State bill would require wave energy companies to recover their own gear

NNMREC Newport test site and buoysSALEM – The Oregon Senate voted Monday to require that companies experimenting with wave energy in Oregon’s territorial waters show they have enough money to recover their equipment when they’re done with it.

The bill’s sponsors say they don’t want the state to be stuck for the cost of removing such gear if it breaks loose, sinks or outlasts its useful life.

The Department of Energy-funded Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC), based at Oregon State University, is operating a testing facility for commercial wave energy devices off the coast of Newport, an area also slated to be home to the nation’s first utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site, the Pacific Marine Energy Center.

Bend Science Pub to feature OSG invasive species educator

Science PubBEND – Oregon Sea Grant’s invasive species specialist, Sam Chan, is the featured speaker for the OSU Cascades Science Pub event on Tuesday, May 21 at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend. The informal event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m and features a full pub menu and no-host bar.

Chan, a Sea Grant Extension specialist and biologist with the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds, will talk about how invasive species arrive in Oregon via land, air and sea, and can cause serious harm to our economy and environment.  Learn how these invaders arrive in ways we would never anticipate – through innocent classroom projects, gardening, and on floating tsunami debris – and what you can do to prevent and minimize their impact.  Chan’s research guided the creation of the award-winning statewide “Silent Invasion” program.

Use this online form to reserve a seat for Hitchhikers from Afar: Aquatic Invasive Species & You. Science Pubs are free but due to their popularity, reservations are required no later than 5:00 p.m. the day prior to each lecture.