Saving Seafood

Wind turbine lawsuit ruling could mean delays for wind farms

September 23, 2022 — Representatives from the two companies looking to build wind farms off the coast of Delaware and Maryland say it’s too early to tell if a recent ruling by a federal court judge saying General Electric cannot make or sell its Haliade-X turbine in the United States will lead to delays in getting the wind farms built.

U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judge William Young ruled Sept. 7 that General Electric Co. is not allowed to produce its 850-foot-tall Haliade-X wind turbines in the United States. In June, a jury found the turbines infringed on patent owned by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S.

Ørsted spokesman Brady Walker said Skipjack Wind does not anticipate this decision will impact its timing.

“The project continues to develop its construction and operations plan in order to deliver clean energy to nearly 300,000 homes in the Delmarva region,” said Walker in an email Sept. 13.

In August 2020, Ørsted asked for, and then received, permission from the Maryland Public Service Commission to change the turbines it wanted to use from a smaller model to the Haliade-X.

Ørsted will follow any processes that are required by regulators, including the Maryland Public Service Commission and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Brady.

Read the full article at the Cape Gazette

N.J. sets East Coast’s largest offshore wind target

September 22, 2022 — New Jersey plans to build more offshore wind than any other East Coast state, with a new target of developing 11 gigawatts by 2040.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy established the new goal in an executive order Wednesday. It’s nearly a 50 percent increase over the state’s previous target of developing 7.5 GW — to power about 3.2 million homes — by 2035.

The new goal also leapfrogs over New York’s target of 9 GW. Only California has declared it will develop more offshore wind, with a goal of 25 GW by 2045.

Read the full article at E&E

VIRGINIA: Businesses, environmental groups back guarantee for Dominion wind project

September 22, 2022 — Last month, Dominion Energy asked the State Corporation Commission to reconsider a performance guarantee it attached to the utility’s proposed offshore wind project. The SCC agreed to revisit the matter and opened a response period — which garnered 13 responses from various groups.

Environmental nonprofit Clean Virginia is among the groups arguing that consumer protection is reasonable.

“It is the regulator’s job to balance monopoly profit motives by adopting common and reasonable standards that will protect Virginians,” Laura Gonzalez, Clean Virginia’s Energy Policy Manager said in a statement.

The organization’s filed response noted that projected profit from the wind project is more than enough to cover potential costs. The performance guarantee — which Dominion is asking regulators to reconsider — is meant to protect consumers from potentially absorbing additional costs if the turbines fail to perform as expected.

Read the full article at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Environmental groups tell BOEM to slow Gulf of Maine wind plan

September 21, 2022 — Several New England and national environmental groups say the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is making a mistake by moving forward to designate wind energy areas in the Gulf of Maine.

The Conservation Law Foundation and other groups asked BOEM in May to do “a comprehensive environmental review” before proceeding with outlining potential areas for wind projects. Activists are criticizing the agency, which on Aug. 19 published a “request for interest” from wind development companies.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmental Groups Decry BOEM Failure to Conduct Environmental Review Before Offshore Wind Designations in Gulf of Maine

September 20, 2022 — The following was released by the Conservation Law Foundation:

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has declined to conduct a comprehensive environmental review before designating areas for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and several partners had pushed for a full review to be done before wind areas are chosen.

“This decision epitomizes short-term thinking that will only cause problems in the long run,” said Erica Fuller, Senior Attorney at CLF. “It’s simply backwards to choose areas for offshore wind development before doing a full environmental analysis, which would ultimately save time and money if done now. It is critical to advance offshore wind to respond to the climate crisis and clean up our electric grid, but it must be done in a science-based, inclusive and transparent way.”

Considered to be one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, the Gulf of Maine plays a significant role in the culture of New England and is the foundation for a coastal economy characterized by commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, recreational boating, shipping, and tourism.

CLF was joined in this effort by 350NH, Acadia Center, Blue Ocean Society, Friends of Casco Bay, Island Institute, League of Conservation Voters, Maine Conservation Voters, Maine Audubon, Mass. Audubon, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Council of Maine, NRDC, New England Aquarium, New Hampshire Audubon, Oceana, and Surfrider Foundation.

Biden plans floating platforms to expand offshore wind power

September 19, 2022 — The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to develop floating platforms in the deep ocean for wind towers that could power millions of homes and vastly expand offshore wind in the United States.

The plan would target sites in the Pacific Ocean off the California and Oregon coasts, as well as in the Atlantic in the Gulf of Maine.

President Joe Biden hopes to deploy up to 15 gigawatts of electricity through floating sites by 2035, enough to power 5 million homes. The administration has previously set a goal of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 using traditional technology that secures wind turbines to the ocean floor.

There are only a handful of floating offshore platforms in the world — all in Europe — but officials said the technology is developing and could soon establish the United States as a global leader in offshore wind.

The push for offshore wind is part of Biden’s effort to promote clean energy and address global warming. Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. A climate-and-tax bill he signed last month would spend about $375 billion over 10 years to boost electric vehicles, jump-start renewable energy such as solar and wind power and develop alternative energy sources like hydrogen.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

How a 100-turbine wind farm is about to change Newport County’s oceanfront views

September 19, 2022 — Within five years, Rhode Island’s horizon will be unmistakably altered to any beachgoer, fisherman or waterfront homeowner gazing out to sea, and the coastal Atlantic from Martha’s Vineyard to Long Island will be dotted with wind turbines arranged in orderly grids like trees in an orchard.

They will appear small in perspective, and tower in reality over the men and women who go out on boats to service them, the blades rotating to the height of an 80-story building, 873 feet high at the peak of every electricity-generating revolution.

The Revolution Wind lease, located approximately 15 miles south of Little Compton’s coastline, is the closest to Rhode Island of 10 offshore wind farms currently being developed in a huge tract of southern New England’s coastal waters.

Read the full article at the Newport Daily News

Recommendations released for fisheries managers to help adapt to climate change

September 19, 2022 — The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has released new research providing key recommendations for helping U.S. fisheries adapt to impacts by climate change and, ultimately, protect the livelihoods of fishermen.

The research evaluated management of over 500 fisheries across the United States to generate design recommendations for harvest-control rules (HCRs) – guidelines to determine how much of a stock can be fished based on indicators of the targeted stock’s status. These recommendations aim to ensure sustainable fisheries and fishing communities in a changing climate.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Gulf of Maine is simmering, but its lobsters seem fine — for now

September 14, 2022 — Many tourists visiting coastal Maine may at some point purchase a lobster roll, with big chunks of lobster meat, a dash of mayo and a bag of potato chips on the side. But as summers become hotter and sea temperatures rise in the Gulf of Maine, there’s concern that warmer waters will cause the cold water crustacean to move elsewhere, making it harder to satisfy lobster cravings for the region’s tourists.

The Gulf of Maine has been a hotspot for ocean warming, increasing at a rate of 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit each decade in the last 40 years — about three times the global average. At higher water temperatures, lobsters hit what is known as a “stress threshold,” where they become more vulnerable to disease and less likely to reproduce.

But at least in recent years, it seems, the lobster — and some locals who depend on them for their livelihoods — have found success even as their future in warming ocean waters is more uncertain.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

RHODE ISLAND: Anglers Concerned About Effects of Mayflower Wind Project’s Cable on Fish Habitats

September 9, 2022 — An organized group of recreational anglers are opposing a proposal that would bury an export cable from a new offshore wind farm under the Sakonnet River.

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association has come out against the proposal from offshore wind developer Mayflower Wind, expressing concerns over the impacts to existing fish habitats, and recreational fishing.

“We believe that during cable installation, an industrial operation such as burying a cable that is more than a foot wide will disturb fishing across the entire River,” wrote RISAA president Greg Vespa in a letter sent last month to Mayflower Wind.

The group instead advocates for Mayflower Wind to avoid using the river entirely and proposed that the company run the cable over land in Massachusetts from Westport to Fall River, where land is already developed and disturbance to habitats would be minimal.

RISAA also expressed concern over the impacts to cod stocks. The New England Fishery Management Council has designated the Sakonnet River as an inshore juvenile cod habitat area of particular concern, and cod fishing remains restricted.

Mayflower Wind said it has conducted extensive field surveys to assess seabed conditions across its entire project area, including the proposed cable corridor in the Sakonnet River. The bottom of the river is mostly mud and silt, with areas of crepidula, a kind of colonizing mollusk, according to preliminary data from the company.

Results of the field surveys will be assessed by the appropriate Rhode Island agencies for potential impacts on fish habitats, but the company asserts the impacts to fishing will remain minimal.

Read the full article at Eco Ri News