UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Project No. 12793-000
RE: Energetech America LLC)

SURFRIDER FOUNDATION’S
MOTION TO INTERVENE IN THE FLORENCE WAVE PARK PROJECT LICENSING PROCEEDING

I. Introduction

On April 16, 2007, Energetech America LLC (“Energetech”) filed a Preliminary Permit Application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Florence Wave Park Project (FERC No. 12793-000). On June 14, 2007, FERC issued a Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions to Intervene, Protests, and Comments regarding the preliminary permit application for the “Florence Wave Park Project”, to be located in the Pacific Ocean about 1 to 2.9 miles offshore Florence in Lane County, Oregon. The Notice established a deadline of August 13, 2007, for filing motions to intervene. In accordance with Rule 214 of FERC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, 18 C.F.R. § 385.214, Surfrider Foundation hereby moves to intervene in Energetech America’s application for a preliminary permit.

II. Motion to Intervene

A. Statement of Interest

The Surfrider Foundation (“Surfrider”) is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. As a grassroots organization, Surfrider’s efforts include promoting the right of low-impact, free and open access to the coastal environment. Surfrider Foundation is represented by over 50,000 members in the United States, including 721 members in the State of Oregon.

The project site and surrounding area proposed by Energetech is regularly used by Surfrider Foundation members for a variety of activities including surfing, diving, fishing, kayaking, beachcombing, and aesthetic enjoyment. Surfrider members are likely to be negatively impacted by the project through diminished aesthetics, recreational opportunities, environmental quality, and public safety. Surfrider is concerned about any wave energy proposals, and the potential impacts to ocean recreation, nearshore ecology, public safety, aesthetic and fishing access. (See Surfrider Foundation’s Statement on Wave Energy in Oregon at “Attachment A”). Surfrider Foundation will work to ensure that any wave energy proposals contain sufficient protection and, if necessary, mitigation measures. Surfrider has a considerable interest in the protection of the coastal resources that may be affected by this project.

B. Grounds for Intervention

Surfrider Foundation’s intervention in Energetech America’s preliminary permit application process is in the public interest as required by 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(b)(2)(iii). No other party in the proceeding will be able to adequately protect the interests of surfers, divers, recreational fishermen, kayakers, beachcombers, and other members of the public who use and enjoy the proposed project site and surrounding area. Accordingly, Surfrider Foundation has a direct and substantial legal interest in the outcome of this preliminary permit application process.

C. Statement of Position

The proposed project site for the Florence Wave Park Project is located within a major hub for ocean recreation in western Lane County. Surfers, divers, fishermen, kayakers, and beachcombers alike consider the South Jetty area to be a special place that contributes to their happiness and quality of life. This area is an oasis for ocean recreation on a long stretch of sandy beach coastline. The proposed project sight is directly in the path of southwest to west swells that produce the best waves for this area. The attenuation of wave height and severe alteration of natural aesthetics may negatively impact the South Jetty experience for traveling tourists, as well as local residents who choose to live in the area because of this natural resource.

The project may also result in significant environmental impacts. The installation of wave energy platforms and anchoring cables may interfere or entangle grey whales that migrate along Oregon’s coastline. The extraction of wave energy may alter sediment transport, thereby impacting both beach geomorphology and related ecology. Finally, the potential impact of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on the behavior of salmonids, sharks, mammals, and other marine life remains unknown. All of these environmental impacts raise legal concerns in that they may cause violations of the Clean Water Act, codified at 33 USC §§ 1251 et seq., the Coastal Zone Management Act, codified at 33 U.S.C. § 1451 et seq., and the Endangered Species Act, codified at 16 USC §§ 1531 et seq., as well as Oregon state environmental protection laws.

The project may also produce negative economic impacts. The project area indicated in the preliminary permit encompasses important crabbing grounds used by commercial fishermen from Florence, Newport, and other ports. The area is also regularly used by recreational salmon fishers and crabbers who are significant contributors to the local economy. Additionally, a number of small businesses in Florence benefit from the beauty of the surrounding environment, including those businesses that cater to recreational, cultural, and tourism activities. Establishing a wave energy park would marginalize some of Florence’s best attributes, and in the process reduce the related economic benefits.

Finally, the Florence Wave Park Project may pose a threat to public safety. While the applicant has stated that wave energy platforms will be engineered to withstand a 100 year event, data from buoys off the central Oregon coast show that significant wave heights have markedly increased over the past twenty years. Given current uncertainties related to climate variability, it is unclear whether the engineering standards for platforms –which weigh an estimated 300 metric tons - would be sufficient to adequately protect the safety of local residents and visitors.

Surfrider Foundation will be seeking appropriate license conditions and will oppose any license that does not adequately address the above stated concerns. Surfrider Foundation wishes to be informed regarding progress reports or any other filings by the preliminary permit applicant. This includes being added to all official service and mailing lists regarding the aforementioned preliminary permit application. Please send such information to the following contacts:

Gus Gates
240 Rhododendron Drive
Florence, OR 97439

Pete Stauffer
PO Box 550
Port Orford, OR 97465

III. Conclusion

Surfrider Foundation represents interests not yet represented by any other party to the proceeding. Our intervention is in the public interest as required by 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(b)(2)(iii). Therefore, we respectfully request that the Commission grant this timely motion to intervene.

Respectfully submitted this 13th day of August, 2007.


_______________________________
Peter Stauffer
Surfrider Foundation
PO Box 550
Port Orford, OR 97465
SV +503 8870514 Call


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION


CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that I have this day served the foregoing document upon each person
designated on the official service list compiled by the Secretary in this proceeding.


Dated this 13th day of August, 2007.



____________________________
Peter Stauffer
Surfrider Foundation
 

Company thinks big with energy project

By Winston Ross
The Register-Guard

Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007

FLORENCE - When most people picture the proposals for wave energy projects now taking shape along the Oregon Coast, it goes something like this:

A buoy, bobbing on the surface of the water but not so visible or intrusive as to impair the view - at least no more than the buoys that mark Dungeness crab pots do today - with most of the hardware underwater.

It's time to think bigger, at least in Florence. Platform big. Three hundred thirty tons big. Twenty-three feet above sea level big.

The project that Australia's Oceanlinx Limited firm wants to build off Florence's South Jetty is markedly different from other proposed energy projects along the coast that are made up of less-obtrusive buoy networks. The wave-energy generators that Oceanlinx is proposing will be in an area that starts a half-mile offshore and goes three miles out, extending six miles north and south. There will be 10 four-legged structures that measure 115 feet by 49 feet, not counting the cables and anchors that will keep them bound to the underwater sand. With those anchors, the footprint is 107,584 square feet.

"They're like small oil platforms," said Gus Gates, a member of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation and a local activist concerned about the project.

Surfrider filed a motion to intervene this week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will decide whether Oceanlinx's permit application goes through. In doing so, the group joined the city of Florence, the Port of Siuslaw, the Siuslaw Fishermen's Association and Lincoln County.

Oceanlinx's project would connect via an underwater transmission cable to the electricity grid in Glenada, across the Siuslaw River from Florence. The offshore floating steel frame structures, which will be moored to the seafloor, will be made up of an oscillating water column and wave chamber, turbine and electric generator.

Oceanlinx officials did not return telephone calls but, according to the company's FERC application, the project is based on a principal called the "oscillating water column."

There's a vertical water column or chamber partly submerged and fixed to the ocean floor. As the waves bob up and down, the water level within the chamber rises and falls, causing air flow across a turbine that drives a generator. Water never comes in contact with the turbine or generator. It's air power.

By contrast, some of the buoys proposed along other parts of the coast consist of hydraulic mechanisms that transfer energy from the bobbing of waves into a mechanical form and then into an electrical form. The buoys that Oregon State University engineer Annette von Jouanne is designing would utilize a coil system that releases energy as the coil expands and contracts with the ocean's movement.

The question that all the companies want to answer is which technology is the most efficient, i.e. the most profitable.

The thing that worries people such as Gates is that the Florence proposal could have a greater impact on the fishing industry, recreation opportunities and the pristine South Jetty views of the sunset valued by residents and tourists.

"That's kind of the hub of surfing in Lane County," Gates said. "But there are also fishing grounds impacted, gray whales that could become entangled, kiteboarders."

Gates is not opposed to the project per se, nor are other entities that have filed to "intervene" in the approval process. He is interested in wave energy's potential as a clean, renewable resource, as something that might actually help re-establish fishing populations and damaged marine environments by keeping away some of the industry, such as trawling, that has harmed the nearshore ecosystem. But he is worried that the wave energy movement is gathering steam too quickly, and wondering what Florence stands to gain and what it stands to lose.

"We're kind of jumping the gun here," Gates said. "Why should we give up our ocean, our activity, if it doesn't benefit us? If could be great if it's done small, well-planned, conservatively. But how many jobs is this going to create?"

As far as port commission member Joshua Greene is concerned, it could create thousands of jobs statewide. But Greene still supports the port's motion to intervene because it gives the agency "a seat at the table."

"I'm very pro-wave energy from an environmentalist point of view, but I think it could also be an incredible opportunity for the state to develop economic strength," Greene said. "You've got to build them, you've got to anchor them, and you've got to maintain them."

Greene imagines a small footprint in the ocean but a manufacturing presence farther up the Siuslaw River, maybe at the site of Davidson Industries derelict former mill.

"Have the buoys made upriver, and then barge these things back out over the bar," Greene said. "You know what that does to Florence? That's like bringing logging back. The tonnage across the bar solves your dredging problems and creates a few hundred jobs."

By dredging, Greene means the federal funds the port fights for each year to maintain a safe navigation channel where the river meets the sea. Without a certain amount of commercial movement across the river bar, it's harder to get federal funds to clear the way each year.

Still, there's plenty of caution and reason for skepticism, said Mark Lull, president of the Siuslaw Fishermen's Association.

"These units are in prime crab country and salmon trolling area," Lull said. "With the rope and chain to the anchors, the footprint of these platforms is large. You can't troll through that area, you can't dump crab pots in that area. Everything will tangle with the anchors."

If all goes well with permitting, Oceanlinx expects to file its application for a license in three years and deploy its first wave energy units thereafter.