Saving Seafood

US Wind Wins Final Approval for Offshore Wind Project

December 4, 2024 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued its final approval of US Wind’s construction of a wind project off the coast of Delmarva.

According to US Wind, BOEM issued the permit for the Construction and Operations Plan, the final step in the company’s ongoing federal permitting application Tuesday, December 3.

The approved project includes the construction and operation of up to 114 wind turbine generators, up to four offshore substation platforms, a meteorological tower, and offshore export cable corridors. The project could also see wind power cables coming ashore under 3Rs Beach in Delaware.

The Town of Ocean City, along with multiple co-plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit in October challenging BOEM’s approval process of US Wind’s proposed project.

Read the full story at WBOC

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

Ocean Harvesters, Omega call for increase of wind facility buffers

November 6, 2024 — Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are calling on the federal government to increase the buffer for wind energy facilities from 6 miles to 15 miles, stating their operations are incompatible with wind turbine arrays and  critical adjustments are needed to protect the menhaden fishing industry.

The Reedville companies made those statements as part of their public comment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which was soliciting feedback on possible commercial wind energy development in areas off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Read the full article at News On The Neck

Environmentalists sue New York, New Jersey and Delaware over endangered sturgeon

October 25, 2024 — New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing.

The three parallel lawsuits filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Hudson Riverkeeper accuse the states of violating the Endangered Species Act by not obtaining necessary permits that allow commercial fisheries to catch and kill Atlantic sturgeon while they fish for other species such as striped bass and summer flounder. The environmentalists say the once thriving fish’s recovery is threatened because they are unintentionally caught in commercial nets as “bycatch.”

Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River and Hudson River were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

“The Atlantic sturgeon of our two rivers are at risk from being wiped from the face of this earth within our lifetime,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said during an online news conference.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

DELAWARE: Oct. 22 hearing set on dismissal of offshore wind appeal

October 11, 2024 — A South Bethany property owner has filed an appeal challenging the state’s review of two federal consistency certifications for the proposed US Wind offshore wind project that’s planned for the ocean waters off the coast of Maryland, but has a landfall connection north of Bethany Beach at 3R’s Beach. The state’s Environmental Appeals Board has scheduled Tuesday, Oct. 22 hearing on a motion to dismiss the appeal.

Edward Bintz, a Virginia-based attorney who owns property in South Bethany, issued an appeal in August of Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin’s decision to conditionally concur with two certifications made by US Wind saying it met the state’s Coastal Management Program’s federal consistency policies and procedures. The two certifications are related to the project’s Construction and Operations Plan and the USACE Permits/Authorizations.

Bintz argues that US Wind’s analysis violates the CMP by failing to take into account reasonably foreseeable effects from the project. He also argues that DNREC’s published public notice failed to announce the availability of the federal certifications as well other public notice issues.

Read the full article at the Cape Gazette

DELAWARE: CRI brings legal action over offshore wind farms

October 11, 2024 — The Caesar Rodney Institute’s Center for Energy & Environment, along with two regional watermen concerned about offshore wind farms’ potential impacts on the local fisheries, have filed a lawsuit against DNREC, citing two technical points they say are related to protecting the inland bays and potentially overriding county zoning ordinances.

The Brady Legal Group and founding partner Jane Brady have bought the legal action against the state agency for allegedly not following its own regulations in permitting offshore wind.

Brady — who was Delaware’s attorney general from 1995 to 2005, elected as a Republican — filed the complaint, which lists the Caesar Rodney Institute, Paul “Wes” Townsend and George Merrick as the complainants. The suit is challenging DNREC’s authority to grant permits to U.S. Wind for construction at 3R’s beach and for the use of wetlands and subaqueous lands by running cable beneath the Delaware Inland Bays to a power substation.

Read the full article at the Costal Point

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