Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm in New Jersey would have 157 turbines and be 8.4 miles from shore

March 18, 2024 — An offshore wind power project proposed for New Jersey would have 157 turbines and be located 8.4 miles (13.5 kilometers) from shore at its closest point, data released by the federal government Friday shows.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it will begin an environmental review Monday of the Atlantic Shores project. It released key details of the project in announcing the environmental review.

New Jersey energy regulators approved Atlantic Shores’ 1,510 megawatt project in 2021. It would generate enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes.

The federal agency said the project’s operations plan proposes two potential export cable corridors that would make landfall in Sea Girt, New Jersey, with a second one either in Asbury Park or in the New York City area, possibly on Staten Island.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

BOEM Advancing Offshore Wind Energy for New Jersey and Gulf of Maine

March 18, 2024 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management mapped out its next two steps in the ongoing efforts to implement the United States’ offshore wind energy program. A day after the U.S. marked the completion of its first large offshore wind farm, the agency overseeing the development process reports it is beginning the environmental review for the 1.5 GW Atlantic Shores North wind farm off New Jersey while the same time has completed the designation of a massive two-million-acre Wind Energy Area in the Gulf of Maine.

“BOEM is continuing to implement the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy agenda, while maintaining a careful approach to prevent, reduce, and address any adverse effects on ocean users and the marine ecosystem,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “As an integral part of our environmental assessments, we will continue to actively solicit feedback from Tribes; federal, state, and local government partners; the fishing community; and the public to help guide our actions.”

The launching of the effort to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Construction and Operation Plan for the Atlantic Shores project marks the twelfth wind energy COP environmental review they have initiated. It is another step toward the goal of 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity in the U.S. by 2030.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Two groups appeal the selection of new offshore wind projects for New Jersey, citing cost

March 11, 2024 — Two homeowners’ groups are challenging New Jersey’s preliminary approval of two new offshore wind power projects, saying they would be unlawfully costly to electricity customers.

Protect Our Coast New Jersey and Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach filed an appeal to the approval Tuesday in state court, saying that power contracts granted to the project developers violate state law.

The state Board of Public Utilities in January chose Attentive Energy LLC and Leading Light Wind LLC to build offshore wind projects.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

NEW JERSEY: Grassroots Groups File Appeal of Offshore Wind Contracts

March 7, 2024 — New Jersey citizens action groups Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach (DBB) and Protect Our Coast New Jersey (POCNJ) filed notices of appeal on Tuesday against the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) in the state Appellate Court.

The appeals challenge the legality of two recent NJBPU Orders granting Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) contracts to offshore wind project developers Attentive Energy LLC and Leading Light Wind LLC, according to a news release.

The contracts entitle Attentive Energy and Leading Light Wind to receive payments averaging more than 15 cents/kwh for 3742 MW of power over 20 years, compared with the 6 cents/kwh wholesale price of power available to state utilities.

The organizations supporting the appeal are represented by attorney Bruce I. Afran of Princeton.

The BPU has conducted its solicitations and award of contracts to offshore wind developers in secrecy with no opportunity for public involvement until they issue a final order. Even then the basis for its decision is hidden from public view with the most critical information redacted from the public record, the release says.

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

NEW JERSEY: Better days ahead for offshore wind, advocates argue

February 26, 2024 — New Jersey’s offshore wind industry is beginning to see brighter prospects ahead, after stumbling through a series of setbacks over the past several months.

On Halloween, clean-energy advocates were stunned when Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind projects, abruptly walked away from its state-backed plan to build two wind farms off the New Jersey coast.

The decision came after a few brutal months for the offshore wind industry. Dead whales, dolphins and seals washed ashore on beaches. Critics blamed vessels working to prepare sites for offshore-wind installations for their deaths. The pandemic crashed the sector’s supply chain, pushed borrowing costs much higher and sparked the steepest inflation in years. Critics argued the projects were too costly for customers.

Earlier this month, Ørsted announced it was also pulling out of projects in Norway, Portugal and Spain, once again citing supply-chain disruptions and high interest rates.

Read the full article at New Jersey Spotlight News

NEW JERSEY: Federal Agency Under Fire Over Offshore Wind Study

February 22, 2024 — Reacting to concerns that New Jerseyans have not been given enough time to review and comment on federal plans for offshore wind projects off the New York/ New Jersey shoreline, the nonprofit environmental group Clean Ocean Action held a public forum in Long Branch Feb. 20 to provide citizens with an opportunity to review and comment on the federal proposal.

Many residents, groups and activists are up in arms with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees the development of offshore energy projects.

On Jan. 12, the agency released a 1,400-page environmental review of future offshore wind development off of the New Jersey/New York shore. However, residents were only given until Feb. 26, or 45 days, to review and provide public comment on the document.

“That’s really not enough time,” said Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf.

According to Zipf, the BOEM also did not provide residents an opportunity to be seen and heard in a “traditional” public forum.

“We are very, very concerned that the citizens whose livelihoods, whose quality of life, whose environment (will be impacted) will not face the deciders, the decision makers,” Zipf said.

The report, titled Draft Environmental Review of Future Development of Wind Lease Areas Offshore New York and New Jersey, assesses the potential biological, socioeconomic, physical and cultural impacts that could result from development activities for six commercial wind energy leases in an area off the New Jersey and New York shores known as the New York Bight. These six projects would span 488,000 acres of ocean off the Jersey Shore.

Read the full article at The Two River Times

NEW JERSEY: Six offshore wind turbine sites planned off Barnegat Light, draw large crowd to Toms River

February 10, 2024 — A plan to place wind turbine farms in six areas of ocean off the Jersey Shore brought a crowd to the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on Thursday, where the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management fielded questions and concerns.

Federal personnel met with more than 100 offshore wind supporters, critics and curious residents over a plan to develop an area of the Atlantic known as the New York Bight.

Combined, the six lease areas in the New York Bight cover 488,201 acres and have the potential to power nearly 2 million homes, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM.

At its closest approach, the easternmost of the six project areas is 27 nautical miles (about 31 miles) from Barnegat Light.

Read the full article at app.

Feds’ plan aims to help whales and offshore wind farms coexist

January 31, 2024 — In the midst of the critical North Atlantic Right Whale calving season along the East Coast, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) unveiled a strategy to navigate the intersection of offshore wind projects and the endangered species’ habitat.

Marine mammal advocates welcomed a final joint federal strategy to save the whales and develop offshore wind where the two might collide. It stresses teamwork, research, strict monitoring and mitigation. That includes also avoiding leasing in areas where major impacts to North Atlantic Right Whales may occur.

“We believe that we can recover North Atlantic Right Whales and support responsibly developed offshore wind,” said Gib Brogan of Oceana. “But it puts a burden on the federal government to make sure that that balance happens.”

Read the full article at NJ Spotlight News

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind foes welcome push to site projects further off NJ coast

January 31, 2024 — One of the more vocal opponents of the state’s offshore wind program is praising last week’s decision to build two wind farms because, at more than 40 miles off the Jersey coast, they will be out of sight.

“We think it is a step in the right direction,’’ said Bob Stern, president of Save Long Beach Island, a group that had gone to court to block the initial offshore wind projects nearer to the coast, referring to the two new projects approved by the state Board of Public Utilities.

Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy got the go-ahead to build a total of 3,742 megawatts of offshore wind capacity, enough to power 1.8 million homes when the wind turbines become operational in 2030 or 2031.

Read the full article at New Jersey Spotlight News

Feds look to release plan to protect right whales while expanding wind power

January 29, 2024 — With whale deaths and offshore wind power now firmly connected in many minds along the Jersey Shore, federal officials released a strategy to protect one of the most endangered species while developing wind power off the coast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under the U.S. Department of the Interior, on Thursday released a final joint strategy aimed at helping the North Atlantic right whale recover while also developing offshore wind energy, citing a Biden administration goal of increasing wind energy development.

The North Atlantic right whale, weighing multiple tons and growing to be more than 50 feet long, is considered to be at the brink of extinction.

According to federal studies, only about 360 of the animals are left in the world, and of those, fewer than 70 are reproductively active females.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City