Saving Seafood

Ocean City expects BOEM lawsuit to cost up to $400K

November 1, 2024 — The Town of Ocean City and several local agencies and businesses are suing a federal agency over its approval process for the US Wind project off Maryland’s coast.

On Oct. 25, the Town of Ocean City announced it has retained Marzulla Law, LLC to file a lawsuit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The lawsuit, which lists several co-plaintiffs, challenges the agency’s process for approving the US Wind project, which will involve the construction of 114, 938-foot-tall wind turbines roughly 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.

“We have a responsibility to protect our ecosystem, our economy, view shed and our future,” Mayor Rick Meehan said in a news release. “For the past seven and half years we have been trying to work with the State of Maryland and the federal government to address our concerns with this project. All of our concerns were either ignored or considered insignificant. It is unfortunate that it has come to this, but the Town was left with no choice but to file suit against BOEM and challenge their favorable record of decision on the US Wind project.”

In September, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a favorable record of decision for the commercial-scale Maryland offshore wind project. The agency’s approval concluded a two-year National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and set US Wind on a path to securing all of its remaining federal permits by the end of 2024.

Read the full article at The Dispatch

Maine offshore wind auction draws a few takers

October 31, 2024 — Two companies have won development rights to construct floating offshore wind turbines off Maine’s coastline, but lackluster interest in the bids highlights the impact of inflation and other economic challenges that have slowed the industry.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that the federal government’s “first-ever” wind energy lease sale resulted in nearly $22 million in lease payments for four parcels off the coast of Maine and Massachusetts.

Connecticut-based Avangrid Renewables submitted winning bids of $4.9 million and $6.2 million for two parcels about 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In comparison, Invenergy NE Offshore Wind won a $4.9 million bid to develop wind energy more than 46 miles off Maine’s coastline and another project off Cape Cod for $5.8 million. Combined, the companies leased nearly 440,000 acres of federal waters.

However, only half of the areas offered for lease by the federal agency were bid on, far less than offshore wind leases in previous rounds. In 2022, developers bid $4.37 billion on six lease parcels off the coast of New York and another $757 million on areas off California’s shores, according to agency data.

Read the full article at The Center Square

BOEM Announces POWERON Acoustic Monitoring Program for Offshore Wind Projects

October 31, 2024 — The following was released by BOEM:

Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the establishment of the Partnership for an Offshore Wind Energy Regional Observation Network (POWERON), an innovative public-private partnership between BOEM and offshore wind lessees designed to maximize the quality and consistency of scientific data collected in lease areas while conserving and optimizing resources. This partnership is the latest way that the Biden-Harris administration is harnessing technology to responsibly advance offshore wind development in a way that protects biodiversity.

The POWERON initiative expands BOEM’s recently established Passive Acoustic Monitoring Network in the Atlantic Ocean, which the bureau launched with $5.8 million of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, to study the potential impacts of offshore wind facility operations on baleen whales.

“As we work to meet the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, we know that we can achieve far more working together than we can working alone,” said Elizabeth Klein, BOEM director. “POWERON will maximize the quality and consistency of marine species monitoring data by pooling resources among partners, processing data in a consistent manner, openly sharing information, and contributing to the growing body of scientific knowledge on the marine environment.”

“Because the construction and operation of offshore wind facilities will occur within protected species habitats, having a robust monitoring program is critical for understanding the potential impacts offshore wind development might have on these species,” said Dr. Jill Lewandowski, Chief of BOEM’s Division of Environmental Assessment and Director of BOEM’s Center for Marine Acoustics. “One effective method for long-term monitoring is passive acoustics, because it allows us to track vocalizing species and changes to marine soundscapes.”

BOEM requires offshore wind lessees to conduct long-term passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) on their lease areas to measure sound levels and monitor for the presence of vocalizing marine species like whales and dolphins. With this new program, lessees can make annual contributions to POWERON to have their long-term PAM requirements fulfilled by an approved third party.

Conducting monitoring through POWERON has multiple benefits, including:

  • Data consistency – Research will use similar instrument types, consistent calibration, and standard methods for data processing, which will lead to more robust results.
  • Conserving/optimizing resources – POWERON can pool resources among partners, such as refurbishing instruments on neighboring lease areas on the same expedition to save on the costs of vessel time.
  • Comprehensive data sets – Data collected from different locations and across multiple areas will be processed together to tell a more complete story about the presence, behavior, and movements of whales through these areas.

Annual POWERON contributions will cover the cost of instrumentation, vessel time, data processing, and analysis conducted by authorized third parties. Contributions will also cover the costs of archiving data at a public passive acoustic data repository hosted by the National Centers for Environmental Information.

BOEM has an interagency agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center to conduct PAM in the Atlantic Ocean off southern New England. In addition, BOEM recently signed a contract with the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative to conduct other POWERON monitoring along the eastern seaboard.

To date, three offshore wind energy projects have opted-in to POWERON: Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind (both Ørsted projects), and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (a Dominion Energy project).

— 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.

US chooses winning bids in first commercial sale for floating offshore Atlantic wind

October 29, 2024 — The U.S. government chose winning bids Tuesday to develop wind power off New England in the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a lease sale and selected nearly $22 million in winning bids for four lease areas from two firms. The sale is a major step toward accelerating President Joe Biden’s goal of dramatically expanding offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

Environmentalists praised the lease sale, though commercial fishermen who have questioned the expansion of offshore wind said they remain opposed. The lease areas are in the Gulf of Maine, which is a critical fishing ground for the U.S. lobster industry.

The awarding of the leases is “a critical step in our fight against climate change,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Read the full article at Associated Press

Is BOEM not learning from mistakes with fishermen?

October 29, 2024 — The newly proposed Central Atlantic wind energy area “unnecessarily includes some of the most critically important scallop fishing areas on the East Coast” – even as the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management has ample data to avoid the conflict, New Bedford port officials wrote in a scathing Oct. 21 comment letter to the agency.

BOEM has “all the technical and scientific detail necessary to understand how essential the Elephant Trunk, Hudson Canyon, and Delmarva areas are to the scallop industry,” wrote Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority. “What is stunning to us is that all that data is and was available to BOEM prior to setting the boundaries of the proposed call area.”

New Bedford is the most profitable U.S. fishing port – mostly on the strength of the sea scallop fishery – and the nation’s first big “offshore wind industrial marshalling port,” Carr noted.

Port advocates have been “diligent in providing comments for multiple offshore wind projects underway and proposed for the future,” Carr added. “However, we have become more and more concerned that development must only be accomplished in a responsible manner by protecting established industries that share our waters.”

That must “include learning from mistakes made in failing to avoid and address the interaction and conflicts between offshore wind and commercial fishing” already, and avoiding more conflicts early in BOEMs’s planning, the letter says.

Read the full article at Workboat

Tribe urges Supreme Court to review offshore wind’s impact on whales

October 29, 2024 — A Massachusetts tribe is backing a Supreme Court petition seeking more federal review of how planned offshore wind projects along the Eastern Seaboard are affecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) said in a friend of the court, or amicus, brief last week that protection of the whale is “fundamental” to its cultural heritage and protected resources.

But the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management never consulted with the tribe — or other affected tribes — about the cumulative effects of the planned development of a few dozen projects along the East Coast, starting with Vineyard Wind 1, the Wampanoag tribe told the Supreme Court in a brief Friday.

Read the full article at E&E News

Biden-Harris Administration Holds First Offshore Wind Lease Sale in the Gulf of Maine

October 29, 2024 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of the Interior:

Today, the Biden-Harris administration completed its sixth offshore wind lease sale by offering areas in the Gulf of Maine – the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast. The sale, conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), resulted in two provisional winners on four lease areas and over $21.9 million in winning bids.

Today’s lease sale is yet another significant milestone in the Biden-Harris administration’s work to meet the President’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy by 2035.

“Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, we’ve been committed to achieving our ambitious clean energy goals. With ten approved offshore wind projects capable of powering over 5 million homes, we are well on our way to a clean energy future,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Today’s successful auction marks yet another critical step in our fight against climate change. Together, we can create good paying jobs, build a domestic supply chain, and ensure that the momentum of this offshore industry continues for generations to come”

Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has:

  • Approved 10 commercial scale offshore wind energy projects – up from zero at the start of the Administration
  • Approved more than 15 gigawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects — enough to power over 5 million homes.
  • Held six offshore wind lease auctions, including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf Coasts.
  • Announced a schedule of lease sales through 2028.
  • Taken steps to grow a sustainable offshore wind energy industry by encouraging the use of project labor agreements, strengthening workforce training, bolstering domestic supply chains, consulting with Tribes, and enhancing engagement with fisheries, communities and ocean users.

Through today’s sale, Avangrid Renewables, LLC won Lease OCS-564 at $4,928,250, which consists of 98,565 acres and Lease OCS-568 at $6,244,850, which consists of 124,897 acres. Both lease areas are approximately 29.5 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.

Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC won Lease OCS-562 at $4,892,700, which consists of 97,854 acres and is approximately 46.2 nm from Maine and Lease OCS-567 at $5,889,000 which consists of 117,780 acres is approximately 21.6 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.

Together, the leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes with clean energy.

“To ensure we got the process of bringing offshore wind to the Gulf of Maine right, we’ve engaged in over a hundred outreach efforts with local communities and connected with thousands of partners and stakeholders,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “Collaboration with partners and stakeholders is key to making progress. By working closely with states, Tribes, ocean users, and industry leaders, we are building a sustainable new industry that will meet our nation’s current and future energy needs.”

President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is growing the American economy from the middle out and bottom up – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving nearly a trillion dollars in new private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating good-paying jobs and building a clean energy economy that will combat the climate crisis and make our communities more resilient. The Biden-Harris administration is harnessing these historic investments and using tools from across federal agencies to support the growing American offshore wind industry, leading to the approval and construction of the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind projects, which has created new jobs in factories and shipyards across the country. Today’s lease sale will support development of floating offshore wind in deep water sites, and the Administration is working through the interagency Floating Offshore Wind Shot to position the United States as a leader on these new technologies.

Today’s sale resulted in over $5.4 million total bidding credits. These bidding credits represent binding commitments by companies to invest over $2.7 million in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.

In addition, lease stipulations require that the lessees make every reasonable effort to enter into a project labor agreement covering the construction stage of any project for the lease areas; develop communication plans for engagement with Tribes, agencies, and fisheries; and provide semi-annual reports on engagement activities with Tribes and communities.

The leases awarded today do not authorize the construction or operation of any offshore wind facilities. Rather, they provide the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review. BOEM will develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the specific impacts of any project proposals before making decisions on whether to approve a proposed construction and operations plan. The EIS will be prepared in consultation with Tribes and appropriate government agencies, and informed by input from stakeholders, ocean users, and the public.

 

BOEM is committed to workforce development and to the establishment of a durable domestic supply chain that can sustain the U.S. offshore wind energy industry. More information about today’s sale, including a map of the lease areas, requirements regarding the bidding credits, and lease stipulations can be found on BOEM’s website.

Port of New Bedford cites ‘grave concern’ about new offshore wind area

October 25, 2024 — The city’s Port Authority published a letter to offshore wind regulators Wednesday, raising “grave concerns” over a 13.4 million acre tract of ocean recently opened to wind farm developers in the Central Atlantic that could put up to $2 billion in commercial fishing revenue at risk.

“BOEM has painted with too broad a brush,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote in the letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). “We believe that the new Mid-Atlantic call areas must be cut back from existing scallop and other fishery access areas, which still would leave ample room for nearby states to achieve their offshore wind capacity goals.”

In August, BOEM began soliciting proposals for offshore wind developers to lease 13.4 million acres of ocean off New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. It is the second of such sales in the Central Atlantic and the fifth offshore wind lease sale held during the Biden-Harris administration. The first lease sale in the Central Atlantic was completed also in August, yielding nearly $93 million from developers Equinor Wind US and Virginia Electric and Power Company.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

Scallop, menhaden fishermen call to cut back Mid-Atlantic wind areas

October 25, 2024 — A recent proposal to outline new wind energy areas off the Mid-Atlantic coast could threaten some of the most important East Coast sea scallop fishing grounds, New Bedford, Mass. officials warned the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“As the port where the fishing and offshore wind industry intersect more than anywhere else, New Bedford is committed to the successful coexistence of both industries,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said, in an Oct 23 statement with the New Bedford Port Authority. “We believe that the new Mid-Atlantic call areas must be cut back from existing scallop and other fishery access areas, which still would leave ample room for nearby states to achieve their offshore wind capacity goals.”

The next day Virginia-based menhaden fishermen also called for BOEM to alter its plans and provide significant setbacks from wind power development areas and fishing grounds.

Read the full article at WorkBoat