March 27, 2024 — At approximately 1:28 a.m. EDT on 26 March, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. collapsed after a large vessel carrying shipping cargo struck one of the bridge’s support beams.
At least eight construction crew members were working on the bridge at the time and six are missing and presumed dead, according to the Washington Post.
March 20, 2024 — Maryland wants to expand its use of renewable energy by encouraging local projects like wind turbines.
But one company’s plan to build windmills in waters off the coast is running into trouble this session in the General Assembly, where lawmakers worry about giving their economic support to a project that isn’t exactly local.
The proposed project would be built off the coast of Virginia Beach — close by, but technically outside Maryland waters.
February 28, 2024 — “As a member of this community, we believe it’s important to do what we can to help it thrive,” Sopko said. However, she added, “Ocean City’s position on community benefits has no impact on our project plans.”
US Wind holds the lease for an 80,000 acre area with a total capacity of around 2.2 GW around ten miles off the coast of Ocean City, where it plans to develop multiple projects as part of its Maryland Offshore Wind Project plan — including the 300 MW MarWin and 800 MW Momentum Wind projects, which have secured offshore renewable energy certificates from the state.
Meehan has for some time opposed the development of offshore wind off the coast of Ocean City. Throughout 2023, he warned about the potential impact of offshore wind development on tourism, and joined calls for a moratorium on development after a dead whale washed up on Assateague Island.
Read the full article at Utility Dive
February 15, 2024 — Renewable energy advocates have vowed to double down next year on legislation designed to enable competition with Dominion Energy on offshore wind projects serving Virginia.
A legislative committee unanimously tabled a proposal to let private developers compete with the utility on offshore wind procurement. The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee’s late January decision to push Senate Bill 578 onto the 2025 agenda followed intense lobbying from Dominion Energy to protect its monopoly.
Evan Vaughan, executive director of the Maryland-based Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition Action (MAREC), was among the disappointed.
“We … will continue to advocate for competition as the best way for Virginia consumers to achieve a strong and cost-effective offshore wind industry,” Vaughan said in an interview.
February 7, 2024 — Stung by news that one of the two companies that was planning to install wind energy turbines off the coast of Ocean City is reassessing its projects, House leaders are drafting legislation designed to shore up the state’s offshore wind industry.
House Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) and Vice Chair Brian M. Crosby (D-St. Mary’s) will introduce a bill later this week to buttress USWind, the one company fully committed to building wind installations in federal waters near Maryland, and encourage more players to enter the marketplace.
“If you want to be a good partner and move in the direction that Maryland wants to move in, we want to help,” Wilson said in an interview Tuesday.
The state has ambitious goals to generate 8.5 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power almost 3 million homes, from offshore wind sources by 2031. But late last month, Ørsted, one of two companies that had won leases to build wind farms off the coast, announced it was “repositioning” its plans, pulling out of its agreement with the state and seeking alternative financing.
Although Ørsted is the biggest developer of offshore wind in the world, and was an early entrant into the still developing U.S. market, some of its American projects have struggled of late, due in part to inflation and worldwide supply chain issues for the industry. Last fall, the company abandoned two proposed developments off the New Jersey coast altogether.
That was a warning signal to Wilson, whose committee moved complicated legislation last year to expand the offshore wind industry in Maryland.
“We saw the writing on the wall when Ørsted pulled out of the New Jersey projects,” he said.
January 29, 2024 — Ørsted is continuing with its efforts to realign its U.S. offshore wind portfolio while also taking steps to emphasize that it remains committed to the market and sees future opportunities. The U.S. division of the Danish offshore developer however announced that it has walked away from existing power agreements in New York and now Maryland positioning the projects for future offtake opportunities.
Plans for Skipjack Wind, a two-phase project with the potential for 966 MW of energy, were setback as the company reported it will withdraw from existing power agreements with the Maryland Public Service Commission agreed to in 2020 and 2021. The company said it determined that the payment amounts outlined in the orders “are no longer commercially viable,” while again citing market conditions, including inflation, high interest rates, and supply chain constraints.
According to Ørsted, the decision to withdraw from the orders with Maryland will “reposition Skipjack Wind for future offtake opportunities.” It is unclear then they might be able to rebid these projects.
Unlike its decision in November 2023 to end two New Jersey offshore wind projects, Ørsted intends to continue advancing development and permitting for the two phases of Skipjack. The company is submitting an updated Construction and Operations Plan for the wind farms to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for review.
January 26, 2024 — Maryland’s nascent offshore wind energy industry suffered a major blow late Thursday when one of the two companies planning to install wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City announced that it was “repositioning” its plans, pulling out of its agreement with the state and seeking alternative financial arrangements to keep the project going.
Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind, emphasized that it was still committed to building its project in federal waters, but said it was opting out of the agreement it had reached with the Maryland Public Service Commission for financial clean energy credits intended to help fund the development. The company said that while it would still seek permits for the proposed wind farm from the federal government, and would continue to develop construction and operations plans for Maryland, the current financial realties of the offshore wind industry made it impossible to continue under the present arrangement.
A statement Ørsted issued late Thursday said the projected revenue from the state’s clean energy credits, which cap what the company can charge ratepayers for its wind power, is “no longer commercially viable because of today’s challenging market conditions, including inflation, high interest rates and supply chain constraints.”
Through two separate but adjacent leases known as Skipjack 1 and Skipjack 2 that had won state approval, Ørsted is ticketed to provide 966 megawatts of wind energy beginning later this decade. A company executive said Ørsted was determined to work with state officials, potential investors and other stakeholders in an effort to find a better way to finance and save the project.
January 10, 2024 — For decades, the rivers and shores surrounding the Chesapeake Bay have slowly been taken over by an invasive species – the blue catfish, otherwise known as Ictalurus furcatus.
The U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia, which border the bay, have had to deal with the species ever since anglers introduced it to Virginia’s waters in the hopes of establishing it as a fun and challenging fish to catch. Unfortunately, for all the other animals living in the bay – including important commercial species like blue crab, oysters, and rockfish – bay turned out to be the perfect habitat for the invasive blue catfish, which began to multiply exponentially in the decades following the initial release.
January 8, 2024 — Blue catfish and other nonnative species may be gobbling up blue crabs and wreaking havoc on other Chesapeake Bay fisheries, but that doesn’t qualify for federal disaster assistance.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service has rejected Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s petition asking the agency to declare a federal fishery disaster because of the “explosion” of blue catfish, flathead catfish and northern snakeheads in the Bay.
In the petition submitted in March, Moore said scientists have been seeing “disturbing trends” of declines in crabs, striped bass and five other commercial fish since 2012, when blue catfish began to move into Maryland.
Read the full article at the Bay Journal
January 7, 2024 — U.S. senators are lining up behind legislation that would exempt seafood processors from the nation’s annual cap on H-2B temporary worker visas.
The seafood processing sector depends on foreign workers to meet seasonal demands. The Maryland crab industry, for example, brings in 500 workers annually via the H-2B program during the crab season.
“For years, the struggle to hire seasonal workers has put an incredible strain on America’s seafood industry,” U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) said in a statement. “The chronic worker shortage has put seafood and crab businesses, particularly those on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, at risk of permanent damage.”
Under the status quo, seafood processors must compete against other industries dependent on foreign labor in the visa lottery, introducing a high level of uncertainty as they attempt to fill out their workforce. The federal government has regularly issued additional visas beyond the statutory cap, but seafood companies still say it’s difficult to secure enough workers through the program.