Saving Seafood

Troubling questions, concerns raised about off-shore wind farms

August 22, 2019 — Oceanographer Jon Hare listed the effects of offshore wind development on the marine environment.

There’s disturbance to the sea floor during installation of turbine platforms. Noise from pile-driving and other activities. Increases in boat traffic. Lighting of the project site. Dredging for electric cables.

The impacts can be far-reaching.

“Putting a pile into the sediment in essence is habitat alteration,” said Hare, a science and research director with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “You’re taking relatively smooth, unconsolidated sediments and converting it to hard structure, converting that habitat into something else.”

Although Hare didn’t name Vineyard Wind during a seminar on Wednesday, or talk about the company’s 84-turbine wind farm proposed in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, the potential impacts he detailed speak to some of the reasons why NOAA has raised concerns about the project, which has led to further scrutiny of the application by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Wind turbines and radar mix poorly

August 22, 2019 — As budding offshore wind development brings the U.S. to the brink of a new chapter in energy production, questions remain as to how radar interference caused by wind turbines will be diminished or eliminated.

Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, slated for an Atlantic lease area about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, effectively had the rug pulled out from underneath it August 9, when the Department of the Interior announced the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) would hold off signing a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and re-examine potential impacts posed by the project. Radar was not specifically cited as something the feds would take a second look at. However, weather and aeronautical radar are all well-documented as being adversely affected by wind turbines, and a handful of studies show marine radar is also hampered by wind turbines. Fishermen who spoke with The Times said they already work in an inherently dangerous industry, and offshore radar interference has the potential to exacerbate that danger.

Technological measures to lessen radar interference from turbines are being researched and slowly implemented in the U.S. and Europe. However, none appear to be folded into the construction plans for Vineyard Wind. In its Revised Navigation Risk Assessment, Vineyard Wind borrowed from a 2009 U.S. Coast Guard review for the never-realized Cape Wind project, and stated for its own project, “impacts to radar should not negatively impact a mariner’s ability to safely navigate in the [wind development area]; even so, Vineyard Wind will work with stakeholders to identify potential mitigation measures, as necessary.”

Read the full story at the MV Times

US Regulators Gear Up For Offshore Wind Project Oversight

August 20, 2019 — For the first time in more than a decade the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has revised its guidelines for assessing the effects of offshore wind projects on commercial shipping, an indication that such projects are gaining momentum as a renewable energy option.

The new guidance, made public earlier this month, identifies navigational safety information the agency will consider when reviewing permit applications to build and operate an Offshore Renewable Energy Installation, including wind farms. It updates and replaces guidelines originally issued in 2007.

The USCG advises the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, on offshore leases, and can recommend that project developers conduct a Navigation Safety Risk Assessment, which includes an evaluation of marine traffic information based on vessel movement data.

Read the full story at The Morning Star

US lawmakers urge speedy Vineyard decision

August 20, 2019 — A bipartisan group of senators are calling on US federal government to finalise the supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) and mitigate delay to the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in US waters.

Massachusetts senators Edward Markey (Democrat) and Elizabeth Warren (Democrat), Louisiana senators Bill Cassidy (Republican) and John Kennedy (Republican), along with representatives Richard Neal, William Keating and Joseph Kennedy (Massachusetts), as well as Steve Scalise (Louisiana), have sent a letter to the Department of Interior and the Department of Commerce.

The letter is in response to the decision by Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – the designated lead agency on offshore wind – will need to implement a supplemental EIS, before issuing a final EIS, which could significantly delay the 800MW Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, off the coast of Massachusetts.

Read the full story at ReNews

Vineyard Wind project faces permitting, construction delays

August 19, 2019 — Connecticut Public Radio reported over the weekend that a final decision to approve the Vineyard Wind Project may not occur until the end 2020, adding a layer of doubt about when the offshore wind power project would actually start.

Last month, National Fishermen reported Vineyard Wind could miss its planned construction start of later this year due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s delay in reviewing the 800-megawatt wind farm off the Massachusetts coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Vineyard Wind says it will carry on amid new review

August 16, 2019 — Offshore energy develop Vineyard Wind backpedaled this week from its earlier warnings, saying it intends to carry forward with plans for building 84 turbines in New England waters, even as a revised environmental review raises more questions about its future.

“Company shareholders have affirmed a commitment to deliver a proposed 800-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, albeit with a delayed project schedule,” Vineyard Wind announced in statement days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would undertake a sweeping reassessment of environmental impacts.

That assurance stood in contrast to the earlier reaction from Vineyard Wind, when company officials learned BOEM would not be finalizing an environmental impact statement as they had hoped for by mid-July.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Feds’ delay puts crucial tax credit in jeopardy for Vineyard Wind

August 15, 2019 — With the federal tax credit for offshore wind projects about to expire, every day counts.

So you can understand the concern around town when it became clear the country’s first major offshore wind farm would likely miss a crucial deadline for the tax credit, a key element in the project’s financing. The reason? The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it needs more time to review Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, to properly weigh the cumulative impacts of similar offshore projects in the pipeline.

As a result, developer Vineyard Wind on Monday said it would revise its $2.8 billion project, with a delayed schedule. The vague statement from the developer, a Massachusetts venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, didn’t say much. But these revisions likely mean one thing: Construction on the 800-megawatt project planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard would no longer start in time to deliver electricity by the end of 2021.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Sens. Warren And Markey Speak Out Against Vineyard Wind Decision

August 15, 2019 — U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, both D-Mass., are speaking out against the recent federal decision to delay Vineyard Wind’s offshore project, proposed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) decided to delay the publication of Vineyard Wind’s final environmental impact statement and, instead, initiate a supplemental draft environmental impact statement process.

“The Trump administration’s last-minute decision to delay approval of a major offshore wind energy project is extremely disappointing,” states Warren. “The Vineyard Wind project – which is projected to create thousands of jobs and generate clean energy for over 400,000 families and businesses across the commonwealth – would save money for Massachusetts ratepayers, reduce carbon emissions by over 1.6 tons per year and help the commonwealth reach its clean energy targets by 2035.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

Elizabeth Warren chimes in on delay of Vineyard Wind project

August 15, 2019 — Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the recent move by federal regulators to delay Massachusetts’s first offshore wind project is “extremely disappointing.”

Late Friday, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind, further delaying the $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm planned 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and drawing blowback from local officials.

The project would be the first large-scale wind farm in the United States.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said they made the decision after receiving input “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting “a more robust” analysis of the project. The agency says the continued review could extend into early next year. The project’s developers had hoped to begin construction later this year and have the farm operational by 2021.

Read the full story at Boston.com

Vineyard Wind awaiting supplement to draft report

August 14, 2019 — A supplement to the Vineyard Wind draft environmental impact statement will be written by early next year, if not sooner, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The bureau updated its website Tuesday with more details following the news announced last week that it intends to delay issuing a final statement for the offshore wind development company’s construction and operations plan. The federal agency will have a public comment period for the supplemental statement, and hold public meetings during the comment period.

The bureau will consult with the Office of Management and Budget on potential permitting delays beyond the two-year requirement under a presidential order from 2017 requiring timely environmental reviews and authorization decisions for major infrastructure projects.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times