December 8, 2016 — MINEOLA, N.Y. — Commercial fishing companies, trade groups and three fishing-based municipalities are seeking to delay the lease sale of an Atlantic Ocean site between New York and New Jersey that federal officials envision as the home of a massive offshore wind energy project.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of a 45-page motion ahead of its filing Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C. It seeks a temporary restraining order halting the Dec. 15 lease sale. Those seeking a delay include groups representing scallop and squid fishermen, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The motion seeks to delay the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s plans for developers to build a 127-square-mile, 194-turbine offshore wind farm. The United States still has no offshore wind projects online, though BOEM has awarded 11 commercial offshore wind leases for sites in the Atlantic. Some major projects have been delayed by political opposition.
A BOEM spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
The country’s first offshore wind farm, a tiny project off Rhode Island with just a few turbines, is expected to debut this month.
The court motion argues that BOEM failed to consider alternative sites and contends that besides negative impacts on scallop and squid fishing, others who harvest fish species including summer flounder, mackerel, black sea bass and monkfish also would be negatively affected. When it announced final plans for the lease sale earlier this fall, BOEM said it had removed about 1,780 acres from the initial proposal because of environmental concerns.
The plaintiffs referred to that as a “diminutive change” in their motion. The fishing groups said they aren’t opposed to wind farms. But they argue that site alternatives weren’t considered and that conducting site analysis after a lease sale is completed will be too late.
“BOEM must carry out the proper analysis prior to officially leasing out areas to companies for construction, due to the importance of this fishery area,” said James Gutowski, president of the Fisheries Survival Fund, who is a scallop fisherman from Barnegat Light, New Jersey; the group is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“It must adequately and accurately characterize the potential impacts to the industry from construction on this site,” Gutowski said.