Saving Seafood

Dominion and Equinor Win Central Atlantic Wind Leases Paying Total of $93M

August 15, 2024 — The U.S. Department of the Interior is reporting strong interest in its latest offshore wind auction completed yesterday for sites off the Central Atlantic states. A total of six companies participated in the auction for the two sites offered with the winning bids of $92.65 million from Dominion Energy and Equinor.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conducted the auction which was scheduled in June for sites located offshore from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. They highlighted that it was the first offshore sale in the region in a decade. Combined the two sites have the potential for an additional 2.2 million homes or the capacity for approximately 6.3 GW according to the Department of the Interior.

Equinor Wind provisionally won a lease for 101,443 acres located approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay. The company’s winning bid was just over $75 million. Equinor highlights the potential for around 2 GW of power from the lease area.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

VIRGINIA: Dominion bills will rise to fund wind farm

July 26, 2024 — Dominion Energy customers will see bills rise this fall to pay for the continuing costs of the electric company’s $9 billion project to erect a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean 27 miles off the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

The State Corporation Commission approved an 80% increase in the surcharge on bills that finances the offshore wind project.

The increase in the surcharge will boost a benchmark bill of $138 a month or 1,000 kilowatts of electricity by $3.89.

The increase takes effect on Sept. 1.

That increase will generate $485.9 million over the following 12 months.

Read the full article at the Richmond TimesDispatch

Federal judge rejects request to halt Dominion’s Virginia Beach offshore wind farm

May 29, 2024 — A federal judge has denied a request from a coalition of conservative interest groups that sought to halt construction of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm in Virginia Beach.

The groups sued the Biden administration earlier this year, arguing federal agencies ignored threats to endangered whales when approving the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

The suit will still move forward this fall, but the decision issued last week denied plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to stop construction while the lawsuit is decided.

U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan said there wasn’t enough proof that plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm from construction on the project moving forward.

“Plaintiffs fail to take into account the extensive measures already in place to minimize potential harm to the (North Atlantic) Right Whale during construction,” AliKhan wrote. They “have not explained why these measures would not be sufficient.”

Read the full article at WHRO

VIRGINIA: Dominion Energy delays construction for Virginia Beach offshore wind farm, says lawsuit won’t affect timeline

May 12, 2024 — Dominion Energy delayed installation of the first batch of offshore wind turbine bases for its Virginia Beach wind farm, but a spokesperson said an ongoing lawsuit will have no impact on the construction timeline.

Installation of the wind turbine monopiles, expected to begin this week, could get underway as soon as next week, said Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton. He said a slight delay in the arrival of an installation support vessel pushed back the start date.

However, Slayton said the Orion, the large ship which will transport and install the monopiles, is ready to go after a bit of required maintenance.

“There have been no changes to our expectations for the 2024 installation season,” Slayton said in a text message.

Read the full article at the Daily Press

Judge to decide whether to delay construction of Dominion’s offshore wind project

May 9, 2024 — A federal judge will soon decide whether Dominion Energy obtained necessary federal approvals for its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, a 176-turbine wind farm environmental groups are backing as a critical source of renewable energy needed to combat climate change.

Judge Loren L. AliKhan is expected to make a decision on a request for a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit against Dominion and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration officials, who are overseeing construction of the offshore wind project.

The $9.8 billion CVOW project is expected to be completed in 2026 with the ability to generate enough power for up to 660,000 homes.

In March, two conservative groups, The Heartland Institute and the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), and the fossil fuel-funded Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), filed the lawsuit alleging Dominion didn’t obtain, nor did the federal government issue, approvals for a biological opinion to address any impacts to the North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species. Several of the dead animals have washed up along the East Coast several times in recent years.

“Dominion Energy must be prevented from engaging in any offshore construction” until the National Marine Fisheries Service issues a “properly determined” biological opinion, said CFACT president Craig Rucker in a statement when the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit.

Read the full article at the Virginia Mercury

Interior defends Virginia offshore wind farm in court

May 7, 2024 — The Biden administration and the developer of a $9.8 billion wind farm off of Virginia Beach, Virginia, assured a federal court Friday that the project has all necessary approvals, amid claims that construction would harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The joint court filing from the Interior Department and Dominion Energy comes in response to a request to halt work on the massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which is slated to include 176 turbines and is the largest project of its kind currently under development in the United States.

Dominion and Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management filed their response following an order from Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking clarity on whether NOAA Fisheries — which handles Endangered Species Act consultations for marine life — had approved mitigation plans to protect the vulnerable right whale.

Read the full story at E&E News

VIRGINIA: Dominion Energy says preliminary injunction request not delaying offshore wind construction

May 7, 2024 — The legal battle between Dominion Energy and three organizations opposed to its offshore wind project is heating up.

In March, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the Heartland Institute, and the National Legal and Policy Center sued Dominion Energy, alleging it hadn’t taken the necessary steps to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale and other marine life during construction. Dominion Energy called the lawsuit “meritless.”

In the latest development, the three organizations requested a preliminary injunction, asking a judge to stop offshore construction before it starts.

A preliminary injunction is a judge-issued order that demands a defendant stop an allegedly harmful activity while a lawsuit progresses. On Monday afternoon, Dominion Energy submitted its response to the preliminary injunction request, calling the move an “eleventh hour attempt” to stop the project.

CFACT president Craig Rucker disagrees. “We need an injunction and a proper study that looks at all the cumulative aspects of these different wind farms,” he said.

Read the full story at 13News Now

Two U.S. Offshore Wind Farms Gear Up for Construction Despite Challenges

May 3, 2024 — Two of the largest U.S. offshore wind farms are moving forward into their construction phase as the industry continues to gain momentum and the federal government looks to add more projects to the pipeline. Dominion Energy confirmed that offshore work will begin next week on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project while adamantly denying any reports that it has been delayed while in Connecticut the first components for the Revolution Wind project are arriving at the staging point.

“Consistent with the construction schedule, installation of monopiles by the DEME-operated vessel Orion is expected to commence between May 6 and May 8,” Dominion said in a statement issued yesterday. They called media reports and statements by a small group of critics that the project was delayed “false and grossly misrepresent the facts.”

On April 29, anti-wind groups filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to delay CVOW construction. Dominion says the critics are “using the same meritless arguments as have already been rejected before by the courts, including last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in relation to an offshore wind project in Massachusetts.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

 

Dominion Energy says court challenge not delaying Virginia wind project

May 2, 2024 — A coalition of groups opposing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project was in a Washington, D.C. federal court this week, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop construction work in May. 

Conservative activist groups the Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) sued Dominion Energy and the Biden administration over federal permits for the planned 2.6 gigawatt project of 176 turbines.

The plaintiffs claim the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies “have not done the legally required research to determine the project won’t harm the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale,” according to a Heartland Institute statement.

U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan called on lawyers for Dominion, the government and plaintiffs to file more papers and responses by May 9, before she rules on the groups’ request for a preliminary injunction.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Offshore wind opponents mount court challenge to Virginia project

March 21, 2024 — Wind power opponents filed a long-expected court challenge to the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, in a bid to stop Dominion Energy’s planned start of construction May 1.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is focused on claims that construction and operation of the planned 2.6-gigawatt-rated turbine array will harm the already extremely endangered North Atlantic right whale population, now estimated at only around 350 animals and already at risk from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement.

 The Heartland Institute, Center for a Constructive Tomorrow and the National Legal and Policy Center, groups with ties to conservative, libertarian and oil and gas energy interests, are at the top of the complaint filed in federal court. 

Heartland and allies have already worked to oppose Mid-Atlantic wind power development off the Delmarva coast, citing potential impact on commercial fishing, Ocean City, Md.’s tourism economy and interference with Navy and military aviation operations offshore.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman