Saving Seafood

Feds Push Vineyard Wind Decision Into 2021

December 1, 2020 — The Vineyard Wind project has been delayed again.

The project, which is poised to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the country, is already more than a year behind schedule and now will have to wait about a month longer. A federal decision on final permitting for the project had been expected by Dec. 18, 2020, but the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management updated its timeline in recent weeks and now expects a final decision by Jan. 15, 2021.

“BOEM received more than 13,000 comments on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind,” a spokesman for the agency told the News Service in an email. “BOEM continues to work with cooperating agencies in the review of these comments. An updated schedule is posted on BOEM’s website.”

A final federal decision on the 800-megawatt offshore wind farm had initially been expected by Aug. 16, 2019 but BOEM sent shockwaves through the offshore wind industry in August 2019 when it announced a plan to withhold the final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind while it studies the wider impacts of an offshore wind sector that is hoping to ramp up in Northeast and mid-Atlantic waters also used by the fishing industry.

Read the full story at WBUR

First major R.I. offshore wind project faces further delays, with no clear completion date

November 25, 2020 — The 12-year saga of efforts to build a utility-scale offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island has been extended again, with no clear end-date in sight.

International developer Orsted A/S, which has a national hub in Providence, has pulled back on its previously estimated 2023 completion date for the Revolution Wind project slated for federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island. In an October earnings call, Orsted President and CEO Henrik Poulson said it was “highly likely” that the 50-turbine project, along with several others currently under federal review, will be delayed beyond anticipated construction years. Poulson cited uncertainty in the permitting process, which involves comprehensive review by the  U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, as reason for the expected delay.

BOEM recently pushed back its approval timeline for Vineyard Wind, an 84-turbine project slated for the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Industry leaders have largely viewed the timeline and outcome of Vineyard Wind, slated to be the first large-scale wind farm to come online, as a direct indicator of when and if other offshore wind projects will move forward.

Exactly what this means for a new timeline for Revolution Wind is unclear. With BOEM’s decision to delay its environmental impact statement on Vineyard Wind until December, pushing off a final ruling until January, Orsted cannot “re-baseline our construction schedules,” Poulson said on the call.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

Vineyard Wind Sees More Permitting Delays, But Stays on Track

November 24, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, the international business consortium that plans to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, has been hit with yet another delay after a federal agency moved back its review timeline for a key permitting document last week.

The $2.8 billion dollar offshore energy project was originally expected to have its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) completed earlier this week, with a final recorded decision before the New Year. The impact statement is required before the federal government can make a decision on the project.

But the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — the federal agency responsible for issuing the environmental impact statement and permitting the project — updated its timeline late last week, moving back the expected date for the final impact statement to Dec. 11. The BOEM online timetable for Vineyard Wind now lists Jan. 15, 2021 as its expected date to issue a formal record of decision on the development.

A BOEM spokesman said in an email that the agency is still reviewing a mountain of correspondence related to the project.

More than 13,000 comments were received during a public comment period on the supplemental environmental impact statement, the spokesman said. “BOEM continues to work with cooperating agencies in the review of these comments.”

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Proposal Would Build 16-Square-Mile Wind Farm Off Maine Coast

November 23, 2020 — Gov. Janet Mills on Friday announced an ambitious, state-led effort to build as many as 12 floating wind-energy turbines off Maine’s coast.

Mills is on the hunt for a location for the array, in partnership with the University of Maine and the big-money investors behind the pioneering Aqua Ventus turbine experiment near Monhegan Island. But that’s got some fishermen worried.

The effort to win a so-called research lease from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be led by Dan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Energy Office.

“The opportunity to work with these developers using the Maine-made, Maine-developed floating technology is just a really significant opportunity for the state and for us to continue to take a national and even global leadership position for floating offshore wind,” he says.

The Mills administration is pitching the project as small scale, needing “only” 16 square miles of ocean as compared to lease areas ten times as large for wind projects off southern New England. Still, with as many as 12 turbines running at a capacity of 10 megawatts each, Burgess says they could provide enough energy for 70,000-100,000 homes.

Read the full story at Maine Public

RI’s wind-farm plan poised to advance in ’21

November 19, 2020 — Much was made of the Raimondo administration’s selection in 2018 of a proposal for a massive offshore wind farm off the Rhode Island coast that would power as much as a quarter of the state’s electric load.

The project, known as Revolution Wind, cleared a key hurdle a year later when state regulators approved a contract for the wind farm to sell power to National Grid, Rhode Island’s dominant electric utility. And developers Orsted and Eversource Energy would get another boost when Connecticut also agreed to buy power from the wind farm, a move that nearly doubled the size of the project to 704 megawatts.

But since those very big and very public milestones, things have been relatively quiet for a project that could cost more than $2 billion to build.

The paucity of action is largely due to a hold-up in the federal permitting process for offshore wind projects amid concerns raised by commercial fishermen that arrays of towering turbines off the southern New England coast would interfere with fishing activities.

But a Biden presidency is expected to boost renewables overall, and a decision could come in a matter of weeks for the benchmark Vineyard Wind project, the first offshore wind farm to go before the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. A favorable ruling on the proposal could break the logjam for Revolution Wind and other projects.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

BOEM pushes back final findings on Vineyard Wind

November 16, 2020 — A sweeping environmental review of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project is now tracking to be finalized Jan. 15, as the federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management completes its review of public comments.

BOEM received more than 13,000 comments on its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind, a planned 800-megawatt turbine array off southern New England, according to an agency spokesperson.

The final EIS is to be published Dec. 11, with the agency issuing its final record of decision Jan. 15 – a month’s delay for the report long-waited by the offshore wind supporters and its critics alike.

The second BOEM study was ordered up by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in August 2019, after the National Marine Fisheries Service Greater Atlantic regional office refused to sign off on the first one. The supplemental study also looked at potential cumulative impacts of Vineyard Wind and 14 other potential wind projects now at various stages off the East Coast.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

U.S. agency again delays key permit for first major U.S. offshore wind farm

November 13, 2020 — A federal agency said on Thursday it has again delayed a long-awaited environmental study crucial to permitting the first major U.S. offshore wind project, but final approval of the project is expected by mid-January.

The study of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project planned for the waters off the Massachusetts coast is expected to be released by Dec. 11, according to a government timeline. It had been anticipated later this week.

The document has been repeatedly pushed back since April of 2019 due to concerns that the project’s wind turbines will harm fisheries and navigation.

The delays have been a setback to President Donald Trump’s efforts to fast-track big energy infrastructure projects and have stymied the administration’s plans to launch a promising new domestic industry.

Read the full story at Reuters

Louisiana pursuing wind energy opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico

November 12, 2020 — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a renewable energy initiative for the Gulf of Mexico, with plans to harness Louisiana’s strengths in offshore energy production for the development of wind power, the U.S.’s No. 1 source of renewable energy.

Gov. Edwards presented his vision at the inaugural meeting of the Climate Initiatives Task Force he created earlier this year. Offshore wind energy will be one of many strategies pursued by the task force to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions that have reduced air quality, contributed to coastal erosion through sea rise, and increased the severity of weather events.

“I have asked Dr. Walter Cruickshank and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to help us establish a task force of federal, state and local officials who will build a blueprint for renewable energy production in the Gulf of Mexico,” Gov. Edwards said. “This is not some ‘pie in the sky’ promise of economic opportunity. We already have an emerging offshore wind energy industry, and Louisiana’s offshore oil and gas industry has played a key role in the early development of U.S. offshore wind energy in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Off the coast of Rhode Island, Lafayette-based Aries Marine Corp. and Galliano-based Falcon Global LLC are Louisiana liftboat operators that helped develop the nation’s first commercial offshore wind farm — Block Island. For that project, Metairie-based Keystone Engineering provided design assistance and Houma-based Gulf Island Fabrication built foundation jackets and piling.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

LOUISIANA: Gov. Edwards Announces Renewable Energy Initiative for Gulf of Mexico

November 10, 2020 — Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a renewable energy initiative for the Gulf of Mexico, with plans to harness Louisiana’s strengths in offshore energy production for the development of wind power, the nation’s No. 1 source of renewable energy.

Gov. Edwards presented his vision at today’s inaugural meeting of the Climate Initiatives Task Force he created earlier this year. Offshore wind energy will be one of many strategies pursued by the task force to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions that have reduced air quality, contributed to coastal erosion through sea rise, and increased the severity of weather events.

“I have asked Dr. Walter Cruickshank and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to help us establish a task force of federal, state and local officials who will build a blueprint for renewable energy production in the Gulf of Mexico,” Gov. Edwards said. “This is not some ‘pie in the sky’ promise of economic opportunity. We already have an emerging offshore wind energy industry, and Louisiana’s offshore oil and gas industry has played a key role in the early development of U.S. offshore wind energy in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Read the full story at KATC

North Slope Borough, NOAA, University of Washington and Cooperative Institute for Climate Ocean and Ecosystem Studies Scientists Collaborate to Monitor Whales in 2020 in Northern Alaska

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In the Arctic, each year before daylight disappears and winter arrives, thousands of bowhead whales make their  fall migration across the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska. The timing of the migration is something Alaska Indigenous communities and scientists can count on. However, 2019 was not a normal year.

What Happened in 2019?

The year 2019 was unusual in several ways. It was Alaska’s hottest year on record. Sea surface temperatures were significantly warmer than average. There also were salmon die-offs across the state as river temperatures, in some areas, hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The timing of the bowhead whale migration was also different. By late October, the largely subsistence-based community of Utqiaġvik, Alaska, had seen few whales. Never in recent memory had whales come so late. NOAA researchers observed that both the edge of the sea ice and the bowhead whales were farther north than in previous years of surveying the area in Bureau of Ocean Energy Management-funded aerial studies.

“Whales are a vital part of our communities. Bowheads help us to feed our communities and are central to many of our cultural traditions. Hunting whales has been our way of life for thousands of years,” said North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower, Jr.

Read the full release here