Saving Seafood

Offshore Wind’s Next Steps: 6 to Watch For

May 29, 2019 — Things certainly aren’t dull in the world of offshore wind these days. Between new legislation to kick-start offshore wind markets, new bids to meet states’ demand for projects, and new markets getting set to open up, momentum just keeps building. Here are six near-term things I’m watching for.

1. New York’s first 800 megawatts

The journey of 9,000 megawatts, it might be said, starts with the first 800. Thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Empire State has the most ambitious target in the nation, and is working to live into that goal. That included issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for the first 800 or so megawatts late last year, with bids due in February.

Developers responded in a big way, with four proposing a total of 18 projects. Any one of those developers would bring some serious overseas experience to bear on the US market.

Decisions about which project or projects to go forward with could come out as early as this week, so I’m definitely watching for those.

Read the full story at the Union of Concerned Scientists

ROBERT BRYCE: New York’s energy policy depends on an impossible fantasy

May 23, 2019 — Last Wednesday, the Cuomo administration blocked construction of the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement project, a 24-mile gas pipeline that would run from New Jersey across New York Bay to near the Rockaways. The Department of Environmental Conservation claimed the pipeline could have a negative effect on water quality and marine life.

The move was cheered by environmental groups, which claim that New York doesn’t need more natural gas because it can rely on wind and solar energy instead. But that oft-repeated claim ignores the growing rebellion in upstate communities against Big Wind and Big Solar.

On May 9, six days before the Department of Environmental Conservation rejected the permit for the gas pipeline, the town board of Cambria (population: 6,000) unanimously rejected the proposed 100-megawatt Bear Ridge solar project. If built, that $210 million project would cover about 900 acres with solar panels.

“We don’t want it,” Cambria Town Supervisor Wright Ellis, who has held that position for 27 years, told me last week. “We are opposed to it.” The proposed project, he said, violates Cambria’s zoning laws. In addition, Ellis said it would result in a “permanent loss of agricultural land” and potentially reduce the value of some 350 nearby homes.

Wind-energy projects, too, are facing fierce opposition. In February, Apex Clean Energy, a wind-energy developer, withdrew its application to build 108 megawatts of wind capacity on Galloo Island, a small island off the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.

Read the full story at the New York Post

NEW YORK: Offshore Oil Drilling Is on Hold

May 3, 2019 — The Trump administration’s plan to allow oil and gas exploration and extraction off the Atlantic Coast is apparently on indefinite hold.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that a federal judge’s March declaration that President Trump’s order revoking a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic is illegal may force the federal Department of the Interior to wait until that case is resolved before a final decision can be made about which offshore areas would be opened to the fossil-fuel industry.

Separately, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, with the musician Billy Joel by his side, signed legislation on Monday to ban offshore drilling in New York State waters. The legislation, according to a release from the governor’s office, will bar the state from granting permits for oil or gas exploration or drilling in offshore areas controlled by the state.

“This bill says no way are you going to drill off the coast of Long Island and New York,” the governor said in the statement, “because we must lead the way as an alternative to what this federal government is doing.”

The March decision by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason once again rendered 3.8 million acres of the Atlantic Ocean, along with 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean, off limits to exploration and drilling under a ban President Obama enacted in December 2016, shortly before leaving office.

“The recent announcement that the Trump administration is backing down on oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic Seaboard is good news,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said in an email on Tuesday, “as is Governor Cuomo’s signing yesterday of state legislation that would prohibit drilling for oil or gas exploration in state offshore waters.”

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

Gov. Cuomo signs New York offshore drilling ban alongside Billy Joel

April 30, 2019 — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, joined by musician Billy Joel, a Long Island native, signed legislation Monday at Jones Beach banning offshore drilling in New York’s waters, a move that supporters believe will thwart the Trump administration’s hopes to open the Eastern Seaboard for oil and gas exploration.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) and Assemb. Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) and approved by the State Legislature in February,  will prohibit state agencies from processing applications for pipelines or any other transportation and distribution services needed to facilitate offshore drilling.

“Today’s bill says no how, no way are you going to drill the coast off Long Island and New York,” Cuomo said at an event with elected officials from both counties at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh. “It’s not going to happen as long as we are in charge of this state.”

The Interior Department announced in January 2018 that it intended to hold 47 lease sales in more than two dozen planning areas, nine of them along the Eastern Seaboard, between 2019 and 2024. The other tracts are in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Alaska and off the West Coast. The department granted an exclusion prohibiting drilling off the shores of Florida, citing that state’s reliance on tourism.

Read the full story at Newsday

Omega Protein: New York menhaden law a ‘feel good’ for environmentalists

April 26, 2019 — Omega Protein says it won’t be hurt by a new law that blocks it from fishing for menhaden in New York state waters in order to preserve the forage fish for whales and other wildlife because it never goes there.

Rather, it’s “feel-good legislation for the environmental community, but it will have zero impact on the company’s operations”, commented Ben Landry, director of public affairs for the Houston, Texas-based division of Canada’s Cooke, when called by Undercurrent News Tuesday for a response.

The legislation passed unanimously, 61-0, by New York’s Senate in February (companion bills S. 2317 and A. 2571) went into effect immediately upon being signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday. The new law, which was sponsored by Democratic senator Todd Kaminsky and assembly member Steve Englebright, prohibits the taking of menhaden with the use of purse seine nets within three miles of the state’s coast.

Because menhaden are sensitive to oxygen levels in the water and can die off by the thousands when large schools become too confined in one area during hot weather, the law allows the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue a temporary order to allow purse seiners to reduce the population.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

More Wind Farm Proposals Pitched to New York State

February 21, 2019 — New York State has received bids from four groups proposing new offshore wind farms to feed the state’s electrical grid, including a proposal from the companies behind the “South Fork Wind Farm,” which have proposed a new “Sunrise Wind” project that if selected would be sited over 30 miles east of Montauk Point.

The New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) closed bidding Thursday on the offshore wind power park, which it hopes will have a capacity of at least 800 megawatts of energy. It is expected that NYSERDA will select the winning bid in May.

According to a press release issued by New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., a total of 18 separate proposals for up to 1,200 megawatts of energy have been submitted.

In a press release issued Thursday, Ørsted and Eversource — the companies that purchased South Fork Wind Farm developer Deepwater Wind last fall — said its “Sunrise Wind” proposal had been “carefully planned to help achieve Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s nation-leading offshore wind and renewable energy goals, and to do so with the highest possible levels of public support.” While details of bids have not yet been released by the companies or by NYSERDA, in its press release Ørsted and Eversource confirmed “Sunrise Wind” would be in the 500-mile federal lease area it already controls in the same area that the South Fork Wind Farm is proposed.

Read the full story at Sag Harbor Express

New York lawmakers approve ban on offshore drilling

February 8, 2019 — State Senate Democrats approved what was described as historic legislation on Tuesday to ban offshore oil and natural gas drilling along the New York coast, a rebuke of the Trump administration’s plan to open ocean waters to energy companies.

The Democratically controlled Senate easily approved the measure, a day after the legislation passed the Assembly. Officials said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who supports the ban, is expected to sign the bill.

The expected passage of the legislation — sponsored by State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach and chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee — was announced last Sunday at a news conference on the boardwalk, where Kaminsky joined Senate leaders and Assembly Democrats, as well as local officials and environmentalists.

Lawmakers said the legislation would update decades-old laws regulating oil and natural gas drilling and prevent conveyances, leases and acquisitions of land for offshore oil and gas.

“The Senate majority will not stand by as the Trump administration plans to drill off Long Island shores,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “Long Island’s natural resources and communities’ quality of life are under threat. The Senate Democratic majority will stand up for Long Island families and fight against any efforts to drill anywhere near New York’s coastlines.”

Read the full story at the Long Island Herald

NEWSDAY: New York right to angle for fairer fluke catch

February 5, 2019 — The state’s pursuit of fair quotas for New York’s commercial fluke fishery has been its own white whale story.

The hunt has been futile, and it’s lasted for years. Thankfully, officials have not lost their passion for reeling in a sensible solution. We applaud Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for filing a lawsuit against the federal government demanding more equitable quotas. The evidence is entirely on New York’s side.

The quotas, set by federal regulators in 1993, were based on flawed and incomplete data that underreported the amount of fluke caught by New York’s commercial fishery in the 1980s. The quotas left New York fishers utterly unable to compete with their peers from other states. New York was allotted 7.6 percent of the entire Atlantic Coast fluke catch. Outrageously, Rhode Island was granted 15.7 percent, New Jersey 16.7 percent, Virginia 21.3 percent, and North Carolina 27.4 percent.

Read the full opinion piece at Newsday

New York files suit over low commercial fluke quota

January 15, 2019 — New York State has filed suit against the Trump administration to officially contest the state’s “unfair” share of the federal quota for fluke,  state Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday.

The suit follows release of December 2018 allocations for fluke that the state said remained disproportionately small and based on “inaccurate and outdated” fishing data, James said in a statement.

Cuomo had first said the state would sue in 2013, but as recently as last year refrained from doing so as it attempted other remedies, including a petition filed with the federal government. “The message is loud and clear: we will fight this unfair quota until New York’s access to summer flounder is consistent with national standards,” Cuomo said in a statement.

Hundreds of  Long Island commercial fluke fishermen have for decades decried New York’s share of the commercial fluke quota, which stands at just 7.6 percent, compared  with 21.3 for Virginia and 27.4 for North Carolina.

Read the full story at Newsday

Governor Cuomo Issues New York’s Large-Scale Offshore Wind Solicitation

November 12, 2018 — Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today issued a comprehensive solicitation seeking 800 megawatts or more of new offshore wind projects for New York. This highly anticipated first offering, issued by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority kicks-off competition for New York State’s first large-scale offshore wind development contracts, an initial step toward its goal of 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030 to combat climate change. The solicitation accelerates New York’s progress towards Governor Cuomo’s mandate for 50 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and significantly jump starts the emerging offshore wind industry in New York.

“This action is a watershed moment in New York’s renewable energy development efforts as we work to establish a secure, reliable and cost-effective clean energy future,” Governor Cuomo said. “New York will continue to combat climate change, investing in robust offshore wind development and clean energy that provides a path toward a greener and more sustainable future in our state and around the world.”

“This solicitation for offshore wind projects advances our commitment to reach our aggressive clean energy goals,” said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. “We are continuing to advance renewable energy developments across the state to ensure a cleaner and greener environment for future generations. New York is leading the way in our efforts to grow the industry and combat climate change.”

This historic offering marks an important new chapter in New York’s nation-leading offshore wind planning efforts, which have been conducted over three years and have included extensive stakeholder, agency, and public consultation along with detailed technical and financial analysis. These planning efforts provided the basis for New York’s Offshore Wind Master Plan, released in January of 2018, and the Public Service Commission’s July 2018 Order Establishing the State’s Offshore Wind Standard, which established the foundation for this important step forward.

Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance, said, “With this solicitation, New York takes a momentous step toward a clean, renewable energy future. Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, New York is creating a nation-leading offshore wind industry, bringing high quality jobs and greater economic opportunities for New Yorker’s with a lower costing, cleaner, and a more efficient energy system. New York is ideally positioned to capture this growing technology and demonstrates that investments in clean energy can benefit New Yorkers both economically and environmentally.”

Read the full story at LongIsland.com