Saving Seafood

Inaugurated as president, Biden faces host of pandemic-related woes

January 20, 2021 — As Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the United States on Wednesday, 20 January, the seafood and foodservice industries urged the incoming administration to provide additional funding for COVID-19 pandemic-related losses.

Today’s ceremony, making Biden the nation’s 46th president, capped off the tumultuous months between the November elections and Inauguration Day, marred by former President Donald Trump’s legal opposition to Biden’s election, along with a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol building earlier this month.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Offshore wind stagnated under Trump, Biden policies could create a boom for offshore energy

January 19, 2021 — President-elect Joe Biden’s climate plan proposes building thousands of offshore wind turbines as a key contributor to the goal of a carbon-free U.S. energy sector by 2035. 

With the states largely carrying the ball as the Trump administration stepped back from climate change and clean energy, the pressure is on for the new administration to come through on its promise. 

“The actions by the states across the country have been really important and kept the U.S. moving forward in spite of a lack of leadership in Washington,” Josh Albritton, director of climate change and energy at the Nature Conservancy, said. “That change is happening … but to get to 2050 (net-zero carbon emissions nationally) we need the federal government.”

While onshore wind power is projected to see greater growth nationally over the next 30 years, offshore wind power is far more important in the populous Northeast where topography and population density mean more permitting conflicts and fewer of the large tracts needed for utility-scale wind farms.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Times

Commercial fishing stakeholders optimistic about Biden’s pick for Commerce secretary

January 8, 2021 — Gina Raimondo received praise from fishing industry stakeholders on Thursday, 7 January, after reports broke that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden would choose her as his Commerce secretary.

National Fisheries Institute President John Connelly called Raimondo, who is currently the governor of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, an innovator capable of balancing the needs of conservation and commerce.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Offshore wind in its sails

December 18, 2020 — The Biden administration takes over on Jan. 20, and when it does, it’s expected that offshore wind energy’s prospects in the U.S. will improve greatly.

As Kirk Moore writes in the January issue of WorkBoat, offshore wind occupied a curious position in the Trump administration — often mocked and belittled by the president in public even as his own former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) forged ahead enabling plans for 15 East Coast offshore projects and studying prospects off California.

But in the new administration, expect to see more of 2010, when then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar predicted offshore wind would become a major U.S. energy source. Also, expect Biden to revive the Obama administration’s “all of the above” energy strategy.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Analysts predict little shift in US-China trade policy in early days of Biden administration

December 17, 2020 — With the U.S. Electoral College certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump, the country has continued the transition of power, which will culminate in the 20 January inauguration.

As the Biden administration continues to announce its cabinet picks, analysts are expecting that the country’s current stance on international trade likely won’t shift nearly as much.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MJ JACKSON: Bristol Bay: ‘Now is the time to prioritize protection’

December 14, 2020 — As a 32-year Bristol Bay fisherman and vice president of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), I appreciated The Seattle Times editorial “Salmon-rich Bristol Bay deserves permanent protection” [Dec. 2, Opinion].

Thousands of fishermen like myself have struggled alongside Bristol Bay tribes, Alaskans and beyond for more than a decade fighting Pebble Mine. The recent denial of Pebble’s permit was a huge victory, yet Bristol Bay remains vulnerable until permanent protections are in place. Now is the time to prioritize protection of Bristol Bay’s renewable economic engine and Indigenous culture.

Read the full opinion piece at The Seattle Times

Vineyard Wind pauses U.S. permitting over switch to GE turbines

December 3, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, which is developing the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, has temporarily withdrawn the project from the federal permitting process so the company can incorporate turbines from a new supplier, General Electric Co, in its design.

The move, which requires a technical review that will last several weeks, will almost certainly delay a federal decision over whether to approve the project until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

Calling the decision to pause the permitting process “difficult,” Vineyard Wind Chief Executive Lars Pedersen said in a statement issued on Tuesday that he hoped it would help avoid further delays.

Read the full story at Reuters

Maine’s lobstermen and women hope Biden can boost fortunes

November 27, 2020 — Donald Trump positioned himself as a friend of New England’s lobster industry, campaigning hard in Maine, and even had lobsterman Jason Joyce speak at the Republican national convention.

But the president’s prolonged trade war with China resulted in a rocky few years for the industry.

Following Biden’s win in the presidential election, which saw him take three out of four electoral votes in Maine, which, along with Nebraska, has a split system, members of the industry now say they are looking forward to some much-needed stability.

Stephanie Nadeau, owner of the Lobster Company, a dealer in Arundel, Maine, said the industry needs assurance that it will be able to sell lobsters to other countries without punitive tariffs and is hopeful that such comfort will come in January following the inauguration of the Democratic president-elect.

She said of life under the Trump administration: “You can’t plan. You can’t live in chaos. The trade war, was it going to last a week, was it going to last a month, was it going to last four years? How do you operate around that?”

Read the full story from The Guardian at MSN

Biden’s administration should charge up the offshore wind industry

November 23, 2020 — Few industries stand to benefit more from the Biden administration’s arrival than clean energy, and the nascent offshore wind sector in New England could get a long-awaited boost as a result.

So far, construction has yet to start on any major offshore wind farm in the United States, as projects before the Trump administration were mired in permitting delays. Now, with a sympathetic ally in the White House, the floodgates could be poised to open.

President-elect Joe Biden has set aggressive targets to reduce greenhouse gases, by, for example, rejoining the Paris climate accord, which Trump abandoned, and pushing the electric-power sector to be carbon-free by 2035. Those goals will be tough to pull off without offshore wind.

“You’re poised for a big explosion of offshore wind growth,” said Theodore Paradise, a senior vice president at the power line developer Anbaric, in Wakefield.

Industry executives hope a Biden-controlled Department of the Interior will ease the permitting bottleneck. Equally important: restarting auctions for offshore zones that have apparently been on hold under the current Interior secretary, David Bernhardt.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe