Poseidon, pledging goal of 100% clean energy, forms partnership with Orange County Power Authority

As Poseidon Water’s more than two-decade long journey to bring a controversial desalination plant to Huntington Beach could be hitting the final stretch, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orange County Power Authority on Tuesday.

Poseidon is pledging that it has a goal of 100% clean energy for the plant, which requires an average steady load of about 25 megawatts, making it one of the larger energy users in Orange County.

Poseidon Vice President Scott Maloni called the nonbinding agreement a “game changer” at Tuesday’s signing ceremony held at OCPA headquarters in Irvine, noting the plant would be the first seawater desalination plant in the western hemisphere to be powered entirely by renewable energy sources.

Critics of Poseidon, however, are calling the agreement a public-deception campaign with no guarantee of making that goal happen.

The Huntington Beach City Council, which represents one of four initial Orange County cities in the power authority, has voted to offer both businesses and residents 100% renewable energy as a default option for the OCPA rollout this year. However, everyone is allowed to choose two other percentage tiers — 69% and 38% — or opt out completely and stay with Southern California Edison.

Poseidon, meanwhile, is scheduled to appear before the California Coastal Commission on March 17, seeking the final permit needed before it can purchase the water from the Orange County Water District.

Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey, an OCPA board member, speaks during a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony on Tuesday morning in Irvine.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

Poseidon is promising zero carbon footprints through the state’s carbon offset program. But OCPA board member and Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey said that being powered completely by renewable energy would further enhance the facility’s environmental sustainability and its commitment to Huntington Beach to be good stewards of the environment.

“From an environmental perspective, it not only has the prospect of being powered entirely by renewable energy, but the project mitigation guarantees the protection and preservation of Bolsa Chica wetlands for future generations,” Posey said. “Not only that, this project will mean thousands of jobs, millions in dollars in tax revenue and billions of gallons of water to Huntington Beach and the entire county of Orange.”

Scott Maloni, Poseidon Water vice president of project development, answers questions from members of the media Tuesday.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

The agreement does say that Poseidon and the OCPA have “a goal” of developing a 100% renewable energy product that will serve the plant, which would churn out about 50 million desalted gallons of water a day. Critics like Andrea Leon-Grossman, the climate action director of Azul, note that’s far less than a guarantee.

“All that Poseidon is promising is to ‘work toward’ 100% clean energy,” Leon-Grossman said in a statement. “If they’re being honest, they will commit to only using 100% clean fuels and steer clear of carbon fuels that exacerbate the climate crisis. They’ll also have no program accepting a requirement to their permit that guarantees this commitment and identifying a contractual obligation when they go before the California Coastal Commission on March 17.

“What Poseidon is doing is deceiving the public from the environmental disaster this project would be — one that requires high electricity usage for 50 years and guarantees excessive energy that fuels greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis.”

Things have been heating up as the March 17 date with the Coastal Commission nears.

The Stop Poseidon Collation, which also includes Orange County CoastKeeper, the California Coastal Protection Network, Sunrise Movement and the Surfrider Foundation, presented a science-based 3D virtual simulation to the Coastal Commission on Feb. 11. The video shows how 4 to 6 feet of sea level rise would leave the proposed Poseidon site and surrounding area susceptible to flooding in the future.

But Moffatt & Nichol, a Long Beach-based engineering firm which performed its own studies for Poseidon Water, submitted to the Coastal Commission that the facility has incorporated climate change science into its design and would not be vulnerable to any projected sea level rise or tsunami flood hazards during its 50-year life span.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.