Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Murphy’s ‘Billion Dollar Bailout’ Of Foreign Wind Farm Company Opposed

June 29, 2023 — Senator Ed Durr has voiced his staunch opposition to proposed legislation that seeks to redirect funds of up to $1 billion from ratepayers to a foreign company responsible for constructing a controversial wind farm off the coast of New Jersey. The legislation has raised concerns about the potential burden it may place on New Jersey ratepayers and the company’s alleged failure to adhere to prior agreements.

Durr, a Republican representing the third district, expressed his concerns regarding the current financial obligations imposed on New Jersey ratepayers, who already shoulder increased costs on their electric bills to support the development of offshore wind farms in close proximity to the state’s beaches. As part of the approval process, Ørsted, the foreign company in question, had committed to applying for and subsequently returning any federal tax incentives obtained to offset the higher costs currently being borne by ratepayers for the wind energy initiatives. However, Ørsted’s recent actions have raised doubts about their commitment to honoring this agreement.

Read the full article at Shores News Network

New Jersey: Despite criticism, lawmakers advance big tax win for offshore-wind developer

June 28, 2023 — Ørsted’s bid to obtain lucrative federal tax credits to fend off mounting challenges in building New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm moved forward under legislation approved by lawmakers Tuesday as they cleared bills ahead of this week’s deadline for a new state budget.

But the bill was amended by a Senate committee, requiring its Assembly counterpart to go along with the changes at another meeting planned for Wednesday. The imminent passage was hailed early Tuesday evening by Tim Sullivan, CEO of the Economic Development Authority, who called the offshore-wind sector the biggest single net economic opportunity in New Jersey.

After a six-hour meeting, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee voted out an amended version of the bill despite criticism that it would end up boosting the Danish energy company’s profits at the expense of utility customers.

Read the full article at NJ Spotlight News

Fishing, tourism dominate at Atlantic Shores public hearing

June 27, 2023 — Potential impacts on fishing, property values and tourism loomed large among critics of the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project during a virtual public hearing held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The online proceedings during more than five hours Monday pitted those views against project supporters, who focused on climate change and how it will affect the densely populated New Jersey coastline.

BOEM’s draft environmental assessment for the Atlantic Shores project off Atlantic City runs over 6,000 pages. Opponents are asking the agency to extend a 45-day public comment period past July 3, insisting the public needs more time to understand the proposal and its implications.

With turbines standing 574 feet above sea level at their rotor hubs and 1,047 feet high at the blade tips, the future visual impact – amply illustrated by simulated images in the DEIS document – is alarming seaside homeowners and the tourism industry.

“Frankly, all of us have bought a view,” said homeowner Paul Snyderman. “Everyone living at or near the shore has made an investment.”

BOEM workers said the DEIS document notes alternatives to reduce the visual impacts seen from shore. Removing 31 turbines from the array would move the first visible machines out from 8.7 nautical miles offshore to 12.75 miles, for example. Those options include restricting the height of turbines to 522 feet at the hubs and 932 feet at the blade tips.

The Atlantic Shores plan would cover some 885 acres of natural sandy bottom – habitat for scallops and surf clams – with rock dumped to protect turbine foundations, said Blair Bailey, general counsel for the Port of New Bedford, Mass. New Bedford is the top East Coast port for scallop landings, with Cape May and Barnegat Light, N.J., not far behind.

“No one has any idea what the impact of offshore wind with be on commercial fishing,” said Bailey, citing a joint report by the industry group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, BOEM and NMFS issued in March.

Offshore wind advocates who see unreasonable fears among critics need to understand “the fishermen have a fear of uncertainty,” said Bailey.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Controversial New Jersey Offshore Wind Developer Asking For More Taxpayer Funds

June 27, 2023 — According to a Politico article by Ry Rivard, the Danish wind developer responsible for constructing New Jersey’s first industrial offshore wind farm is seeking additional funds from state taxpayers before proceeding with their project to industrialize the state’s inshore waters.

Rivard reported from a Board of Public Utilities (BPU) meeting, where the five-member board began accepting proposals for new wind farms off the coast of New Jersey. During the meeting, it was revealed that the governor and the wind developer were renegotiating previously agreed-upon terms.

The negotiations between the Murphy administration and Ørsted, the Danish energy giant, have been ongoing to ensure the financial sustainability of the state’s first offshore wind farm. Ørsted is seeking to modify a portion of the 2019 deal made with the BPU, citing factors such as inflation, interest rates, and supply chain challenges. However, the specific details of Ørsted’s requests from the state have not been disclosed publicly. Two BPU commissioners revealed that Ørsted aims to retain federal tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, which could cover up to 40% of construction costs.

Read the full article at Shores News Network

BOEM’s Atlantic Shores public sessions dilute, but don’t deter criticisms

June 24, 2023 — Local groups opposing New Jersey offshore wind projects hoped this week’s public meetings on the Atlantic Shores development would be a platform for voicing their strenuous objections.

But the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first session Wednesday evening in a highway Holiday Inn hotel in Manahawkin, N.J., in the style of an informal informational session, rather than a formal public hearing on its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on Atlantic Shores.

Dozens of visitors, many of them seaside residents from nearby Long Beach Island, made a circuit of poster presentations. Presentations on how turbines will be visible from the beach – and the project’s impact on marine mammals – attracted the most attention.

Some visitors went toe-to-toe debating with BOEM staffers and agency contractors about the DEIS findings. Others, who had hoped for publicly making their cases before an audience, were dismissive of the proceedings.

“Typically BOEM. Totally tone-deaf,” said Greg DiDomenico, a fisheries management specialist with Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, N.J.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: How dead whales became the symbol of a political battle in NJ and elsewhere

June 22, 2023 — Cindy Zipf wears a whale pendant around her neck each day to work at her office at Clean Ocean Action in Long Branch, touching the necklace and worrying that at any moment, another whale will wash onto a beach somewhere in New Jersey.

It was Zipf who first sounded the alarm on Jan. 9, two days after a second humpback whale washed ashore dead in Atlantic City, making it at the time the sixth dead whale in New York and New Jersey since Dec. 1. Zipf held a press conference in Atlantic City calling for President Joe Biden to step in and do an immediate federal investigation and halt offshore wind farm activities. Biden did not answer.

The press event thrusted whales into the crossfires of a contentious, often partisan political debate over the wind farms that re-ignites every time a marine mammal strands. And during this past winter and early spring, an abnormal amount of cetaceans have washed up to roil public opinion one way or the other.

Read the full article at app.

NEW JERSEY: Cape May County to Host Forum in Battle Against Wind Farm

June 22, 2023 — Opponents of a proposed offshore wind energy farm are intensifying their legal, political and public relations campaign against a project they say will create a “superhighway of windmills” in the ocean.

In the latest salvo against the Ocean Wind 1 project, Cape May County will hold an online forum on Saturday to present more arguments against the wind farm planned 15 miles off the South Jersey coast.

Cape May County Commission Director Leonard Desiderio, who is also the Sea Isle City mayor, said in a statement Wednesday that the wind farm forum will be a “factual presentation of our many concerns about the Orsted windmill projects.”

“We believe that the plan to create a superhighway of windmills should be subject to more specific and serious studies to answer the questions about the whale and dolphin deaths and other serious negative environmental and economic impacts that are likely to occur,” he said. “And if those studies show that our losses will be severe, then these windmills should not be built.”

The online forum closely follows the county’s hiring of more law firms to oppose the project in court and also to challenge state and federal regulatory permits needed for the wind farm.

The public is invited to join the livestreamed forum on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. The attendees will learn more about the potential negative impacts of Orsted’s Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects. The link Capewindinfo.com will go live at 10 a.m.

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind foes in New Jersey gathering force legally and politically

June 21, 2023 — Opponents of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey are gathering force legally and politically as they seek to snuff out the nascent industry.

Within the last week, three residents groups sued New Jersey over a key approval of its first planned wind farm; the research arm of Congress agreed to investigate the impact of offshore wind on the environment and other areas; and lawmakers in two counties most heavily impacted by wind farms stepped up their efforts to block the projects.

Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed an appeal Friday in state Superior Court of New Jersey’s determination that the Ocean Wind I project is consistent with state coastal management rules.

The project is New Jersey’s first, and a U.S. subsidiary of Danish wind developer Orsted could begin construction this year if remaining approvals are obtained.

Read the full article at WHYY

NEW JERSEY: Atlantic County commissioners seek offshore wind delay, not moratorium

June 21, 2023 — The Atlantic County Board of Commissioners passed an amended resolution on offshore wind Tuesday, eliminating a request for a moratorium on the new technology and instead supporting a new federal investigation and more public comment time on the Atlantic Shores South project.

“In light of recent events — the announcement of a federal investigation into the impact of offshore wind development … I’d like to offer a few amendments so we don’t muddy the waters,” said Republican Commissioner Richard Dase, one of two sponsors of the resolution.

The board then amended the resolution to remove requests for a moratorium and to instead support a federal investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office into “matters relating to the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development” in the northern Atlantic between Maine and New Jersey

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

NEW JERSEY: N.J. fisheries reeled in $7M in COVID money that may need to be paid back, watchdog says

June 20, 2023 — In the rush to get COVID aid out as fast as possible, about half of the money paid to New Jersey fisheries from CARES Act funding may have been improper and should be recovered, a state watchdog group said Tuesday.

The funds, about $7 million, may have been wrongly paid out by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which administered the program, according to the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC).

The agency said its reviews, and the reviews of an independent integrity monitor, found payments to 37 marine fisheries did not appear to meet program guidelines, OSC in a letter to DEP.

Read the full article at NJ.com