Saving Seafood

Vineyard Wind Submits Final Environmental Impact Report To Massachusetts

December 20, 2018 — Massachusetts offshore wind developer Vineyard Wind has submitted a final environmental impact report (FEIR) to the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recently issued a notice of availability for the project’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). According to the developer, both these steps move the project closer to approval of environmental permitting by state and federal officials. Endorsement of the FEIR will be the final step in the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review process, which includes a focus on cables connecting the proposed 800 MW project in federal waters to the grid connection point in Barnstable, Mass.

BOEM prepared the DEIS as part of the agency’s review of the entire Vineyard Wind project, which will be constructed 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The report provides an analysis of potential environmental impacts associated with proposed actions as set forth in the construction and operations plan, submitted to BOEM in 2017.

According to the developer, the FEIR reflects refinements that have been made to the project, including many based on input from state agencies, the Town of Barnstable and members of the public. The MEPA office will accept public comment until Jan. 25, 2019.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

Rhode Island Fishermen Condemn Offshore Wind Farms Despite Potential Benefits

December 18, 2018 — Nearly 390,000 acres of prime ocean real estate are being auctioned off Thursday, with 19 bidders hoping to win a chance to establish the next major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts.

At the same time, a recent vote by the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board to block a wind farm project by Vineyard Wind has raised questions about the future of offshore wind power.

Over the next decade, Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration are expecting the state to receive more than 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power.

Read the full story at WBUR

Offshore wind auction draws huge interest and big money

December 17, 2018 — The blockbuster auction for offshore wind leases that wrapped up Friday should leave few doubts: The industry has finally arrived in New England.

Three developers backed by major European energy companies paid a record $405 million to gain access to 390,000 acres of federal waters nearly 20 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. These firms will each pay $135 million to the federal government for the rights to build massive windmills in their respective slices of the ocean.

“We are completely blown away by this result,” Walter Cruickshank, acting director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told reporters after the auction ended.

Cruickshank was speaking for the agency that oversaw the auction, but he also summed up much of the industry’s reaction.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Senators Ask for Fishermen’s Input for Offshore Wind Farms

December 17, 2018 — Senators from Massachusetts and Rhode Island are asking that fishermen’s interests be considered earlier in the siting process for offshore wind farms.

U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, have asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to adopt policies for the offshore wind leasing and permitting process that bring fishermen and other marine stakeholders into the conversation early, to minimize spatial conflicts and reduce the risk of economic harm to the fishing industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S News and World Report

Offshore Wind Bonanza Draws Bidding War in Record-Setting Sale

December 14, 2018 — Companies competed Thursday for the opportunity to install wind turbines in Atlantic waters off Massachusetts in an auction that shattered records even as it headed toward a second day of frenzied bidding.

After 24 rounds of sealed bidding, companies had already pledged $285 million toward the three offshore wind leases that are up for grabs — more than six times the previous high-water mark: Norwegian energy company Equinor ASA’s $42.47 million bid in 2016 for the rights to build an offshore wind farm near New York.

High bids in the offshore wind auction, set to resume Friday, also already eclipsed the $178 million the U.S. government collected in its August sale of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

By Thursday evening, when Interior Department officials called an overnight halt to the auction, four companies were still vying for the territory, drawn by growing demand for renewable power in the Northeast U.S. and a chance at gaining a foothold in the nation’s growing offshore wind market.

“The unprecedented interest in today’s sale demonstrates that not only has offshore wind arrived in the U.S., but it is set to soar,” said Randall Luthi, head of the National Ocean Industries Association.

Active Bidders

Some 19 companies were deemed qualified by the Interior Department to participate in the auction — higher than in any of the previous seven competitive sales of wind leases in U.S. waters. The prospective bidders included units of established offshore wind developers and renewable power companies that have primarily focused on land as well as oil companies such as Equinor and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Eleven companies were actively bidding at the start of Thursday’s sale, nearly twice the most-recent record, in 2016, when six developers competed for the New York offering. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is conducting the sale, will name participants after the auction ends, expected sometime Friday.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

 

Creating Transit Lanes for Fishing Vessels in Northeast Wind Energy Areas Still a Work in Progress

December 11, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Offshore Wind Transit Working Group is inching closer to developing transit lanes for fishing vessels in Northeast Wind Energy Areas.

Members of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), as well as other fishing industry representatives, offshore wind developer lease-holders, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the U.S. Coat Guard, convened in Newport, Rhode Island, earlier this month for the Working Group meeting, which aimed to develop fishery transit lanes through the Wind Energy Areas (WEA) in federal waters off of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Currently there are concerns about commercial fishermen safely traveling across WEAs to access fishing grounds. According to RODA, safety risks “greatly increase” due to the long distances that fishing boats may be required to take in order to get around or through the WEAs. To solve the issue, the working group is developing transit lanes.

The goal is for the group to come up with a transit lane option that preserves the most important routes to the historic fisheries. Some route options have been identified, but so far nothing has been finalized.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Fishing industry says it doesn’t endorse Vineyard Wind’s ‘consensus plan’ for transit lanes

December 11, 2018 — The fishing industry said Vineyard Wind distorted its words on Monday.

A release by Vineyard Wind said the offshore wind company endorsed a “consensus” transit corridor plan supported by the fishing industry, but multiple people within the fishing industry told The Standard-Times they didn’t support or endorse the plan.

The consensus within the industry is a 4-mile wide transit lane. Vineyard Wind’s endorsed plan called for 2-mile wide corridors.

“It’s frustrating for the fishing because we’re coming with options even though we’re losing tremendous ground and we’re losing a lot of traditional transit (lanes),” said Meghan Lapp, a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd. “But we’re still trying to come to the table to make something work and in light of this press release, it doesn’t really seem like it’s being reciprocated.”

The model endorsed by Vineyard Wind is one developed in a September meeting in New Bedford. Eric Hansen, a New Bedford scalloper, attended the meeting and remembered the plan being thought of as a worst-case scenario for the fishing industry.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Wind Farm Near Martha’s Vineyard In Jeopardy

December 6, 2018 — Rhode Island fishing interests, given the authority to weigh in on offshore wind projects that could damage their livelihoods, are flexing their muscles. As a result, a 94-turbine wind farm planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard is in serious jeopardy.

Like Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind farm planned off of Montauk, the Vineyard Wind project is owned by European energy companies with global wind-farm interests. Rhode Island, as part of the permitting process, asked for and was given “Federal Consistency” because even though the project originates in Massachusetts, it affects fisheries in neighboring states. New didn’t ask for the right to weigh in, even though local fishermen extensively fish that area.

On Tuesday, November 27, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council agreed to postpone its decision to grant a “consistency certification” for Vineyard Wind until the end of January. If Rhode Island denies certification, Vineyard Wind could appeal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It is not clear how the latest news affects the Deepwater Wind project off of Montauk Point but it is sure to come up during the state’s review of the project. In fact, fishing industry proponents are urging New York State officials to be proactive in the review of any proposed offshore wind farm in the immediate region.

Read the full story at The Independent

Working Group Nears Consensus on Transit Lanes for Fishing Vessels in Northeast Wind Energy Areas

December 6, 2018 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), which consists of regional fishing industry representatives from Maine to North Carolina, convened an Offshore Wind Transit Lane Working Group meeting on December 3rd at the Hotel Viking in Newport, R.I.

Fishing industry representatives, offshore wind developer lease-holders, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the U.S. Coast Guard, among others, joined RODA to continue an attempt to develop fishery transit lanes through the large group of Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in federal waters off of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The meeting was facilitated by the Consensus Building Institute. Currently, three WEAs are subject to active leases held by Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Vineyard Wind.  BOEM will hold an additional auction for three new leases in WEAs adjacent to the existing sites on December 13, 2018.

In addition to loss of access within the lease areas, commercial fishermen coastwide have long been concerned about their ability to safely travel across wind energy arrays to access other historical, traditional commercial fishing grounds. They are especially concerned with the size of the WEAs being proposed by BOEM, which are by far the largest in the world.

While fishing industry representatives and wind developers agree that minimizing transit time through wind energy arrays is a primary design goal, safety risks greatly increase due to the long distances—up to 50-70 miles—fishing boats may be required to transit either around or through wind energy arrays.

The Massachusetts Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind began to consider the development of transit lanes earlier this year, and RODA has since held a large workshop followed by the smaller working group meeting to continue this task. To prepare for the working group meeting, RODA asked NMFS and the Northeast Regional Ocean Council Data Portal team to evaluate historic transit patterns to identify options for safe and direct access to fishing grounds. NMFS presented an analysis based on VMS and AIS data that substantially supported input received from the fishing industry regarding prevailing transit patterns.

As some examples, vessels from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and other ports frequently cross the Wind Energy Areas in a “diagonal” Northwest-Southeast direction to access offshore fishing grounds, and will no longer have access to direct routes. Vessels from New York must additionally transit in an East-West direction, whereas other fisheries access grounds in a variety of directions including North-South in western and eastern portions of the lease areas.

Fishing industry representatives have considered a wide range of transit lane options and continue to support options that generally preserve these most important routes to their historic fisheries, which must include a “diagonal” route or, less favorably, smoothing out the Northwest-Southeast edges of the lease areas to allow more direct transit along the perimeters. Offshore wind lease-holding developers, for their part, have attempted to identify routes to meet those goals that also preserve the energy-generating nameplate capacity for each site that allows them to meet pricing goals for power procurement. Developers have various viewpoints on preferred transit lane locations and, as such, layouts have differing ranges of support including for the currently unleased areas.

The series of discussions regarding transit lane design was further from achieving consensus on the necessary width of transit lanes. Offshore fishermen have consistently requested lanes to be a minimum width of 4 nautical miles to allow for safe passage in an area known for extreme weather and tidal conditions, and to mitigate the anticipated effects of radar interference emanating from large monopole turbines. The developers have proposed lanes of only one to two nautical miles in order to optimize site layouts for wind exposure.

In order to foster evidence-based progress on necessary transit lane widths, RODA and others have requested the Coast Guard and BOEM to conduct an in-depth analysis regarding fisheries vessel position data, radar functionality, emergency incident reports, and other items.

While the group has not yet finalized recommendations, both fishermen and developers broadly agree that the most efficient timing for transit lane identification would occur before a lease is issued. RODA therefore strongly urges BOEM to include stipulations for the continuation of these transit lanes in its upcoming lease sale, and welcomes inquiries as to the status of these recommendations as potential bidders prepare proposals.

Additional materials, including a meeting summary with details regarding each of the options, will be available shortly on the RODA website.

About RODA
The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) is a broad, membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and companies working to improve the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses. It seeks to coordinate science and policy approaches, through public and private partnerships, to manage development of the Outer Continental Shelf in a way that minimizes conflicts with existing traditional and historical fishing.

Vineyard Wind draft report released

December 6, 2018 — While local community members still need to comb through the details, a federal analysis of Vineyard Wind’s $2 billion construction and operations plans that is to be officially released in draft form on Friday is expected to keep the project moving forward.

“The company remains squarely on track to place equipment orders and start construction in 2019,” said Erich Stephens, Vineyard Wind’ chief development officer.

The company needs to begin construction of its 800-megawatt wind farm next year because 2019 is the final year of a federal investment tax credit program that was a component in the company’s successful bid to sell electricity to three electricity distributors in Massachusetts.

By remaining on schedule, the company can maximize the value of the tax credit, “creating $1.4 billion in savings for the Commonwealth over the life of the project,” Stephens said.

Top executives with Vineyard Wind expressed optimism in late September about completion dates for the offshore project after a Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial report indicated timely permitting by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. In late September, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said Vineyard Wind’s draft environmental impact statement would be issued for public comment by December, and that a final decision on the company’s construction and operations plan is expected next summer.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times