Saving Seafood

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

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