Saving Seafood

Vineyard Wind review could extend into 2020

August 14, 2019 — With a critical permit for the Vineyard Wind project on hold so the federal government can launch a new study of the burgeoning offshore wind industry and its potential consequences, the agency conducting that study said Tuesday its review could stretch into 2020.

The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Tuesday put more detail to a plan it first announced Friday, when it sent shockwaves through the industry with its plan to hold off on developing the final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind while it studies the wider impacts of an offshore wind industry that is hoping to quickly ramp up along the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastline.

BOEM laid out its process on Tuesday for the additional review, which will take the form of a supplement to Vineyard Wind’s 2018 draft environmental impact statement, and indicated that the final environmental impact statement is unlikely to come until 2020 — well after project developers had hoped to begin construction.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

RESPONSIBLE OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (RODA) STATEMENT REGARDING VINEYARD WIND FEDERAL REVIEW PROCESS

August 14, 2019 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

In light of the recent decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to perform a cumulative impacts analysis regarding the proposed Vineyard Wind project, and the recently released communications between that agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), RODA would like to clarify certain statements and representations.

The RODA Board of Directors particularly notes the citation of its statement regarding turbine spacing and orientation in BOEM’s response to NMFS’ letter of nonconcurrence. To provide the full context of this statement, which is not readily apparent from BOEM’s letter, it is posted here in its entirety.

RODA has not taken a position to specifically support or oppose any offshore wind energy development. We have repeatedly stated in multiple formats that decisions on any new uses of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that have the potential to affect commercial fishing must be based on a deliberative process and scientific record that fully incorporates the input of diverse fishing communities and avoids and minimizes such impacts to the maximum possible extent; and where impacts cannot be avoided effective mitigation strategies are developed to achieve co-existence.

During the development of the Vineyard Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), RODA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BOEM and NMFS in order to collaborate on the science and process of offshore wind energy development on the Atlantic OCS. We value the relationships and progress we are advancing with both agencies as well as those with developers, including Vineyard Wind, through cooperation on our Joint Industry Task Force and the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance.

The size, pace, and scope of proposed offshore wind energy projects on the Atlantic OCS demand that lawmakers, regulators, developers, and the public all employ due caution to ensure that these developments can coexist with our traditional and historic fisheries. It would be unacceptable to put at stake hundreds of thousands of skilled fishing jobs, healthy and sustainable seafood, important traditional ecological knowledge, and the very fabric of our coastal cultures in a rush to welcome a new industry before the trade-offs are fully considered. In many early natural resource-based industries—including the fishing industry—a race to develop without adequate science and planning has resulted in avoidable resource catastrophes. We would like to avoid those outcomes, and taking time to understand the cumulative impacts of multiple imminent industrial projects is critical to doing so.

Read the full release here

Vineyard Wind project delayed

August 13, 2019 — The proposed offshore wind project off the coast of New Bedford has hit another stumbling block.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it would delay the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt farm because stakeholders want a better analysis of it.

Vineyard Wind was calling on the federal government to complete its review so the project could move forward. Congressman Bill Keating says the Trump administration has decided to delay construction on the project.

“Vineyard Wind and the larger off-shore wind industry are anchors to a blue economy based in New Bedford and Southeastern Massachusetts,” Keating said in a statement over the weekend. “The effects of today’s announcement are the potential loss of over three thousand jobs in our region; the loss of the ability to heat 400,000 homes; and – in light of the decommissioning of Pilgrim Power Plant – twenty percent of our energy was anticipated to come from offshore wind by 2035. All of this is in jeopardy now.”

Read the full story at WPRI

Rep. Keating Criticizes Trump Administration for Vineyard Wind Delay

August 13, 2019 — Congressman William Keating is criticizing the Trump Administration after a decision last week by federal regulators to hold off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for the Vineyard Wind project.

The 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind farm was being planned for South of Martha’s Vineyard and would be able to generate enough energy to power nearly 400,000 homes.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the agency took the action to delay issuing the EIS after receiving comments “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting a more robust cumulative analysis that would include projects that have been awarded power purchase agreements, but may not have submitted construction and operations plans.

Keating, a Bourne Democrat, said in a statement that the Vineyard Wind project, and larger off-shore wind industry, is an anchor to a blue economy based in New Bedford and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Trump admin throws wrench into offshore wind plans

August 13, 2019 — The Trump administration is ordering a sweeping environmental review of the burgeoning offshore wind industry, a move that threatens to derail the nation’s first major project and raises a host of questions for future developments.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of the Interior Department, is ordering a study of the cumulative impact of a string of projects along the East Coast. The review comes in response to concerns from fishermen about the impact of offshore wind development on East Coast fisheries.

A BOEM spokeswoman said the review would focus on projects with signed power purchase agreements. Nine projects in seven states with a combined capacity of 4.8 gigawatts are planned to come online in the coming years. The study will also consider the environmental implications of an even larger build-out of the industry, based on states’ development targets for offshore wind.

But conflicts with fishermen are only likely to grow. Vineyard Wind has primarily drawn opposition from squid fishermen. An area likely to be offered for lease next year near New York is prime scalloping water. Fishermen there are already raising objections.

If Vineyard Wind is ultimately found to have a detrimental impact on fisheries, that would have serious consequences for the rest of the industry, said Logan, the Wood Mackenzie analyst.

“It would be an exteremly bad precedent to set,” he said. “Based on the things they’ve brought up with fisheries, which is a problem up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it could be contagious, so to speak.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Feds delay environmental statement for offshore wind project

August 12, 2019 — Federal regulators are holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind, a proposed major wind farm planned off the Massachusetts coast — a move the company called a “surprise and disappointment.”

Connie Gillette, chief of public affairs for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Friday the agency took the action after receiving comments “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting a more robust cumulative analysis that would include projects that have been awarded power purchase agreements, but may not have submitted construction and operations plans.

“Because BOEM has determined that a greater build out of offshore wind capacity is reasonably foreseeable than was analyzed in the initial draft EIS, BOEM has decided to supplement the Draft EIS and solicit comments on its revised cumulative impacts analysis,” Gillette said in a statement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Letter shows BOEM was ready to move ahead on US wind farm without NMFS blessing

August 12, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published by Undercurrent News:

Before the US president Donald Trump administration ordered a delay of the country’s first offshore wind farm late last week, it was the belief of at least some of its officials that making the changes requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be disastrous and NMFS approval was not needed to move ahead anyhow, Undercurrent News has learned.

Interior secretary David Bernhardt on Friday told Bloomberg that he has ordered an additional study by his department of the Vineyard Wind project, a plan to build more than 80 giant wind turbines on a 118-mile stretch of ocean some 15 miles from the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, before going ahead with a final environmental impact statement (EIS).

The decision puts in jeopardy the $2.8 billion project, which had promised to supply a combined 800 megawatts of power to at least 400,000 New England homes and businesses but had worried the commercial fishing industry. It was scheduled to begin construction this year and be operational by early 2022.

Bernhardt reportedly told the news service that it’s important the impact of the project be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s,” he said.

A Vineyard Wind spokesman called the Interior Department’s decision “a surprise and disappointment” and said his company urged the federal government to “complete the review as quickly as possible”.

As reported last week by Undercurrent News, the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has seemingly dragged its feet on Vineyard Wind’s final EIS since receiving at least two letters from Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for NMFS’ greater Atlantic office.

One 44-page letter, sent in March to James Bennett, head of BOEM’s Office of Renewable Programs, provided a detailed critique of a half dozen alternative approaches for the wind farm under consideration.  Another short three-page letter sent by Pentony on April 16, restated some of the same concerns, including NMFS’ request for more space between the turbines and an overall different directional orientation.

“We reviewed your preferred alternative and associated rationale provided in your letter dated April 3, 2019, and are writing to inform you that [NMFS] does not concur with your choice of a preferred alternative,” the second letter states.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Vineyard Wind Races Against the Clock

August 9th, 2019 — Construction on Vineyard Wind, a massive plan to build 84 wind turbines 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, is slated to begin by Jan. 1, but regulatory snags on two different fronts have created a race against the clock for what would be the nation’s first industrial-scale offshore wind project.

In early July, the Edgartown conservation commission dealt a surprise setback to wind developers when it voted 5-1 to deny two undersea cables that would connect the turbines to mainland Massachusetts, after hearing concerns from local fishermen. On the same day, Vineyard Wind received news that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had delayed the release of the project’s final environmental impact statement (EIS). In a press release shortly thereafter, Vineyard Wind acknowledged the need to have an EIS in hand “within, approximately, the next four to six weeks.”

Now, three weeks later, Vineyard Wind has appealed the conservation commission ruling to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Developers are awaiting that decision, along with a statement from BOEM on the EIS.

The developments are early challenges for a huge infrastructure project that lies on the frontier of a nascent, billion-dollar renewable energy industry. Further delays have the potential to jeopardize hefty tax credits, utility contracts and equipment leases dependent upon an already tenuous supply chain and construction timeline. A source close to the project said meetings with regulators are ongoing, and that the plan is still to have construction begin by the new year.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Rhode Island delegation raises concerns with speed of offshore wind review

July 31, 2019 — If the nation’s first major offshore wind farm doesn’t get off the ground, there will be plenty of finger-pointing to go around.

Some may be pointed at Rhode Island’s congressional delegation.

The state’s two senators and two representatives sent a letter on July 12 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, expressing concerns about how the federal agency has handled the review of offshore wind development. In particular, they want BOEM to be more sensitive to potential conflicts with fishermen and marine life. (They also want the agency to open a regional office in Rhode Island.)

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Federal fisheries, energy agencies negotiate deadlock over Vineyard Wind

July 31, 2019 — Gov. Charlie Baker and other Massachusetts politicians pushed federal officials to break a deadlock over the environmental review of the Vineyard Wind offshore energy project, amid the developer’s warnings it needs an approval by the end of August.

But advocates for the commercial fishing industry say the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has failed to address issues raised by the NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester, Mass.

Baker met Monday in Washington, D.C., with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to urge progress on issuing a final environmental impact statement for the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind array planned on a federal lease about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

“I thought our meeting was a good one,” Baker told radio station WBUR Tuesday. “Our goal is to get as much clarity as possible and put together a plan because we really want this project to happen.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman