Charlie Baker Archives - Page 4 of 12

Massachusetts could boost dredging projects

July 12, 2018 — Sediment is piling up on the bottoms of rivers and harbors, putting cities and towns on Cape Ann and elsewhere into a multimillion-dollar bind.

State and federal funding for local dredging has dried up in recent decades, forcing local officials to dig into reserves or borrow money to remove silt in order to make their waterways deep enough for boats to navigate.

Gov. Charlie Baker has pitched a new program — with $50 million in grant money — to help coastal communities pay for dredging as part of a more than $660 million economic development proposal, which cleared the state House of Representatives late Tuesday.

The measure still needs approval from the state Senate.

Under Baker’s plan, communities would compete for matching grants and be required to cover half the costs of each project.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, said the money would go a long way because many communities along the coast haven’t dredged in decades. In many instances, he said, silting is making waterways less navigable.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Administration looks offshore for wind energy boom

June 14, 2018 — The Trump administration is “bullish” about offshore wind, working with governors in the Northeast to transform what was once a fringe and costly investment into America’s newest energy-producing industry.

“When the president said energy dominance, it was made without reference to a type of energy,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “It was making sure as a country we are American energy first and that includes offshore wind. There is enormous opportunity, especially off the East Coast, for wind. I am very bullish.”

On a recent tour of coastal states, Zinke found “magnitudes” more interest in offshore wind than oil and natural gas drilling.

Facing widespread opposition from politicians in states fearful of oil spills along their tourist-drawing coasts, Zinke is likely to scale back a draft plan to open nearly all federal waters for drilling, which he says has attracted “modest interest at best.”

But the Atlantic Ocean is open for business for offshore wind, and developers are paying up, with the support of governors such as Republicans Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Democrats Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner

Massachusetts: ‘Every vote matters:’ democratic candidates for governor visit New Bedford for forum

May 29, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In a two-hour gubernatorial candidate forum hosted by the New Bedford Democratic City Committee, Jay Gonzalez and Robert Massie covered a wide range of issues including education, fishing, offshore wind, opioids and immigration.

“Every vote matters,” said moderator Shannon Jenkins, chairwoman of the Political Science Department at UMass Dartmouth and Dartmouth School Committee member, explaining the last election for governor was close.

Lisa Lemieux, a New Bedford Democrat was the main organizer of the forum, held at the Zeiterion Theatre Sunday afternoon. Prior to the forum, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., was an “open fair” with booths offering voter registration information and candidate advocacy briefing materials, a local farmer’s market and local music.

Gonzalez and Massie were in agreement on many issues, although at times each candidate suggested differing approaches. Both were in support of the proposed millionaires tax and single payer health care, and often criticized current Governor Charlie Baker who’s running for reelection as a Republican.

Fishing / offshore wind

Massie commented on last week’s announcement of Vineyard Wind winning Massachusetts’ first offshore wind contract for an 800-megawatt wind farm, calling it “much too small.”

“I would like to see the governor have agreed to a much larger wind contract so that we really create a whole industry rather than a single project,” he said.

Massie said the government has a responsibility to support people in their role or allow people to “transition out” and suggested a fisherman’s equity act. He said he acknowledges that those who depend on fishing need support to maintain their role or transition to a new role in the economy.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy Asks for More Time to Analyze Offshore Wind Impacts on Commercial Fishermen

May 10, 2018 — WASHINGTON — New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is asking the federal government for more time to analyze the potential impacts of offshore wind development, specifically on the state’s important commercial fishing industry.

In a letter last week to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Gov. Murphy wrote that the 45 days allotted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for comments on wind development in the New York Bight “is simply not enough time” for New Jersey to conduct the extensive outreach to fishermen it needs. Citing the year of stakeholder outreach conducted by New York, Gov. Murphy requested a 180-day extension of the public comment period.

“New Jersey and its fishing industry need ample time to collect and provide to BOEM more detailed information to enable BOEM to do a responsible job during the next stage of its wind energy leasing process,” Gov. Murphy wrote.

Gov. Murphy called input from New Jersey fishermen “particularly critical” because the state’s main fishing grounds are in areas that New York has submitted to BOEM for potential wind energy development, including two vital areas that are closest to New Jersey’s coast.

“While New Jersey believes that wind energy and the fishing industry can coexist productively, it is critical that potential conflicts from these multiple uses be identified and planned for early in the process,” Gov. Murphy wrote.

According to the letter, New Jersey is “only now beginning [its] review and stakeholder process,” in contrast to New York, which has had four years to conduct studies of offshore wind areas. It pointed out that New York did not effectively engage with New Jersey fishermen or other stakeholders as part of this process.

Gov. Murphy was also critical of BOEM’s own lack of engagement with New Jersey’s fishing industry, stating that they have “not yet been meaningfully involved in the process.” He pointed to two letters from New Jersey to BOEM late last year, which highlighted the lack of stakeholder outreach and requested meetings between fishermen and BOEM before moving forward with a public comment period.

However, BOEM scheduled just one fisheries-based meeting on the New York Bight in one location after its call for comments.

“This minimal level of outreach and limited time frame for response from New Jersey’s stakeholders are simply not adequate or equitable,” Gov. Murphy wrote.

Gov. Murphy’s letter is the latest effort to ensure that the concerns of fishing communities are properly considered in the development of offshore energy projects. In April, members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities wrote to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, expressing their concerns over several proposed offshore projects and calling for more robust stakeholder engagement.

Massachusetts: Bill would deliver $100M tax credits to port businesses

May 3, 2018 — A bipartisan band of state legislators has filed a bill that could award up to $100 million a year in tax credits to businesses operating within the state’s 10 Designated Port Areas — including Gloucester, Salem and Lynn on the North Shore.

The bill, with state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante among the sponsors, would enable the state secretary of Housing and Economic Development to provide up to $100 million annually in targeted tax credits to retail and wholesale “water-dependent businesses” located and operating within DPAs.

Eligible industries include seafood processors, aquaculture, water-dependent science, seafood storage and entities immersed in marine research and innovation.

The bill must pass both houses of the Legislature and be signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker, which could be a tall order in the state’s current budgetary climate.

Baker, as Deval Patrick before him, previously had the power to free up about $7 million from an environmental bond bill to address Gloucester’s crumbling shoreside infrastructure and assist at least 26 businesses in modernizing their facilities by renovating piers, floats and docks.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Massachusetts Business Leaders Call for Wind Development that Works with Fishing Industry

April 30, 2018 — A group of leading Massachusetts executives have endorsed a call from Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities to ensure that the commercial fishing industry is protected in any offshore wind power development. The group, a standing committee of the New Bedford Economic Development Council’s (NBEDC) know as the “Regeneration Project,” made the recommendations as part of an April 19 letter to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to ensure on the ongoing offshore wind solicitation process.

The Regeneration Project is a coalition of New Bedford-area business and community leaders with c-level experience in industry, finance, communications, and public affairs whose goal is to “articulate a strategy for the city’s economic regeneration.” In the letter, the Council touts New Bedford as a liaison to the region’s important commercial fishing industry, and positions the city as a future hub of offshore wind development.

The NBEDC emphasizes the need for the Commonwealth to work closely and cooperatively with the commercial fishing industry to avoid negative impacts from offshore wind projects. The letter states that offshore wind must be “developed in such a way that it ‘fits in'” with commercial fisheries, and must not “exacerbate unintended consequences of negative impacts to commercial fishing and ongoing maritime trades.”

To avoid these impacts, the letter asks that initial wind development be limited to 400mw, to allow for study of its impact on other ocean users. The NBEDC further recommends that the Port of New Bedford serve as the main facilitator between offshore wind and commercial fishing interests.

The letter also highlights New Bedford’s previous experience with wind energy, and the city’s plans to be become “the central cluster of offshore wind for the east coast.” According to the NBEDC, the city “includes all major facets of the industry such as port services, construction training, research, engineering and manufacturing.”

Read the letter here

Massachusetts: Fishermen air concerns about Vineyard Wind

April 19, 2018 — Looking to create a sea change in energy production in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker signed “An Act to Promote Energy Diversity” with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2016. A key provision of the legislation mandated that utilities solicit long-term contracts with offshore wind farm developers, with the goal of adding 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027.

Fast-forward to Tuesday night, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, where federal and state officials, along with representatives from Vineyard Wind, gathered for a “scoping session” to hear how Islanders feel about having the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States — 106 turbines, 700 feet tall, spaced about a mile apart, covering 167,000 acres — being built 14 miles south of home. The facility will produce between 400 and 800 megawatts of electricity.

Tuesday’s Tisbury gathering was one of five scoping sessions to be held this week by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to garner public input for the Vineyard Wind draft environmental impact statement (EIS).

Turnout was robust. The discussion remained even-keeled, which, according to one member of the large BOEM contingent, was a stark contrast to the previous night’s heated scoping session in New Bedford.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

Massachusetts: Offshore Oil Drilling Sparks Early Opposition on Martha’s Vineyard

April 18, 2018 — Island environmental groups and state legislators are strongly opposing a plan by the Trump administration to open up North Atlantic waters to offshore oil and gas exploration.

The five-year drilling plan announced in early January by the U.S. Department of the Interior calls for drilling along East Coast federal waters from Georgia to Maine, including waters off Massachusetts.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has gone on record early against the idea of drilling.

“Opening our coast to drilling and the potential for a dangerous spill is a reckless threat to our region,” wrote MVC executive director Adam Turner in a recent letter to Gov. Charlie Baker. “Any oil spill, even in a limited quantity, will have serious consequences to the Island and the region.”

Mr. Turner said he wanted to make it clear to the governor early on that the commission is opposed to the proposal.

“I’m concerned about what safeguards are in place to avoid an oil spill or contamination in the water,” Mr. Turner said. “What’s the impact on wildlife?”

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has also opposed the plan, saying that the drilling could threaten the state’s $7.3 billion fishing industry and 1,500 miles of coastline and raising the prospect of taking legal action.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Fishing industry proposes ‘reset’ for offshore wind energy

April 13, 2018 — With Massachusetts moving faster toward offshore wind energy, a national coalition of commercial fishing groups this week urged state officials to limit a first project to no more than 400 megawatts, and set up a new system for the seafood and offshore wind industries to jointly plan a way forward.

“We are pragmatic and we understand that we do not ‘own’ the ocean where these wind farms are being sited,” the National Coalition for Fishing Communities wrote in an April 9 letter to Massachusetts Gov. Charles D. Baker Jr.

“But we do not believe that a renewable resource like wind energy should be allowed to displace another renewable resource like wild fisheries. To guard against that outcome, a measured, restrained approach to the initial project size is best,” the letter stated. “It is irresponsible to allow construction of sizable wind farms without a deep understanding of their impacts.”

This month Massachusetts officials are looking to select an offshore wind development proposal to fit their plans for adding more renewable energy sources to the state’s power mix. The ill-fated Cape Wind plan to build turbines in Nantucket Sound was defeated by strenuous local opposition to siting in nearshore waters, and now proposals are over the horizon on federal offshore leases.

Read the full story at the National Fisherman

Jon Mitchell: Wind Developers Must Take Fishermen Seriously

April 12, 2018 — Earlier this week, fishing industry officials sent a letter to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker asking for a larger role in the decision making when it comes to granting the state’s first offshore wind contract.

The letter particularly asked for the New Bedford Port Authority to act as the mediator between commercial fishing and wind energy, and in his weekly appearance on WBSM, Mayor Jon Mitchell said that request makes “all the sense in the world.”

“The place where these two industries intersect more than anywhere else will be New Bedford,” he said, noting he agrees that the fishermen haven’t been given enough of a voice. “That’s why we’re prepared to do something about it.”

Mitchell, who as mayor is also chair of the Port Authority, says the fishermen have valid concerns that he feels may have fallen on deaf ears.

“It has to do with safe navigation through wind farms, and with the siting of new wind farms that might intrude on traditional fishing grounds,” he said. “Wind developers have to do a better job of taking fishermen seriously, and we’re going to work on that. We’re going to make sure that they are taken more seriously.”

Read the full story at WBSM