April 23, 2021 — President Biden has picked Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer with decades of science and policy experience, to run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s leading agency for weather, climate and ocean science.
Biden’s early days show new tack on trade, but little chance of China tariff removal
April 23, 2021 — As the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden approaches its one-hundredth day in charge, its early actions are laying the groundwork for the country’s stance on trade.
Speaking during a National Fisheries Institute Global Seafood Market Conference webinar covering the first 100 days of the Biden administration, NFI Vice President for Government Affairs Robert DeHaan predicted the new administration will likely take a different tack than that of former U.S. President Donald Trump. SeafoodSource is providing exclusive coverage of the GSMC webinar series, which will be providing market-focused content throughout 2021.
Biden nominates Rick Spinrad to head NOAA
April 23, 2021 — U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he has nominated Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University and the former chief scientist for NOAA, for the position of NOAA administrator.
The nomination comes as NOAA is amidst the longest period without a Senate-confirmed administrator since its creation in 1970. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had nominated Barry Myers – the former CEO of AccuWeather – to the position in 2017, but his nomination was never brought to a full vote before Myers ultimately withdrew from consideration.
Biden plans to nominate ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to head NOAA, the country’s premier climate science agency.
April 22, 2021 — President Biden on Thursday announced he would nominate Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country’s premier climate science agency.
The announcement potentially marks a new chapter for NOAA, which was at times a source of tension for former President Donald J. Trump, who publicly sparred with the agency’s scientists and was unable to get any of his nominees to lead it confirmed by the Senate. NOAA has been without a Senate-confirmed leader for the longest period since it was created in 1970.
In 2019, Mick Mulvaney, who was Mr. Trump’s acting White House chief of staff at the time, pushed NOAA to disavow statements by its weather forecasters that contradicted what the president had said about the path of Hurricane Dorian. Last year, the administration removed NOAA’s chief scientist from his role and installed people who questioned the science of climate change in senior roles at the agency.
Dr. Spinrad is a former chief scientist at NOAA, where he also led the agency’s research office and the National Ocean Service. The timing of Mr. Biden’s announcement was notable — on Earth Day amid a two-day climate summit in which he committed the United States to cutting emissions by half by the end of the decade.
The selection of Dr. Spinrad drew quick praise from the scientific policy community Thursday evening.
“We commend the Biden administration for continuing to nominate credible and well-qualified candidates who understand the urgency of the climate crisis,” Sally Yozell, the director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, said in a statement.
Rear Adm. Jonathan White, the president and chief executive of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, called Dr. Spinrad “an excellent choice for this important role.”
White House Finalizes Pacific Ocean Protections for Humpback Whale
April 21, 2021 — The Biden administration finalized a rule that will conserve approximately 118,000 square nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean as protected habitat for the humpback whale.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finalized the rule that conserves a large swath of ocean off the coast of North America, spanning from Southern California to the Bering Sea in Alaska.
Conservationists tout the rule as necessary to protect three separate populations of endangered whales from ship strikes, entanglements with fishing nets and oil spills.
“Pacific humpbacks finally got the habitat protections they’ve needed for so long,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Now we need to better protect humpbacks from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, their leading causes of death.”
The finalization of the rule comes after a lengthy court battle between conservationists and the U.S. government ended in a 2018 settlement.
NEW YORK: Biden Administration Nixes Hamptons Offshore Wind Sites Near Beaches, Fishing Grounds
April 20, 2021 — The Biden administration announced that it will not lease two offshore wind areas off the Hamptons. The leasing areas were controversial to eastern Long Island residents and the commercial fishing industry.
The Fairways North and Fairways South sites were planned just 15 miles off the coast.
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman says the 800-foot-tall turbines would be a visual eyesore for public and private Hamptons beachgoers — which the state of New York relies on for billions in tourism dollars.
“I believe in [offshore wind],” Schneiderman said, “just site it further out. There’s no reason why they can’t go deeper, into deeper waters, you know, manage the visual impact.”
And 1,700 members of the fishing industry sent a letter to the Biden administration to say the construction and the operation of the turbines would starve them of prime fishing grounds. Bonnie Brady with Long Island Commercial Fishing Association has sent these letters before.
“Let’s face it,” she said. “I’ve been fighting on this issue for fishermen to get a true seat at the table, not be served for lunch, for 20 years.”
US Interior Department reverses legal opinion on offshore wind
April 16, 2021 — The U.S. Interior Department formally reversed a Trump-era legal opinion on offshore wind energy, in another step toward the Biden administration’s goal of dramatically expanding the industry in U.S. waters.
A memo from Robert Anderson, the department’s principle deputy solicitor, released on 9 April critiques and reverses findings written in December by Daniel Jorjani, who was the department’s top lawyer when then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt moved to shut down the approval process for the Vineyard Wind offshore project.
Biden wants 25 percent funding increase for NOAA
April 15, 2021 — U.S. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a more than 25 percent increase in funding for the 2022 fiscal year.
In a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on 9 April, Acting Director for the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young requested USD 6.9 billion (EUR 5.8 billion) for the agency. That’s USD 1.4 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) more than the agency received for this current budget year.
Biden banks on offshore wind to help curb climate change
April 13, 2021 — Two wind turbines, each as tall as the Washington Monument, stand sentinel 27 miles off the coast of Virginia, the nation’s first offshore wind installation in federal waters.
The pilot project began producing power last October but is just the beginning for an industry poised for massive growth over the next decade. Longtime conflicts with the fishing industry remain, as well as some landowners, but with the help of a major push from the Biden administration, offshore wind may finally advance in the Atlantic.
Dominion Energy, Virginia’s state utility, plans to install nearly 200 more ocean turbines east of Cape Henry over the next five years. And developers have permits pending for 10 more offshore wind projects along the East Coast, from North Carolina to Maine.
The Biden administration wants to buoy the industry. Last month, the administration announced a $3 billion plan to expand offshore wind.
The ambitious goal is to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade, enough to power more than 10 million homes and cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s roughly the carbon equivalent of taking 17 million cars off the road for a year.
Offshore wind represents an opportunity for the Biden administration to address two major goals: reducing carbon emissions and creating jobs.
“Nowhere is the scale of that opportunity clearer than for offshore wind,” National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said in announcing the new plan.
The projects could support tens of thousands of jobs, from maintenance at sea to steel production far inland.
There is just one other offshore wind project currently online in the United States: five turbines in state waters off the coast of Block Island, R.I.
The industry has more proposals in the works, including:
- A research project floating turbine in Maine;
- North Carolina’s Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area, 27 miles off the coast of the Outer Banks;
- US Wind Maryland, a 270 megawatt farm planned 17 miles offshore from Ocean City.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Laura Morton of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group. “We can provide clean energy, slash carbon emissions and create jobs.”
Biden administration proposes record $6.9 billion budget for NOAA
April 13, 2021 — President Biden’s administration has proposed a budget increase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that would be the biggest in the agency’s history if approved by Congress.
The increase would infuse a massive amount of resources to support the agency, whose responsibilities include weather forecasting, climate research and services, ocean research, the health of the nation’s fisheries and protection of endangered marine species.
“These additional funds would allow NOAA to expand its climate observation and forecasting work and provide better data and information to decision-makers, support coastal resilience programs that would help protect communities from the economic and environmental impacts of climate change, and invest in modern infrastructure to enable these critical efforts,” according to the Biden administration’s budget document, released Friday.
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