Saving Seafood

Federal regulators eliminate Gulf of Maine wind power zone

July 31, 2025 — The Trump administration has erased all wind energy areas in federal waters, including two million acres in the Gulf of Maine.

The zones were developed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to offer wind power leases to energy developers.

Amber Hewett director of offshore wind energy at the National Wildlife Foundation said removing the areas is a follow up to the administration’s earlier order to stop all wind power lease sales.

“The change here is that now, when a new administration comes in, those areas won’t be ready and waiting. They have been deleted, and the process will need to start again at the beginning,” Hewett said.

Establishing the areas took years of consultation with fisheries, coastal communities, shipping companies, tribes, environmental groups and other interests.

Through those discussions regulators set aside areas that were the least disruptive, Hewett said.

Read the full article at Maine Public

BOEM Rescinds Designated Wind Energy Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf

July 30, 2025 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM):

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) today announced it is rescinding all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This action is being taken in accordance with Secretary’s Order (SO) 3437 – Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision-Making – and the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025 – Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the OCS from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.

WEAs were originally established to identify offshore locations deemed most suitable for wind energy development.

By rescinding WEAs, BOEM is ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the OCS for speculative wind development, and is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic.

— BOEM —

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages development of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy, mineral, and geological resources in an environmentally and economically responsible way.

New Autonomous Vehicle Helps Advance Understanding of the Deep Ocean and its Critical Minerals

July 8, 2025 — During a recent expedition led by the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute  (OECI), with support from NOAA Ocean Exploration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), testing of a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) resulted in advancement to uncrewed systems technologies and the collection of images of manganese nodule-covered seafloor in ultra-deep waters near the Mariana Trench.

Built by New England-based startup Orpheus Ocean  , the small-footprint “Orpheus AUV” is advancing our understanding of some of the planet’s least explored regions at water depths up to 11,000 meters (6.8 miles). These areas include geological settings that may contain marine critical minerals such as polymetallic nodules, which are of interest to marine scientists, resource managers, and industry.

Field-testing of the new AUV took place during an expedition on Ocean Exploration Trust’s Exploration Vessel Nautilus  east of the Mariana Trench. The vehicle successfully completed several dives to depths exceeding meters (3.5 miles), imaging polymetallic nodules on the seafloor during two dives. These are the first direct observations of these sites and help NOAA, USGS, and BOEM refine their understanding of the resources that they are tasked with characterizing and managing.

A predecessor to Orpheus Ocean’s AUV was originally developed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and its evolution from prototype to operational vehicle has been supported over several years by NOAA Ocean Exploration and OECI. Orpheus Ocean, a startup company founded in 2024, aims to expand access to these unique, small-footprint robots to supercharge our ability to collect meaningful data that can ensure sound policy decisions about these unique environments.

Read the full article at NOAA Ocean Exploration

US Wind proposes USD 20 million in compensation funds for commercial fishers in Maryland, Delaware

May 22, 2025 — US Wind has agreed to provide USD 20 million (EUR 17.8 million) in compensation to commercial fishers and related businesses in the U.S. states of Maryland or Delaware who have been impacted by the development of wind power off the coast of Maryland.

In 2014, US Wind secured an 80,000-acre federal lease area in the Atlantic Ocean, with plans to build a wind energy facility just over 11 miles off the shores of Ocean City, Maryland. As part of securing a lease, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) determined that wind energy developers must compensate the commercial fishing sector for any potential lost revenue caused by construction.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Federal oil and gas leasing plan could include Maine coast

May 1, 2025 — The Trump administration is developing an offshore oil and gas leasing plan that could include waters in the Gulf of Maine.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine warns there are no economically recoverable fossil fuels in the region and that drilling risks environmental and economic harm.

“Offshore oil and gas exploration would directly threaten our marine ecosystems, risk devastation to our vibrant tourist economy, and harm our heritage fishing industry,” the council’s climate and clean energy director Jack Shapiro said in a statement.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this month opened public comment on developing a new five-year lease schedule for the outer continental shelf.

Read the full story at CAI

Offshore opponents urge Supreme Court to grant Vineyard Wind challenge

April 22, 2025 — Advocacy groups opposed to offshore wind development are calling for the Supreme Court to consider how federal approval of a project off the coast of Massachusetts could be violating recent high court decisions curbing agency authority.

The America First Policy Institute and others recently filed “friend of the court” briefs backing a pair of petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) seeking to block completion of the Vineyard Wind 1 project.

The briefs are backing the parallel claims before the court: that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management overstepped its authority and that lower courts failed to properly review the agency’s decision after a Supreme Court decision limited courts’ deference to agency decision-making.

Read the full story at E&E News

Nantucket anti-wind group petitions feds to halt Vineyard Wind 1

April 21, 2025 — After the Trump administration suspended the Empire Wind offshore energy project over claims of rushed approvals and inadequate analysis, Nantucket nonprofit ACK For Whales is urging federal regulators to take similar action against Vineyard Wind.

The group is calling for Vineyard Wind’s revised construction plan to be revoked due to unresolved safety and environmental concerns.

The island nonprofit, which opposes offshore wind development, has formally petitioned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to rescind the construction and operations plan for Vineyard Wind 1.

The revised plan was approved Jan. 17, 2025, following a major turbine blade failure and the discovery of potential manufacturing defects affecting as many as 66 blades.

Read the full story at MassLive.com

Trump escalates his feud with offshore wind

April 21, 2025 — Donald Trump took his disdain for offshore wind to a new level this week.

The president moved to halt a wind farm off New York’s coast that was already under construction — a step analysts say sets a dangerous precedent for all energy projects, not just renewable ones, writes Benjamin Storrow.

“No one with any kind of an energy project can rely on the permits that have been issued if this administration, for whatever reason — legally or illegally, rightly or wrongly — decides that they want to call into question permits that have already been issued,” Allan Marks with Columbia University told Ben.

“That should scare any investor in any energy project.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum delivered the administration’s rationale in a social media post on X. The 810-megawatt Empire Wind project is being halted, he wrote, to review information “that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”

Read the full story at Politico

 

Trump administration moves to shut down Empire Wind

April 17, 2025 — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction activity on Equinor’s Empire Wind project off New York.

“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote in a memorandum Wednesday, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

Citing President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order calling for a broad review of all offshore wind power projects in federal waters, Burgum wrote that the construction halt will remain pending review to “address these serious deficiencies.”

Planned as an array of 54 turbines between shipping approaches to New York Harbor, the 810-megawatt project recently started with subsea rock installation on the turbine sites, and pile-driving for foundation installation expected in May.

Project opponents have furiously lobbied the administration to take dramatic action against the project, one of five East Coast wind installations where developers with approvals under the Biden administration have pressed forward despite hostility from Trump.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project

April 17, 2025 — The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-permitted project. He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval.

The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in President Donald Trump’s first term. BOEM approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and construction began that year.

Read the full story at the Associated Press