January 4, 2023 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled an environmental justice strategy focused on communities dependent on the ocean or marine resources during the United Nations’ Conference of Parties in December 2023.
The federal strategy outlines overarching goals for advancing environmental justice for communities relying “on the ocean and Great Lakes for economic, cultural, spiritual, recreational, and food security purposes.”
December 27, 2023 — There’s a lot riding on the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry: the ability to tap into a huge source of clean energy and reduce carbon emissions, the opportunity to create thousands of jobs, the unique chance to jumpstart a new domestic manufacturing industry.
For these reasons, President Biden has made the success of the industry a pillar of his climate agenda. His administration has set an ambitious target of getting 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind power flowing into the grid by 2030, which is enough electricity to power 10 million homes.
December 27, 2023 — Trustees of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have approved an initiative to make justice and equity central tenets of the organization’s grantmaking efforts.
The initiative, which aims to provide more equitable and durable support – both regionally and locally – to Indigenous peoples, fishers, and other communities dependent on the ocean, is currently in a transitional phase as it consolidates several strategies into a single, integrated ocean initiative structured around three primary portfolios of work: global fisheries, ocean habitats and communities, and ocean-based climate solutions.
December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order enabling the closure of a sanctions loophole that has allowed the U.S. importation of large quantities of Russian-caught pollock, cod, salmon and crab processed in China.
The action has been sought by North Pacific seafood industry officials — and their congressional allies — who say that Chinese-processed Russian seafood has contributed to soft U.S. markets and lower prices paid to Alaska fishermen.
The crackdown on the seafood imports is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to add bite to the U.S. sanctions rolled out in a March 2022 executive order responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The initial seafood sanction banned the imports of Russian seafood exported directly to the United States, but allowed those products to move freely to American consumers if they were first processed in another country.
Biden’s Friday action expands U.S. ability to sanction financial institutions, and also includes language that will enable tougher sanctions on Russian seafood and diamonds even if “substantially transformed” in another country.
December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden Dec. 22 signed an executive order expanding the U.S. ban on Russian seafood to include imports of Russia-originated seafood processed in third countries, including China.
The unnumbered executive order expands U.S. Executive Order 14068 to prohibit the importation of seafood “harvested in Russian waters or by Russia-flagged vessels, even if these products are then transformed in a third country.”
“The United States has been clear: those who are supplying goods or processing transactions that materially support Russia’s military industrial base are complicit in Russia’s brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden said the executive order resulted in part from the G7 Leaders’ statement, issued Dec. 6. The order called for the group’s seven members – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and the European Union – to step up its efforts against evasion and circumvention of their sanctions and export controls measures on Russian goods. The statement called for additional actions to further curtail Russia profiting from the export of its commodities, including through the imposition of measures to limit their sale through third countries.
December 2, 2023 — Offshore wind turbines are pitting environmentalists against environmentalists—threatening to impede progress toward an ambitious U.S. goal for such projects.
The Energy Department estimates offshore wind turbines could produce as much as 20% of regional power needs along the densely populated Eastern Seaboard from Florida to Maine by 2050.
To reach that goal, the Biden administration had hoped to green-light 30 gigawatts from utility-scale offshore wind farms by 2030—enough to power nine million homes. That now seems wildly ambitious, as billions of dollars in projects have been canceled amid staggering cost overruns, soaring interest rates and supply-chain delays.
Added to these economic woes are persistent environmental concerns, as attested to by some recent federal lawsuits. In September, for example, Cape May County, N.J., and a coalition of regional environmental, fisheries and tourism groups sought to stop development of two utility-scale projects off the New Jersey coast.
November 25, 2023 — Canceled offshore wind projects, imperiled solar factories, fading demand for electric vehicles.
A year after passage of the largest climate change legislation in U.S. history, meant to touch off a boom in American clean energy development, economic realities are fraying President Joe Biden’s agenda.
Soaring financing and materials costs, unreliable supply chains, delayed rulemaking in Washington and sluggish permitting have wrought havoc ranging from offshore wind developer Orsted’s (ORSTED.CO) project cancellations in the U.S. Northeast, to Tesla, Ford and GM’s scaled back EV manufacturing plans.
The darkening outlook for clean energy industries is tough news for Biden, whose pledge to deliver a net-zero economy by 2050 faces headwinds that the landmark Inflation Reduction Act’s billions in tax credits alone can’t resolve.
After walking into last year’s United Nations climate summit in Egypt touting the IRA as evidence of unprecedented progress in the fight against climate change, Biden is expected to skip this year’s event in Dubai amid dire warnings that the world is moving too slowly to avert the worst of global warming.
November 21, 2o23 — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will provide an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary work visas in fiscal 2024, nearly doubling the number of available visas from the statutory cap of 66,000.
This is the second year in a row DHS has announced that more than 64,000 additional H-2B visas will be made available to the industry.
November 20, 2023 — The United States is likely to miss its offshore wind installation targets by nearly 50%, experts estimate, as a string of delays and cancellations in large-scale offshore wind projects continues to grow.
Energy sector analyst Bloomberg NEF’s outlook for U.S. offshore wind capacity by 2030 fell by 29% between its June and November reports, now predicting 16.4 GW of cumulative offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade.
In September, the Biden Administration reiterated its goal of achieving 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
“President Biden has set an ambitious goal of achieving 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 – and I am more confident than ever that we will meet it,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a Department of Energy press release.
In recent weeks, the U.S. wind sector has faced a series of headwinds, namely high interest rates, rising costs for wind turbine components and local opposition to large-scale offshore wind projects.
November 8, 2023 — Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety and a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, reintroduced the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act, legislation that would support offshore wind workforce development that meets the needs of the offshore wind and maritime industry through a new grant program. More specifically, the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would help create thousands of good-paying union jobs in coastal communities through apprenticeship programs, maritime centers of excellence, and institutions of higher education.
The legislation would also help the Biden administration achieve its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. First, the Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would direct the Secretary of Labor to identify the offshore wind industry’s workforce needs by engaging with the offshore wind industry, maritime industry, eligible entities, local governments, ports, and nonprofit organizations. Based on this workforce gap analysis, the Secretary of Labor would establish a grant program in consultation with the Secretary of Energy to support the training of both new and current workers, provide tuition financing, and support apprenticeship programs.
“Billions of dollars in clean energy investments are being unlocked from the Inflation Reduction Act, including my Offshore Wind American Manufacturing Act. We must ensure that our offshore wind workforce is ready,” said Senator Markey. “The Offshore Wind Jobs and Opportunity Act would prepare workers with the skills and training needed to supercharge our grid with clean energy powered by offshore wind. I will continue to push for the winds of change to blow off the shores of Massachusetts and other coastal communities throughout the nation so that our workers can benefit from this clean energy force.”
“There is much work to be done to bring offshore wind online effectively and efficiently — that includes ensuring we have access to talent,” said Senator Whitehouse. “Our legislation will invest in job training programs to prepare the next generation of workers to fill well-paying jobs that help meet America’s offshore wind goals.”
“I’m proud that Virginia is developing the largest offshore wind project in the country, creating thousands of good-paying jobs,” said Senator Kaine. “This legislation will help us train the workforce we need to fill those jobs and expand economic growth. I will continue to do all that I can to help workers access job training programs and to create good-paying jobs in the Commonwealth.”