Saving Seafood

Vineyard Wind says it will carry on amid new review

August 16, 2019 — Offshore energy develop Vineyard Wind backpedaled this week from its earlier warnings, saying it intends to carry forward with plans for building 84 turbines in New England waters, even as a revised environmental review raises more questions about its future.

“Company shareholders have affirmed a commitment to deliver a proposed 800-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, albeit with a delayed project schedule,” Vineyard Wind announced in statement days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would undertake a sweeping reassessment of environmental impacts.

That assurance stood in contrast to the earlier reaction from Vineyard Wind, when company officials learned BOEM would not be finalizing an environmental impact statement as they had hoped for by mid-July.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fisheries Survival Fund Supports Department of Interior Commitment to Scientific Review of Wind Farm Projects

August 16, 2019 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) supports recent efforts by the Department of the Interior to ensure that planned offshore wind developments receive a thorough environmental review, as required by law. We appreciate that President Trump and his Administration, and specifically Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, have chosen to require that major offshore renewable energy development is based on sound science and takes the needs and interests of existing, historic coastal communities into account. Recognizing that major offshore wind development projects — especially when so many are being planned all at once— fundamentally alter the ocean environment is sound policy and the right thing to do.

FSF has consistently stated that any offshore wind development needs to properly consider how new development affects exiting ocean users. This includes scallopers and all other fishermen, who rely on key fishing grounds that will be disrupted by new wind farms, as well as other ocean users who rely on these areas for transit.

Any prospective wind farm needs to properly account for the environmental impacts it would have on marine life and marine habitats, and the economic impacts it would have on fishermen and others relying on the areas. Only then can the benefits of any project be accurately assessed against the costs, and possible damages successfully mitigated.

Recent steps by the Department of the Interior closely follow our advice. In requiring a proper environmental review of existing wind farm proposals, the Department is holding the wind power industry to the same standards the fishing industry is whenever it implements a fishery management plan. To be clear, the Department is not imposing new or unique burdens. Rather, it is assuring that existing standards are met and proper procedures are followed. We are a nation governed by laws that apply to all, including renewable energy projects.

FSF still believes that it is possible for wind power and fisheries to coexist. But this coexistence can’t happen without an honest and complete understanding of how this new industry will change our environment. We thank Secretary Bernhardt for his active engagement and thoughtful deliberation on this issue.

Feds’ delay puts crucial tax credit in jeopardy for Vineyard Wind

August 15, 2019 — With the federal tax credit for offshore wind projects about to expire, every day counts.

So you can understand the concern around town when it became clear the country’s first major offshore wind farm would likely miss a crucial deadline for the tax credit, a key element in the project’s financing. The reason? The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it needs more time to review Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, to properly weigh the cumulative impacts of similar offshore projects in the pipeline.

As a result, developer Vineyard Wind on Monday said it would revise its $2.8 billion project, with a delayed schedule. The vague statement from the developer, a Massachusetts venture owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, didn’t say much. But these revisions likely mean one thing: Construction on the 800-megawatt project planned for waters south of Martha’s Vineyard would no longer start in time to deliver electricity by the end of 2021.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Sens. Warren And Markey Speak Out Against Vineyard Wind Decision

August 15, 2019 — U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, both D-Mass., are speaking out against the recent federal decision to delay Vineyard Wind’s offshore project, proposed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) decided to delay the publication of Vineyard Wind’s final environmental impact statement and, instead, initiate a supplemental draft environmental impact statement process.

“The Trump administration’s last-minute decision to delay approval of a major offshore wind energy project is extremely disappointing,” states Warren. “The Vineyard Wind project – which is projected to create thousands of jobs and generate clean energy for over 400,000 families and businesses across the commonwealth – would save money for Massachusetts ratepayers, reduce carbon emissions by over 1.6 tons per year and help the commonwealth reach its clean energy targets by 2035.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

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

Vineyard Wind awaiting supplement to draft report

August 14, 2019 — A supplement to the Vineyard Wind draft environmental impact statement will be written by early next year, if not sooner, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The bureau updated its website Tuesday with more details following the news announced last week that it intends to delay issuing a final statement for the offshore wind development company’s construction and operations plan. The federal agency will have a public comment period for the supplemental statement, and hold public meetings during the comment period.

The bureau will consult with the Office of Management and Budget on potential permitting delays beyond the two-year requirement under a presidential order from 2017 requiring timely environmental reviews and authorization decisions for major infrastructure projects.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Vineyard Wind review could extend into 2020

August 14, 2019 — With a critical permit for the Vineyard Wind project on hold so the federal government can launch a new study of the burgeoning offshore wind industry and its potential consequences, the agency conducting that study said Tuesday its review could stretch into 2020.

The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Tuesday put more detail to a plan it first announced Friday, when it sent shockwaves through the industry with its plan to hold off on developing the final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind while it studies the wider impacts of an offshore wind industry that is hoping to quickly ramp up along the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastline.

BOEM laid out its process on Tuesday for the additional review, which will take the form of a supplement to Vineyard Wind’s 2018 draft environmental impact statement, and indicated that the final environmental impact statement is unlikely to come until 2020 — well after project developers had hoped to begin construction.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

Environmental Groups, Fishermen Divided On Trump Administration’s Delay Of Offshore Wind Project

August 14, 2019 — The Interior Department is ordering further analysis of the Vineyard Wind project’s impact on commercial fishing as well as a study of the industry’s cumulative impacts on the environment.

New England commercial fishermen have applauded the decision saying the project has been moving too fast and hasn’t addressed their concerns about fish displacement and navigational safety.

Scallop fisherman Eric Hansen in New Bedford, MA says the industry has been expressing its issues with the Vineyard Wind project for years. He’s pleased the federal government is finally listening.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Carlos Rafael settles Coast Guard oil violations; feds auction boats

August 14, 2019 — Carlos Rafael, the longtime New Bedford industry figure now serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison, settled water pollution complaints for $511,000 in civil penalties, as the U.S. Marshals Service offered two of his boats at auction.

Rafael, manager Stephanie Rafael DeMello, and captain Carlos Pereira agreed to the penalty and making improvements to the Vila Nova do Corvo II. The Coast Guard charged that the vessel discharged oily bilge waste overboard at sea while harvesting scallops and that its used fuel filters were likewise dumped over the side.

Rafael pleaded guilty to falsifying landing reports, fish labeling and other records, tax evasion and cash smuggling. He was arrested in February 2016 after federal investigators, posing as Russian immigrants with sketchy organized crime connections, recorded Rafael bragging about how he routinely faked landing reports and fish tickets to evade quota limits.

In the original sentencing, Rafael had been ordered to forfeit four vessels to the government, but a final settlement allowed two of those, the Bulldog and Southern Crusader II, to be released to his wife Conceicao Rafael and other New Bedford fishermen in shared ownership.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Vineyard Wind CEO says company remains committed to project

August 13, 2019 — Vineyard Wind is committed to building the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm off the Massachusetts coast despite a decision by federal regulators to delay issuing a key environmental impact statement, company CEO Lars Pedersen said Monday.

But the company will have to push back its deadline for the 800-megawatt project, Pedersen said.

“We are very proud of the Vineyard Wind team’s achievements so far and we are disappointed not to deliver the project on the timeline we had anticipated,” Pedersen said in a written statement. “We were less than four months away from launching a new industry in the United States.”

More than 50 U.S. companies have been awarded a contract or are currently bidding on contracts associated with the 84-turbine wind farm, Pedersen said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press