Saving Seafood

Pacific fishery council calls for new start to offshore wind planning

March 13, 2023 — Proposed offshore wind energy areas off the Oregon coast must be set aside and the planning process started anew, using more planning tools “to minimize siting impacts to fisheries and ecosystem resources,” according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

At its meeting in Seattle, the council voted Thursday to recommend the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management do a complete reset on outlining “call areas” off the Oregon coast, an early step in planning for future wind power leases to gauge potential developers’ interest.

A motion approved by the council calls for rescinding the Brookings and Coos Bay call areas previously outlined by BOEM. The council further “requests that BOEM restart the process to identify call areas and consider all water off Oregon from 12 miles and beyond, including waters that are greater than 1,300 meters in water depth, and using marine spatial planning tools to minimize siting impacts to fisheries and ecosystem resources.

“Exclude from further consideration all offshore banks and seamounts and require an adequate buffer zone surrounding them as determined by collaborative work” among the council and state and federal agencies.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

U.S. rule change equips offshore wind developers for faster growth

February 24, 2023 — Last month, the Biden administration set out new streamlined regulation for offshore wind development as it chases its highly ambitious installation target of 30 GW by 2030.

In the first major regulatory shakeup since 2009, the U.S. Interior Department will offer more flexibility on survey requirements, reform lease auctions and improve the verification of project designs, it said.

The new rules come as the Interior Department plans to hold up to four additional offshore lease sales by 2025 and aims to complete environmental reviews of at least 16 offshore wind projects by 2025, representing over 20 GW of new capacity.

Read the full article at Reuters

Biden administration proposes offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico

February 23, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday proposed the first offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico.

The proposed auction includes an area of more than 100,000 acres in the waters off Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two similarly sized areas off Galveston.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seeks public comment on which of the two areas offshore from Galveston should be included in the final sale.

“This proposed lease sale will continue the legacy of energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, providing Americans with an affordable clean energy supply. It will also help secure our nation’s energy independence while reducing costs for consumers,” said Josh Kaplowitz, vice president for offshore wind for the American Clean Power Association.

Read the full article at Texas Public Radio

Feds slash Gulf’s first wind farm areas to make room for drilling, shipping, fishing

February 23, 2023 — The Gulf of Mexico’s first slate of offshore wind farms will have much less space than the federal government proposed late last year.

A new wind energy lease sale plan released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management slashes the Gulf’s offshore wind energy development areas by two-thirds, potentially reducing the amount of jobs and clean energy the region’s leaders had hoped wind farms would generate in the coming years. BOEM’s decision to cut the size of wind energy areas is aimed at easing potential conflicts with the Gulf’s many other users, including the oil and gas industry, shipping companies and the military.

The new boundaries include a 102,000-acre area south of Lake Charles, and two areas near Galveston, Texas that will likely be trimmed to one zone stretching across about 100,000 acres. The Gulf’s total combined area will likely be just under 200,000 acres, according BOEM officials. That’s a substantial reduction from the 682,000 acres BOEM proposed in October.

It’s unclear how much the smaller areas may dampen the prospects for offshore wind development, which has been promoted as a potent force for job creation and clean energy in a region with deep but fading ties to the oil and gas industry.

BOEM had estimated the larger, 682,000-acre area could generate power for almost 3 million homes or enough electricity for all the residents of Houston, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. On Wednesday, BOEM cut its estimate down to 1.3 million homes, but that number could be cut again after the two Galveston zones are reduced to a single area.

BOEM Proposes Archaeological Rules as Criticism of Offshore Wind Grows

February 15, 2023 — Faced with a broad range of criticisms over the development of offshore wind farms, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is proposing steps that it says are designed to ensure that wind farms cohabitate with other ocean users and reduce potential harm in the ocean environment. The latest proposals address marine archaeological resources following steps at the end of 2022 to work with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division.

To better protect shipwrecks and other cultural resources on the seabed from harm due to offshore energy activities, BOEM is proposing regulatory changes to its marine archaeology reporting requirements for activities on the Outer Continental Shelf. A notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comment will publish in the Federal Register on February 15, for a 60-day comment period ending on April 17, 2023.

BOEM says that after evaluating over 40 years of empirical evidence collected by and for the oil and gas industry, academic institutions, and state and federal agencies, it has determined that previously undiscovered archaeological resources may be present in any part of the OCS, regardless of the lack of any historical or predictive modeling evidence.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

 

BOEM Releases Environmental Plan for Next Offshore Wind Farm

February 14, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is moving forward with the next key step for the development of one of Massachusetts’ offshore wind farms even as the project has sought to renegotiate the key part of its plan. The federal government continues to push forward on its efforts for renewable energy from offshore wind keeping its focus on deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

“BOEM continues to make significant progress toward achieving this Administration’s vision for a clean energy future – one that will combat climate change, create jobs to support families, and?ensure economic opportunities are accessible to all communities,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “In our review of offshore wind projects, we are committed to working collaboratively with our tribal, state, and local government partners as well as using the best available science to avoid or minimize conflict with existing users and marine life.”

Today, February 13, BOEM announced the availability of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed SouthCoast Wind (formerly Mayflower Wind) energy project offshore Massachusetts. It begins a process of a 45-day comment period as part of the review by BOEM as the project moves into the final stage of permitting and approvals.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Wind energy efforts in Gulf of Maine pick up steam

February 10, 2023 — Stakeholders across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), are inching closer to developing offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine.

In a series of public meetings last month, including one in Portsmouth, BOEM detailed its progress on bringing the renewable energy source to a portion of the 36,000-square-mile gulf area.

Last August, the Department of the Interior released a request seeking “commercial interest in obtaining wind energy leases in the Gulf of Maine consisting of about 13.7 million acres.” Based on input from the request, BOEM joined with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Coastal and Ocean Science to produce a spatial analysis. This led to reducing the potential offshore wind gulf acreage to 9.9 million acres.

Read the full article at NH Business Review

CONSTANCE GEE: ‘Strategy’ to protect right whales from offshore wind development is recipe for extinction

January 25, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a draft of their strategy to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) from the hazards of offshore wind development this past fall.

The report is a heartbreaking portrayal of the plight of the 336 remaining right whales. Approximately 230 animals have died over the past decade. Autopsies and photo documentation conclude that fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes have caused the deaths. “Stressors” of industrialized ocean noise and dwindling food sources have contributed to reduced health and compromised body condition in 42% of the remaining population.

“Human-caused mortality is so high,” BOEM scientists state, “that no adult NARW has been confirmed to have died from natural causes in several decades; for a species that might live a century, most animals have a low probability of surviving past 40.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Portland Press Herald: Gulf of Maine swath mulled as potential site for commercial wind turbines

January 20, 2023 — The potential use of wind turbines off the coast of Maine to generate electricity has drawn scientific and commercial interest for at least a decade – and now the federal government is taking a next step to determine where those turbines might go.

The U.S. Department of the Interior last August issued a formal request-of-interest to gauge the potential market for wind-energy leases within about 13.7 million acres of the Gulf of Maine. The department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has scaled this site down to a “draft call area” of 9.9 million acres, and now is looking to obtain public feedback on leasing the waters for commercial wind-power production.

The bureau will hold a meeting in Portland on Thursday to receive input from marine businesses, fishermen and other ocean users about the location and size of the area. The meeting is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, 88 Spring St., and the agenda and more information can be found here.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

BOEM holding public sessions on offshore wind energy in Gulf of Maine

January 13, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is holding a series of in-person and online public sessions on its planning for potential offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Maine from Jan. 17 through Jan. 30.

In August 2022 the U.S. Department of Interior announced a “request for interest” from wind energy developers in potentially offering 13.7 million acres in the gulf for energy leasing. In response to public input after that announcement, BOEM has worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Coastal and Ocean Science (NCCOS) to conduct a spatial analysis of the RFI area.

That process has led BOEM to reduce the RFI area by about 27 percent to 9.9 million acres.

“BOEM would like your feedback on the reduced RFI area, as well as input on the model being developed in partnership with NCCOS,” according to a BOEM announcement Jan. 10. “This model will be used in the next phase of the planning process to aid in the identification of offshore areas that are the most suitable for commercial wind energy activities, while minimizing potential conflicts with marine life and all ocean users.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman