June 9, 2023 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced a framework for distributing USD 2.6 billion (EUR 2.4 billion) in funding for coastal resilience and fisheries support made available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The money will go toward fisheries conservation, Tribal priorities, and a new competitive grant program to develop regional approaches to climate resilience.
March 22, 2023 — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he would expeditiously expand and increase environmental protections for a group of remote atolls and islands in the Central Pacific and the nearly 777,000 square miles of waters around them.
He’s directing the commerce secretary to consider initiating a new national marine sanctuary designation within the next 30 days around the Pacific Remote Islands, which would further his goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. ocean waters by 2030.
A coalition of Pacific island leaders and members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation among others applauded Biden’s decision, though there were some lingering concerns.
December 3, 2022 — U.S. diplomacy is trumping environmental activism today when it comes to Maine lobster, with 200 of the Pine State’s signature seafood on the Thursday dinner menu for French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit with President Biden.
News reports on the menu for dinner at the White House described butter-poached Maine lobster as the opener before beef with shallot marmalade and triple-cooked butter potatoes.
Read the full article at National Fisherman
December 3, 2022 — The U.S. Senate joined the U.S. House in voting to intervene to prevent a nationwide strike by railroad workers.
The Senate bill, which passed 80-15, was signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on 2 December. Food industry and retail groups had urged Congress to pass the resolution to avert the strike, which was estimated to potentially cost the American economy up to USD 2 billion (EUR 1.9 billion) a day.
December 1, 2022 — A Democratic lawmaker is pushing back on President Biden’s pompous White House celebration, where 200 live lobsters will be served for guests Thursday during a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The night before the dinner, where guests are expected to enjoy lobster and caviar, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, took to Twitter to urge Biden to meet with the lobstermen his administration is “currently regulating out of business.”
“If the Biden White House can prioritize purchasing 200 Maine lobsters for a fancy dinner, [Biden] should also take the time to meet with the Maine lobstermen his administration is currently regulating out of business,” Golden said in a tweet.
The red, white and blue-themed dinner with Macron, France’s first lady Brigitte Macron, and others will be the first state visit Biden has allowed at the White House since 2021 as other events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Golden’s tweet is his latest call on Biden to uphold his promises to protect Maine’s lobster industry, especially amid a new dispute with whale conservationists.
The Maine lawmaker released a statement in October saying Biden broke his promise to Maine lobstermen.
“In 2020, while running for president, Biden pledged ‘I will work to protect the livelihood and safety of the fishing community’ in reference to lobstermen. He has yet to take a single action to make good on that pledge,” Golden said.
Read the full article at Fox News
December 1, 2022 — A Maine Democratic lawmaker gave President Biden a verbal pinch for shipping in 200 lobsters to serve at Thursday’s White House state dinner — amid a fierce debate over how the state’s fishing industry should be regulated.
After it emerged that butter-poached Maine lobster would be on the menu for Biden’s White House meal with French President Emmanuel Macron, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) took aim at the ritzy celebration.
“If the Biden White House can prioritize purchasing 200 Maine lobsters for a fancy dinner, @POTUS should also take the time to meet with the Maine lobstermen his administration is currently regulating out of business,” Golden tweeted late Wednesday.
November 9, 2022 — Results from the U.S. election on Tuesday, 8 November are still being tallied, with control of Congress at stake.
Predictions of a Republican sweep of the midterm elections, seen in part as a referendum on U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, did not materialize in early results.
October 27, 2022 — A state agency held off, at least for now, approving projects aimed at bringing power from offshore wind farms to land, but it did allow for $1 billion to upgrade the existing power grid.
The Board of Public Utilities balked at the more expensive projects needed to begin building what is essentially a backbone transmission system off the coast to deliver power ashore. Instead, it opted to wait until federal financial incentives are available to defray the costs to utility customers.
A law signed by President Joe Biden this summer provides lucrative tax credits to operators of offshore wind farms, but those credits are not available to most transmission projects. Several developers had sought approval from the state to build offshore transmission lines from the wind farms to the grid.
Many clean-energy advocates contend a backbone offshore wind transmission system is the most cost-effective and least environmentally disruptive way of connecting offshore power to the customers who need it. By midcentury, offshore wind farms are supposed to provide 27% of the state’s electricity. No offshore wind farm is operating in New Jersey.
August 25, 2022 — Trae Cooper risks punctures to the fiberglass hull of his grandfather’s boat every time he pulls out into the gray waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Trawling for shrimp that swim along Louisiana’s muddy coast means coexisting with the forgotten pipelines, corroded steel, gnawed plastic and bits of iron that the oil industry left behind as it marched gradually through these marshes and out to sea.
And that’s why Cooper, 39, and many shrimpers in the region say they know enough to worry as a new industry crops up in the Gulf of Mexico: offshore wind.
They wonder if transmission lines will add to the dangers that shrimpers and other commercial fishers already have to dodge, if turbines will take away places they could be shrimping, and if its planning will be done with shrimpers’ input taken seriously.
“If you got a whole field of wind turbines, you may knock out 2 miles of our fishing grounds. That’s a problem, not mentioning the transmission and everything that goes into it,” Cooper said.
Offshore wind appears imminent in the Gulf, one branch of President Joe Biden’s push to lift 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, helping to decarbonize the nation’s electricity grid in a fight against climate change. The administration is planning a first Gulf offshore wind auction by early next year, after finishing an environmental review of the industry’s impacts — including to marine life and fisheries.
August 23, 2022 — The Gulf of Mexico offshore oil industry will be critical in helping its frequent nemesis President Joe Biden achieve one of his most obtainable climate ambitions: raising wind farms in the ocean.
Welders and machinists from Louisiana and Texas are building the nation’s first offshore wind supply vessels and turbine installation ships. Jack-up vessel crews helped plant the first of thousands of turbines in the Atlantic Ocean and hope to raise more. Oil companies, with their decades of experience launching projects at sea, are expected to be at the front of the line when the Interior Department conducts the first lease sale for wind in the Gulf of Mexico next year.
But locals in the ports across south Louisiana are quick to point out the region isn’t ready to ditch its rigs. If anything, the embrace of offshore wind showcases a Gulf oil sector that remains mostly confident in the face of the energy transition.
“When wind energy comes to Louisiana, I think Louisiana will open their arms and say, ‘Yeah, come on, let’s do it,’” said Tommy Brown with Aries Marine Corp., one of the oil services companies that supplied lift boats and operators that helped build the first offshore wind farm in the country in Rhode Island in 2015. “[But] people need to understand that, look, you can’t just flip a switch and go from oil and gas to renewables.”
That sentiment is common across the Gulf Coast. The region demonstrates perhaps more than anywhere else in the country the entrenchment of the fossil fuel industry, even as the Biden administration tries to drive an energy transformation that includes a commitment to approve 16 offshore wind arrays by 2030 to help decarbonize the grid by 2035.
In Louisiana, offshore wind could provide new jobs for workers laid off by an oil sector that becomes more efficient through each price bust, and it is poised to inject adrenaline into the shipbuilding industry. Long term, wind may even become a strong, albeit smaller, industry with its own workforce of wind technicians and manufacturers along the Gulf Coast, pushing clean power onto the grid.