino’s Motion for Rehearing, [...]

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Summary from Argentco.com, April 2007
Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s wave energy project, “WaveConnect,” has become the first project of its kind in North America to help accelerate the development of wave energy technology.
With the filing of two preliminary permit applications with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, PG&E plans to study whether it would be environmentally [...]

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