California Coastal Commission set to vote on Marine Bioenergy’s kelp project

In California, the California Coastal Commission is set to vote on May 10 whether Marine Bioenergy’s ARPA-E funded open sea kelp farming project in conjunction with the University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies can go forward. The team seeks to trial commercial-scale kelp farming using the technique it has developed for biofuel feedstock in the Catalina Channel in Southern California. Commission staff highlighted in a report potential environmental concerns if the torpedo anchoring system proposed doesn’t work as it should and either is impossible to remove or doesn’t stay put, leaving equipment to stay in the ocean indefinitely.