House subcommittee requests briefing on tidal energy project on telecom cable issue

Recently a letter was sent to the acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the importance of determining appropriate separation distance between “submarine cables and marine hydrokinetic projects.”

In the letter (see below), Chairman Tim Murphy and Vice Chairman Michael Burgess of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, requested that FERC brief the Committee on its consideration of an experimental hydrokinetic project in the Admiralty Inlet of Puget Sound, Washington. The project’s proposed location is perilously close to a major transpacific international fiber optic cable linking Japan and the US. A license application for the Admiralty Inlet Project is pending before FERC. The U.S. Department of Energy is also considering whether to fund a $10 million grant for the project, which would cover more than half the project’s cost. For both agencies, the experimental project qualifies as a major federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act, and is subject to Congressional oversight for waste, fraud and/or abuse.

The Oversight panel letter, which FERC filed in its Admiralty Inlet docket, notes that the Federal Communications Commission had previously asked FERC to designate a representative to a federal advisory committee, the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Committee (CSRIC), to participate in discussions on the appropriate separation distance between marine hydrokinetic projects, such as the Admiralty Inlet project, and undersea communications cables. The Congressional letter requests FERC, in light of the ongoing work of CSRIC and the FCC’s interest in the Admiralty Inlet project, to brief Committee staff, on, among other things, FERC’s internal process for ensuring that the FCC and other government agencies have adequately reviewed the risks raised by these types of projects, how the CSRIC process has informed its review of current applications, and the role and timing for CSRIC’s advice to be incorporated into future proceedings affecting undersea cables.

The O&I Subcommittee’s letter highlights the importance of hitting the pause button with respect to the Admiralty Inlet project as neither FERC nor the FCC has sufficient expertise to make reasoned determinations on critical issues such as the separation between undersea cables. The FCC letter, dated April 22, 2013, inviting FERC to participate in the CSRIC process, sums up the lack of knowledge on the subject by both Agencies, noting that it has become apparent “that neither FERC nor the FCC currently has sufficient expert guidance available to resolve the important issue of appropriate separation distance between” submarine cables and marine hydrokinetic projects.”

To view the letter in question, CLICK HERE.