Saving Seafood

Conservative Delaware think tank sues to stop Maryland offshore wind farm

October 2, 2024 — A lawsuit filed in Delaware’s Superior Court on Monday aims to stop electric cables from being buried under Delaware-controlled waters and coastline for a controversial offshore wind project.

US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project off the Delmarva coast has proposed running power transmission cables from its wind farm three miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean to 3Rs Beach at Delaware Seashore State Park. The cables would run beneath Delaware-regulated wetlands, state waters and the Indian River Bay and connect to a substation near a former power plant.

Gov. John Carney announced the start of formal negotiations with US Wind late last year, with the company proposing to lease the cable landing at 3Rs Beach for $350,000 a year with annual increases. Delaware would also get $76 million in renewable energy credits and $40 million for the community benefits projects over 20 years.

Former judge and GOP party chair Jane Brady filed the case on behalf of the Caesar Rodney Institute, a Delaware think tank that has connections to the fossil fuel industry and has promoted misinformation about the connection between offshore wind and whale deaths. The suit also names two commercial fishermen as plaintiffs — Wes Townsend and George Merrick.

Read the full article at WHYY

DELAWARE: BOEM awards more offshore wind space due east of Delaware

August 26, 2024 — Less than a month after announcing the availability of the final environmental impact statement for a proposed wind project offshore from Maryland, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has announced the results of a wind energy auction for two lease areas offshore from Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

According to a press release from BOEM, the sale, which took place Aug. 14, was the first in the region in a decade and resulted in two provisional winners totaling $92.65 million in successful bids.

Norwegian-based Equinor Wind US LLC provisionally won Lease OCS-A 0557 at roughly $75 million, which consists of 101,443 acres and is approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay. Virginia Electric and Power Co. provisionally won Lease OCS-A 0558 at roughly $17.7 million, which consists of 176,505 acres and is approximately 35 nm from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. Six companies participated in the auction.

“Equinor’s interest in this auction is consistent with our approach to pursue attractive offshore wind opportunities in the United States,” said Molly Morris, Equinor Renewables US president, in a prepared statement shortly after the announcement was made. “The Central Atlantic region has a rapidly growing demand for electricity with widespread support for adding renewable sources of energy into the power mix.”

Read the full article at Cape Gazette

Feds’ offshore wind sale nets $93M

August 15, 2024 — The Biden administration scooped $93 million from offshore wind developers Wednesday in a sale off the coast of Delaware and Virginia, striking a bullish note for President Joe Biden’s offshore wind legacy despite the industry’s economic headwinds.

Just two leases were up for bid in the central Atlantic sale. A wind lease off the coast of Delaware netted $75 million, from the Norwegian energy giant Equinor, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s preliminary results.

A second lease area, off the coast of Virginia Beach, was scooped up for almost $18 million by the Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy. Dominion was the sole bidder for that lease, which lies adjacent to the 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm that Dominion is currently building.

Read the full article at E&E News

DELAWARE: Delaware’s Blue Economy is Growing

August 6, 2024 — With its 381 miles of coastline, Delaware is a logical home for growing the “blue economy” – a new business and social classification that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines as “a knowledge based economy, looking to the sea not just for extraction of material goods, but for data and information to address societal challenges and inspire their solutions.”

Delaware has long enjoyed a vibrant beach-and-coastal economy driven by recreation and tourism and by commercial sea fishing. In the1800s, shipbuilding along Wilmington’s waterfront was a thriving industry.

Today, Delaware is building on that base with a blue economy that depends on technological innovation and public and private cooperation. Already, the first steps are being taken. They include establishing an industry supporting offshore clean-energy wind farms all along the Atlantic coastline, reinvigorating seafood-producing aquaculture businesses and building a virtual incubator to grow small, technology-driven research and development ventures that attract established businesses looking for centralized coastal locations.

Read the full article at Delaware Business Times

NJ is facing a potential lawsuit over alleged failure to protect endangered fish

July 26, 2024 — The state of New Jersey is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to protect the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, according to the Delaware and Hudson Riverkeeper Network.

New Jersey, as well as New York and Delaware, are being accused of failing to obtain incidental take permits when operating within the habitat of the Atlantic sturgeon species, according to the lawsuit, that has yet to be officially filed. These permits will ensure commercial fisheries operate within Endangered Species Act and federal law, said Maya van Rossum, the leader of the Delaware River Network.

The suit claims the three states have allowed fisheries to kill the Atlantic sturgeon through bycatch, the act of catching and discarding of species that fishers may catch, but do not want, cannot sell or are not allowed to keep.

The lawsuit claims the states are violating the Endangered Species Act by not requiring and approving the permits.

The Riverkeeper Networks say a permit would avoid the illegal taking of the fish and would establish the tracking of the number of the fish killed in an area.

Read the full article at NorthJersey.com

DELAWARE: Public airs concerns on offshore wind during July 9 hearing

July 22, 2024 — The state conducted a public hearing July 9 on the permits needed by US Wind to connect its wind farm off the coast of Maryland to a proposed substation next to the Indian River power plant in Dagsboro. As has been the case since the beginning, public comment on the project was mixed.

US Wind’s project comprises up to 121 wind turbine generators, up to four offshore substations, up to four offshore export cables and one meteorological tower in ocean waters due east of Ocean City, Md. The offshore export cables are proposed to land at 3R’s Beach, north of Bethany Beach, and interconnect into a proposed substation that would be constructed on land adjacent to the Indian River power plant.

Two representatives from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and one representative from US Wind made brief presentations on the permits needed and construction details. To make the connection work, the company would horizontally drill 60 feet under the beach and dune at 3R’s; build four vaults that are each 47 feet long, 12 feet wide and 11 feet deep in the beach parking lot; then horizontally drill west from the vaults under Indian River Bay before coming up at the power plant. In addition to the parking lot construction area, which is supposed to return to its as-is condition except for four manhole covers, and horizontal drilling, dredging in the coves near the plant requires permitting. In all, the company needs DNREC’s approval for a subaqueous lands permit, a water-quality certification, a wetlands permit and a beach preservation coastal construction permit.

Read the full article at the Cape Gazette

 

Riverkeepers take legal action to save sturgeons

July 22, 2024 — Individuals and group riverkeepers from New Jersey, New York, and Delaware announced that they plan to sue on behalf of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. They claim that the taking and discarding of sturgeons due to bycatch has drastically caused the species’ decline.

Riverkeepers are privately funded non-governmental advocates who work to protect the public’s right to clean water. According to sources, the groups hope to prevent commercial fisheries from taking or discarding sturgeon as bycatch while out trawling the ocean for striped bass, flounder, and other fish. They claim that bycatch has impeded the recovery of the species specifically in the Hudson River.

The Hudson currently supports the largest population of Atlantic sturgeon along the Atlantic coast, estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 fish. In 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared five distinct population segments of the Atlantic sturgeon endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmentalists threaten to sue NJ, NY and Delaware over Atlantic sturgeon bycatch

July 12, 2024 — Atlantic sturgeon have been around for 70 million years — predating the dinosaurs. These monumental fish with shark-like fins even survived the Chicxulub asteroid, which caused the great extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

But the species that once thrived in the Philadelphia region’s waterways has become endangered, threatened by habitat loss, dams, poor water quality and vessel strikes. In the Delaware River, only about 250 estimated sturgeon remain, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sturgeon are also caught in fishing nets and injured by boats during the commercial fishing of other types of fish such as striped bass and summer flounder.

Read the full article at the NJ Spotlight News

Environmentalists threaten to sue New Jersey and Delaware if they don’t take action to protect Atlantic sturgeon from bycatch

July 9, 2024 — Atlantic sturgeon have been around for 70 million years — predating the dinosaurs. These monumental fish with shark-like fins even survived the Chicxulub asteroid, which caused the great extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

But the species that once thrived in the Philadelphia region’s waterways has become endangered, threatened by habitat loss, dams, poor water quality and vessel strikes. In the Delaware River, only about 250 estimated sturgeon remain, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sturgeon are also caught in fishing nets and injured by boats during the commercial fishing of other types of fish such as striped bass and summer flounder.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network argues the region isn’t doing enough to protect the Atlantic sturgeon. The nonprofit is threatening to sue Delaware, New Jersey and New York under the Endangered Species Act for allegedly allowing the commercial fishing industry to kill the Atlantic sturgeon as bycatch.

Read the full article at WHYY

DELAWARE: Delaware to again explore offshore wind proposal

December 20, 2023 — Another offshore wind farm plan off the Delaware coast will be examined by the state.

Governor John Carney’s office announced the start of formal negotiations with US Wind that could bring two projects to the area off of Delaware Seashore State Park by the end of 2028.

The tentative plan would send power from US Wind’s proposed “MarWin” and “Momentum” wind farms to the 3Rs parking lot south of the Indian River Inlet, with US Wind leasing the land at $350,000 per year, with annual increases of 3%.

The cables would cross land, before then going through the Indian River Bay to the Delmarva Power & Light substation in Millsboro at the inlet edge of the bay

Read the full article at WDEL