Saving Seafood

US prepares to auction leases for seabed mining blocks in federal waters

May 28, 2026 — The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining in federal waters is preparing to auction off seabed blocks within months — a step that could kick-start commercial-scale deep-sea mining and make the U.S. one of the first countries to allow it.

Deep-sea mining has not yet begun anywhere in the world. Opponents say it could cause widespread and irreversible damage to the marine environment if it begins, while supporters say it could provide an important source of critical minerals.

In a budgetary document released in April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) indicated it intends to hold at least three offshore lease sales during the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. The lease sales will take place through competitive auctions, providing a pathway for winning companies to gain exclusive rights to explore and exploit minerals in designated tracts of seabed.

The first sale is slated for the federal waters of American Samoa in August 2026; a second in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in November 2026; and a third in Alaska in 2027. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. agency currently responsible for the development of offshore energy and mineral resources on the U.S. outer continental shelf (OCS), confirmed this timeline.

Read the full article at Mongabay

MASSACHUSETTS: Nearly Two Years Later, Broken Blade Investigation Continues

May 7, 2026 — As Vineyard Wind and its turbine manufacturer duke it out in court over hundreds of millions owed to both parties, a federal investigation into what caused the blade failure at the heart of the case remains ongoing nearly two years later.

Last month a Massachusetts superior court judge issued a preliminary injunction that prevented GE Vernova, the company that built and installed several dozen faulty turbine blades at the offshore wind energy project off Martha’s Vineyard, from walking away from its work at the wind farm.

The case hinges on contract language related to who owes who money. GE Vernova said it wanted to exit from its contracts because it was owed more than $300 million. Vineyard Wind said that it didn’t have to pay any money to GE, because the GE owed Vineyard Wind nearly $800 million because of the delays from the shoddy work.

While that continues to play out in court, the long-awaited investigation into the 2024 blade break at Vineyard Wind by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the agency that oversees offshore energy production, continues on with no clear end date.

The bureau itself has been tight-lipped and declined to give a progress report on its work and any of the environmental monitoring that the bureau required of Vineyard Wind.

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazzette

Court Says Sunrise Wind Can Resume

May 4, 2026 — President Trump’s effort to kill the nascent offshore wind industry is starting to resemble his fruitless effort to overturn his re-election loss in 2020, as a federal judge on Monday handed him a fifth consecutive loss in court challenges to the administration’s December order pausing construction of five wind farms along the East Coast.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the preliminary injunction sought by Sunrise Wind L.L.C., regarding the suspension order issued by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The move allows the construction of Sunrise Wind in federal waters about 30 miles east of Montauk Point to resume immediately while the underlying lawsuit challenging the administration’s order progresses.

The 924-megawatt wind farm’s export cable is to make landfall at Smith Point County Park in Shirley and is to generate electricity sufficient to power nearly 600,000 residences.

“Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the U.S. administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution,” a statement from Orsted, the developer, reads. “With safety as the top priority, the project will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible to deliver affordable, reliable power to the State of New York.”

Read the full article at the East Hampton Star

Trump administration to rejoin offshore drilling agencies separated after 2010 Gulf oil spill

April 6, 2026 — The Trump administration said Friday it is combining two agencies that were separated in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The Interior Department said the overhaul would increase efficiency and speed up permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling.

The new Marine Minerals Administration will bring together the functions of the current Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. Doing so will enable a “streamlined approach” that will maintain existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards, he said.

The combined agency will “deliver clearer coordination, better service to the public and stronger, more integrated oversight of offshore energy development,” Burgum said in a statement.

The new name is reminiscent of the old Minerals Management Service, which for decades was the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore drilling. In April 2010, a deadly explosion destroyed BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and discharging nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the sea over the next three months in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Trump’s High-Profile Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Alaska Has No Takers

March 9 2026 — The Trump administration did not receive a single bid for its offer of new offshore oil and gas exploration opportunities in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, dealing a blow to President Trump’s ‘drill, baby drill,’ agenda.

The attempted sale of rights to drill in more than 1 million acres was the first of six offshore oil and gas auctions in Alaska that Republicans mandated last year when they passed Mr. Trump’s sweeping tax law.

It was seen as a key test of the industry’s appetite for investment in a state that Mr. Trump has called a “natural resource warehouse,” and essential for his “energy dominance” agenda of maximizing domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal. On Wednesday, though, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management acknowledged that no drilling companies submitted bids.

“This is a huge embarrassment for Trump’s Alaska fossil fuel fantasy,” said Cooper Freeman, the Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

Read the full article at The New York Times

CALIFORNIA: Next Step in Trump’s California Offshore Oil Drilling Effort Announced

February 27, 2026 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a step toward leasing areas for offshore oil and gas drilling in California this week, by launching an associated environmental process.

BOEM announced Thursday the department would prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for lease sales in northern, central and southern California.

A soon-to-be-released statement will primarily concern sales planned for 2027 in central and southern California, according to BOEM.

A Northern California lease sale is proposed for 2029, according to a BOEM document.

This is a California-specific part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to open lease areas in federal waters across the country for sale to oil and gas companies, with an aim to restore domestic energy production.

Read the full article at the Local Coast Outpost

U.S. Offshore Wind Projects Report Progress After Resuming Offshore Work

February 26, 2026 — Three of the five offshore wind projects under construction in the northeast U.S. have each signaled this week strong progress. It comes after each project received preliminary injunctions against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which had imposed stop-work orders in late December.

Speaking to investors on February 25, the executives of Iberdrola, one of the partners in Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts, said as far as they are concerned, the project is complete. Executive Chairman Ignacio Galan said as an engineer, he sees the project as completed while confirming that 60 of the 62 wind turbines are now fully installed. CEO Pedro Azagra added that the project is between 80 and 85 percent operational, with between 52 and 55 of the turbines exporting electricity to the grid. They reported that the final two turbines would be installed in the coming days.

Reports have said the wind turbine installation vessel was contracted only until the end of February. It will need to depart promptly for its next assignment.

Speaking to investors earlier in the week, the executives of Dominion Energy also highlighted progress on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project near Virginia Beach. They said the progress on fabrication is excellent, with around 70 percent of the towers and 30 percent of the blades fabricated, which tracks well with the schedule.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

MASSACHUSETTS: State AG pushing back on effort to halt development of offshore wind

February 11, 2026 — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has filed an amicus brief opposing the Trump Administration’s effort to halt development of the New England Wind 1 offshore wind project, which is expected to power more than 300,000 homes.

Supporting developer Avangrid Power, Campbell argued that completing the project is essential to meeting growing energy demand, especially during winter with rising heating bills.

Read the full article at CapeCod.com

Dominion Energy and Vineyard Wind Reach Milestones as Work Resumes

February 2, 2026 — Within days of resuming work at Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1, both projects have marked key milestones. The projects argued they were at critical stages of construction in court and received preliminary injunctions to prevent the Trump administration from enforcing a stop-work order.

Dominion Energy provided a detailed update on the status of its project, reporting it has reached 71 percent completion and, critically, the first wind turbine generation was installed in January. The company’s massive wind turbine installation vessel, Charybdis (the only U.S.-flagged WTIV vessel), also began loading in December after a lengthy commissioning process and is deployed for the installations.

The presentation outlines that the project remains on track to generate its first power this quarter. Although after the delays due to the stop-work order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, they have rescheduled completion to early 2027.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Court says Vineyard Wind can resume ‘full activities’

January 29, 2026 — After two other projects secured relief in the courts, Vineyard Wind on Tuesday also won a decision allowing it to resume “full activities” at its offshore wind power project south of Nantucket.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts stayed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Dec. 22 project suspension order, which Vineyard Wind challenged on Jan. 15.

“As the legal process proceeds, Vineyard Wind will continue to work with the Administration to understand the matters raised in the Order,” Vineyard Wind said in a statement. “Vineyard Wind will focus on working in coordination with its contractors, the federal government, and other relevant stakeholders and authorities to safely restart activities, as it continues to deliver a critical source of new power to the New England region.”

Read the full article at the Boston Herald