Saving Seafood

As US East Coast ramps up offshore wind power projects, much remains unknown

September 11, 2023 — As the U.S. races to build offshore wind power projects, transforming coastlines from Maine to South Carolina, much remains unknown about how the facilities could affect the environment.

And that worries some people, particularly those who depend on the sea for their livelihoods.

“We don’t have the science to know what the impact will be,” said Jim Hutchinson, managing editor of The Fisherman magazine in New Jersey. “The attitude has been, ‘Build it and we’ll figure it out.’”

Read the full article at Associated Press

OREGON: Federal officials will meet with Oregonians about controversial offshore wind energy projects

September 10, 2023 — Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials will meet with Oregonians concerned or curious about potential floating offshore wind energy projects following public and political outcry.

Officials will host three in-person meetings in Gold Beach, Coos Bay and Brookings on Sept. 26, 27 and 28. The agency also doubled the public comment period from 30 to 60 days, until Oct. 16.

Generating clean energy from wind turbines floating in the Pacific Ocean is part of state and federal plans to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change. But some residents of the Oregon Coast and several tribal nations are concerned about the potential impact to marine life, fisheries and the industries and people who depend on them.

Coos Bay and Brookings are closest to the two swaths of Pacific Ocean identified by the ocean energy agency as ideal for large wind turbines that would float about 18 to 32 miles from land. Energy generated across the 344 square miles of open ocean identified for the projects could power nearly 200,000 homes. The federal agency would like to host an auction by year’s end, allowing companies interested in developing ocean wind energy to bid on leases for the sites. A similar auction in California in 2022 brought in $757 million in winning bids for four companies.

Read the full article at Oregon Capital Chronicle 

OREGON: Oregon tribes protest offshore wind plans

August 26, 2023 — Federal officials’ announcement of two draft wind energy areas off the Oregon coast poses danger to fisheries, jobs and the state’s coastal environment, the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians say.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s proposal “was premature and threatens fisheries, local fishing jobs, and some of Oregon pristine ocean viewsheds, some of which are sacred to the Tribe,” the confederation said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Objections coming out of Oregon are echoing those lodged against offshore wind projects off the East Coast, where local groups continue to mount fierce political and legal campaigns over anticipate impact on fishing and ocean views from coastal communities.

In months leading up to the draft wind areas release, BOEM was urged by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, fishing advocacy groups, tribes and Oregon elected officials to pause and start its planning process over again.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Biden administration approves Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island

August 23, 2023 — Revolution Wind, a 704-megawatt turbine array planned for 15 miles off Rhode Island, gained final approval from the Department of Interior Tuesday. The joint venture by developers Ørsted and Eversource is the fourth offshore wind project to be greenlighted by the Biden administration, which now expects to have 16 project plans reviewed by 2025.

Under intense scrutiny for the project’s anticipated environmental and economic effects, the final review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies focused on BOEM’s “Alternative G” as the “preferred alternative,” which could rearrange wind turbine locations on the lease tract “to reduce impacts to visual resources and benthic habitat.”

The alternative includes up to 79 possible positions for the installation of 65 turbines and two offshore substations to fulfill the project’s designed total nameplate rating of 704 MW within a 1-nautical mile grid spacing.

“This flexibility in design could allow for further refinement for visual resources impact reduction on Martha’s Vineyard and Rhode Island, or for habitat impact reduction in the NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) Priority 1 area,” according to BOEM’s environmental assessment report issued in July.

That analysis foresaw “long term moderate to major adverse impacts depending on the fishery and fishing operation. If BOEM’s recommendations related to project siting, design, navigation, access, safety measures, and financial compensation are implemented across all offshore wind energy projects, adverse impacts on commercial fisheries due to the presence of structures could be reduced.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BOEM outlines two Oregon wind energy areas

August 17, 2023 — Two proposed wind energy areas located 18 to 32 miles off the southern Oregon coast would total less than 220,000 acres – much less than potential development areas first outlined by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in April 2022.

The Aug. 15 announcement from BOEM starts a 60-day public comment on the proposal. This new draft document comes after calls from Oregon state officials and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for BOEM to rethink its analysis of wind energy development and potential conflicts with fishing, maritime shipping and environmental issues.

As now proposed the areas would total 219,568 acres of federal waters – a reduction of 81 percent from BOEM’s original “call areas” drawn in 2022 to gauge wind developers’ interest and stakeholders’ reactions.

The agency will “continue to prioritize a robust and transparent process, including ongoing engagement with Tribal governments, agency partners, the fishing community, and other ocean users,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein in announcing the proposal.

“At the request of Oregon’s governor and other state officials, there will be a 60-day public comment period on the draft WEAs and BOEM will hold an intergovernmental task force meeting in addition to public meetings during the comment period,” said Klein. “We look forward to working with the state to help us finalize offshore areas that have strong resource potential and the fewest environmental and user conflicts.”

BOEM worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to use an ocean planning model “that seeks to identify and minimize conflicts,” according to BOEM.

Read the full article National Fisherman 

U.S. Offshore Wind: Throwing the fish and the fishermen under the bus

August 15, 2023 — Fish and fishermen are used to making their way in or on the water. But, in its rush to develop offshore wind, the U.S. Government is throwing both fish and fishermen under the bus.

The U.S. should learn from Europe, which is decades ahead in developing offshore wind. The first offshore wind farm in Europe was built 32 years ago. Since then, more than 116 offshore wind farms have been built. Europe was extremely slow in addressing the effects of offshore wind on the marine environment, but in the last decade or so they have been catching up.

In recent years, European scientists have developed and adapted various methods for qualifying changes to the marine ecosystem due to offshore wind development, beginning with establishing a baseline prior to construction. Surveys have been designed to examine stressors (physical presence and dynamic effects of turbines, acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) and receptors (pelagic/benthic habitat, fish and fisheries, mammals, food chain, etc.), in many cases, establishing a grid covering the site of a future offshore wind farm and systematically surveying that grid, often extending the survey for some distance beyond its borders. In so doing, the scientists establish a critically important baseline of data that is needed to compare with data obtained when re-surveyed after an offshore wind farm is operational. In this way, it is possible to quantify the short, medium and long term effects of offshore wind on the marine ecosystem. It’s just common sense to do this.

Contrast this with the current U.S. approach. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Federal agency that is the steward for all U.S. offshore properties, has repeatedly stated that they have no plans for requiring any offshore wind site to be surveyed prior to construction for the purpose of establishing a baseline of marine life. In so doing, the U.S. is simply failing to prepare for the potential effects of offshore wind on fish and fishermen, preferring to accept a highly uncertain outcome and ignoring important biological, ecological and socioeconomic effects of offshore wind development.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Revolution Wind Promises Fewer Turbines Off Aquinnah Ethan Genter

August 16, 2023 — An offshore wind energy developer says it will cut down on the number of turbines it is proposing to put in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard in order to reduce the number that can be seen from Aquinnah.

Revolution Wind, at the suggestion of the federal agency currently reviewing the project, will seek no more than 65 wind turbines about 14 miles off the western tip of the Island. The project is still facing backlash from Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), who is calling for officials to slow down the permitting process.

Revolution Wind initially proposed erecting up to 100 wind turbines in an area southwest of Aquinnah to supply 700 megawatts of renewable wind power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. In a July environmental report on the project from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the bureau found the project would impact Aquinnah’s scenic horizon and suggested potential changes.

In its preferred plan, BOEM recommended Revolution Wind install only 65 wind turbines, as well as potentially relocating some that would be close to the Island. As originally pitched by Revolution Wind, the closest turbine to Aquinnah was planned to be about 13 miles, but under BOEM’s preference turbines would be moved back to a minimum of 14.25 miles from the western side of the Island.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

OREGON: Defying Governor, BOEM Moves Ahead With Offshore Wind Areas off Oregon

August 16, 2023 — The Department of the Interior has identified its first two Wind Energy Areas off the coast of Oregon, the latest frontier in an expanding offshore wind permitting campaign.

The Biden administration hopes to foster installation of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, a goal that appears increasingly remote given supply chain cost hikes and a growing number of abandoned or canceled power purchase agreements on the U.S. East Coast. Any future projects will be even costlier to develop on the West Coast, where platform-based floating wind farms and new power transmission infrastructure will be required.

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Oregon has big opportunities for offshore wind deployment. The draft WEAs announced Tuesday would allow development of up to 2.6 GW of wind power.

The areas cover about 220,000 acres off Brookings and Coos Bay, and they are far smaller than the “call areas” previously outlined for expressions of industry interest.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

More Offshore Wind Turbines Could be on the Way to Ocean City

August 4, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified three new Wind Energy Areas or WEAs. They lie off the coasts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland.

For Ocean City leaders, this new proposal does not seem to be as controversial as US Winds, and it is all about the distance. The new site would be 23.5 nautical miles Southeast of Ocean City’s coastline. Essentially running parallel to Assateague.

“That’s a lot better than 11.9 miles, as is currently being proposed in the lease area for US Wind,” said Rick Meehan, Ocean City’s mayor.

Back in July the town hired an outside firm to look at US Wind’s proposal and deem if it is responsible. The end goal would be getting US Wind to move its turbines back. And now, the town can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Read the full article at WBOC

Biden administration blasted for ‘hypocrisy’ on offshore wind as it scrambles to probe whale deaths

August 2, 2023 — The Biden administration appears to be scrambling for research on the conflict between wind turbines and a highly endangered whale species on the East Coast following reports of “unprecedented” whale deaths.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a regulatory body from the Department of Interior that leases offshore areas for energy development, posted a grant notice in May targeted at “addressing key information gaps in acoustic ecology of the North Atlantic Right Whales,” one of the most endangered whale species in the world.

The problem is the government has already approved offshore wind projects, and some experts are saying the attention to the whales is too little too late.

Fisherman in the region are calling the government “hypocritical” after the same federal agencies almost “regulated [them] completely out of business” in an effort to protect the endangered species without any data showing fishermem bring any harm to the right whale.

Read the full article at Fox News