Saving Seafood

Trump escalates US-China trade war with tariff increases

August 26, 2019 — Soon after China moved on 23 August to raise tariffs on USD 75 billion (EUR 67.4 billion) of U.S. goods, U.S. President Donald Trump retaliated with another increase to tariffs on Chinese goods.

China’s escalation of its tariffs on U.S. goods hit the seafood industry once again, increasing the tariffs on salmon, lobster, pollock, cod, squid, crab to 35 percent, exempting raw material for processing and re-export. The previous tariffs already had a significant impact on some sectors of the seafood industry – lobster exports from Maine to China plunged 84 percent after the tariffs took effect.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump says US “better off without” China after latest tariff escalation

August 25, 2019 — China moved on Friday, 23 August to raise tariffs on USD 75 billion (EUR 67.3 billion) in American goods, in response to a move made at the beginning of the month by U.S. President Donald Trump to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.

China’s new tariffs – ranging between 5 and 10 percent – will affect goods ranging from soybeans to crude oil to automobiles, and also include additional tariffs for seafood. They will go into effect between September and December, mirroring the dates set by Trump in his revised timeline for implementing the latest round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Most U.S. seafood exported to China will will be subject to an additional 10 percent tariff on 1 September, raising Chinese tariffs on U.S. seafood as high as 35 percent.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Suppressed federal report shows how Trump water plan would endanger California salmon

August 22, 2019 — Federal officials suppressed a lengthy environmental document that details how one of California’s unique salmon runs would be imperiled by Trump administration plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms.

The July 1 assessment, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, outlines how proposed changes in government water operations would harm several species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including perilously low populations of winter-run salmon, as well as steelhead trout and killer whales, which feed on salmon.

But the 1,123-page document was never released.

Read the full story at The Sacramento Bee

Tariffs changing shopping habits of US consumers

August 16, 2019 — More U.S. shoppers are noticing price increases for the products they buy regularly, and a majority of them plan to reexamine their shopping habits if U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods remain in place, according to a new survey.

Shopkick, the operator of a shopping rewards app, surveyed more than 30,000 of its users between 28 and 30 June, and found 44 percent of respondents planned to cut down on their shopping as a result of raised prices on consumer goods, the result of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on practically all Chinese goods, valued at more than USD 550 billion (EUR 495.6 billion) in annual trade.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Elizabeth Warren chimes in on delay of Vineyard Wind project

August 15, 2019 — Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the recent move by federal regulators to delay Massachusetts’s first offshore wind project is “extremely disappointing.”

Late Friday, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind, further delaying the $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm planned 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and drawing blowback from local officials.

The project would be the first large-scale wind farm in the United States.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said they made the decision after receiving input “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting “a more robust” analysis of the project. The agency says the continued review could extend into early next year. The project’s developers had hoped to begin construction later this year and have the farm operational by 2021.

Read the full story at Boston.com

Frozen salmon, cod fillets escape latest Trump tariffs

August 13, 2019 — A move executed Tuesday, 13 August by the Trump administration will reverse previously-announced tariffs on some seafood processed in China.

Included in the original list of items subject to the latest round of tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, 1 August – which originally proposed subjecting an additional USD 300 billion (EUR 270 billion) in imported goods to a 10 percent tariff – were frozen fillets of cod, salmon, and haddock.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump admin throws wrench into offshore wind plans

August 13, 2019 — The Trump administration is ordering a sweeping environmental review of the burgeoning offshore wind industry, a move that threatens to derail the nation’s first major project and raises a host of questions for future developments.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of the Interior Department, is ordering a study of the cumulative impact of a string of projects along the East Coast. The review comes in response to concerns from fishermen about the impact of offshore wind development on East Coast fisheries.

A BOEM spokeswoman said the review would focus on projects with signed power purchase agreements. Nine projects in seven states with a combined capacity of 4.8 gigawatts are planned to come online in the coming years. The study will also consider the environmental implications of an even larger build-out of the industry, based on states’ development targets for offshore wind.

But conflicts with fishermen are only likely to grow. Vineyard Wind has primarily drawn opposition from squid fishermen. An area likely to be offered for lease next year near New York is prime scalloping water. Fishermen there are already raising objections.

If Vineyard Wind is ultimately found to have a detrimental impact on fisheries, that would have serious consequences for the rest of the industry, said Logan, the Wood Mackenzie analyst.

“It would be an exteremly bad precedent to set,” he said. “Based on the things they’ve brought up with fisheries, which is a problem up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it could be contagious, so to speak.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Trump administration moves to ease enforcement of Endangered Species Act regulations

August 13, 2019 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, 12 August, announced changes in how it would administer the Endangered Species Act, a move it said would add transparency to the process.

However, environmental groups lashed out at the move, claiming it would make it harder to protect species and harm wildlife protections, given it will government officials the chance to consider economic factors when determining if action should be taken to intervene in a species’ management plan.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Letter shows BOEM was ready to move ahead on US wind farm without NMFS blessing

August 12, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published by Undercurrent News:

Before the US president Donald Trump administration ordered a delay of the country’s first offshore wind farm late last week, it was the belief of at least some of its officials that making the changes requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be disastrous and NMFS approval was not needed to move ahead anyhow, Undercurrent News has learned.

Interior secretary David Bernhardt on Friday told Bloomberg that he has ordered an additional study by his department of the Vineyard Wind project, a plan to build more than 80 giant wind turbines on a 118-mile stretch of ocean some 15 miles from the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, before going ahead with a final environmental impact statement (EIS).

The decision puts in jeopardy the $2.8 billion project, which had promised to supply a combined 800 megawatts of power to at least 400,000 New England homes and businesses but had worried the commercial fishing industry. It was scheduled to begin construction this year and be operational by early 2022.

Bernhardt reportedly told the news service that it’s important the impact of the project be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s,” he said.

A Vineyard Wind spokesman called the Interior Department’s decision “a surprise and disappointment” and said his company urged the federal government to “complete the review as quickly as possible”.

As reported last week by Undercurrent News, the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has seemingly dragged its feet on Vineyard Wind’s final EIS since receiving at least two letters from Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for NMFS’ greater Atlantic office.

One 44-page letter, sent in March to James Bennett, head of BOEM’s Office of Renewable Programs, provided a detailed critique of a half dozen alternative approaches for the wind farm under consideration.  Another short three-page letter sent by Pentony on April 16, restated some of the same concerns, including NMFS’ request for more space between the turbines and an overall different directional orientation.

“We reviewed your preferred alternative and associated rationale provided in your letter dated April 3, 2019, and are writing to inform you that [NMFS] does not concur with your choice of a preferred alternative,” the second letter states.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

CNN: EPA reversal on Pebble Mine came after Trump met with Dunleavy

August 12, 2019 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed its position on the Pebble Mine project after Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy met with President Donald Trump, according to a CNN report.

Although the EPA’s decision not to oppose the mining project was made public on 30 July, staff scientists at the agency learned of the decision a month before, soon after the meeting. Dunleavy met with Trump while Air Force One was in Alaska on 26 June on the way to the G20 summit in Japan.

Read the full story at Seafood Source