OREC Urges FERC to Further Facilitate License Waivers

As we last noted in this post, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continues to maintain jurisdiction over ocean energy projects, though it is willing to consider limited waivers to the license requirements.  Currently, FERC will allow developers to site a project and interconnect with a customer so long as the purpose of the demonstration is to gather data for use in the license application.  In addition, FERC will only grant a waiver in these circumstances for a short period of time. 

OREC supports FERC’s efforts to ease regulatory burdens on developers.  At the same time, we are concerned that even the process to obtain these waivers may become overly cumbersome.  FERC’s recent letter to a developer seeking a waiver suggests that developers may have to submit lengthy explanations to qualify for a short term waiver.  Thus, OREC has filed a letter with FERC proposing to allow developers to obtain the waiver simply upon a certification that the project will utilize new wave or hydrokinetic technology.   Our full letter is available here (PDF form).