Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Board Hears Fishing Industry’s Fears of Wind Project’s Impact

May 3, 2021 — “So far, for the commercial fishing industry, (the offshore) wind (turbine project) does not seem compatible,” said Greg DiDomenico, of Lund’s Fisheries, in Lower Township.

“It does not seem we are going to be able to exist with (the project) in the current size and scale. The impact to the commercial fishing industry will be serious,” he continued.

DiDomenico was one of three industry representatives who voiced concerns for their livelihoods to the Cape May County Board of County Commissioners, at their April 27 caucus.

The others were Jeff Kaelin, of Lund’s Fisheries, and Scot Mackey, of the Garden State Seafood Association.

Their joint concern is for the Ocean Wind Project “farm” to be built by Orsted and Public Service Energy Group (PSEG).

Commissioner Director Gerald Thornton restated his opposition to the proposal that would impact fishing trawlers, due to the spacing of the turbines, and have a land impact by running cables, possibly from an Ocean City beach to the former B.L. England generating station, in Beesley’s Point.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

NEW JERSEY: Ocean City Residents Protest Ørsted’s Offshore Wind Farm

April 29, 2021 — Ocean City residents concerned about the environmental impact of Ørsted’s proposed offshore wind farm held a peaceful protest Tuesday outside of the Cape May County Administration Building in Cape May Court House.

Ørsted plans to install up to 98 turbines offshore about 15 miles southeast of Atlantic City, but the wind farm continues to draw opposition from New Jersey’s southern coastal communities.

Several of the residents who attended the protest came out in support of Save Our Shoreline NJ, a Facebook group with nearly 4,000 members. The administrators of Save Our Shoreline NJ have launched a website and a petition against the proposed wind farm, citing environmental and financial concerns.

Read the full story at Patch.com

The U.S. vs. Atlantic fisheries

April 28, 2021 — In its rush to burnish its green bona fides, the Biden administration is showering billions of dollars of subsidies onto European offshore wind developers, and in the process threatening both the environment and the livelihoods of Atlantic coast commercial fishermen.

The most recent example is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) decision to fast-track offshore leases to wind energy companies in the New York Bight — a 16,000 square mile triangular area off the coast between Long Island and New Jersey, where Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy want to construct at least 18,000 MW of wind. All told, the Biden administration wants to construct 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030, which would require erecting one 850-foot-tall wind turbine virtually every single day for the next decade.

The Atlantic coast contains some of the most productive fisheries in the world. BOEM is supposed to work with fisheries interests to ensure offshore wind development does not adversely affect habitat and the livelihood of fishermen. In fact, in December of last year, the Department of the Interior issued a detailed memo stating that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act prohibits offshore wind approvals if a project would interfere with fishing. But just a few weeks ago, the administration reversed those findings.

Read the full story at The Daily News

NEW JERSEY: Wind opponents back Cape May County position

April 28, 2021 — They could not all go in to the meeting of the Cape May County Commissioners on Tuesday afternoon, but opponents of a planned offshore wind farm knew they were heard when the members of county government came out to them.

About 50 people gathered outside the county administration building on a sunny spring day, most carrying signs in opposition to wind turbines off the New Jersey coast. Ocean Wind, the furthest along of what could be multiple offshore wind projects, would mean 99 turbines placed 15 miles off the coast, powering more than a half-million homes starting in late 2024.

Danish energy giant Ørsted won the state contract for that project. A public comment period by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on the proposal concludes Thursday.

On Tuesday, the county government approved a resolution stating that Ørsted and partner PSEG failed to communicate with the county and raised concerns about the impact of the proposal on tourism and the commercial fishing industry.

At a workshop meeting earlier in the day, board members heard from representatives of the local fishing industry, including Greg DiDomenico of Lund’s Fisheries near the Cape May Inlet. He said he and others involved in commercial fishing wanted to like the wind power project.

But he argued the project does not take the needs of his industry or the safety of those working on commercial fishing vessels into account.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

NEW JERSEY: Peaceful Protesters Air Concerns Over Wind Farms

April 28, 2021 — Jeff Reichle and his son, Wayne, didn’t hold up signs expressing their opposition to a proposed offshore wind farm during a peaceful protest Tuesday outside of the Cape May County Administration Building in Cape May Court House.

But the two men, from Lund Fisheries Inc. in Cape May, along with several of their fellow fishermen and women, are concerned.

They are concerned about their livelihood and what the gigantic wind turbines built in the ocean could mean to marine life and how they could safely navigate the structures and what the project would do to commercial and recreational fishing.

“Our issue is they haven’t reached out to the fishing industry,” said Jeff Reichle, chairman of Lund. “People think you can go fish somewhere else. But that is not the way it is. This is our business. We just don’t know how this will affect us. There are too many unanswered questions.”

Wayne Reichle added, “There is no proof that the wind farm will have a positive impact on fishing, only negative.”

Read the full story at OCNJ Daily

Offshore Wind Agenda Still Has Some Bight

April 27, 2021 — The Biden administration isn’t bowing to all local opposition to offshore wind development (“Railing Against the Wind,” Review & Outlook, April 21). Although the wealthy residents of the Hamptons succeeded in preventing offshore wind farms from spoiling their ocean views, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management intends to sink all opposition to development in the New York-New Jersey Bight, a roughly triangular area bordered by New Jersey and Long Island.

In December 2020, the Interior Department’s Office of the Solicitor issued a detailed ruling that commercial fisheries’ interests must be considered when siting offshore wind. But in March the Biden administration rescinded that ruling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management intends to ignore fisheries’ interests, even though the Bight is home to some of the most productive fisheries in the world and is a migratory route for endangered right whales.

In the end, the fisheries industry and thousands of jobs at risk are no match for Big Wind’s lobbyists, whose European customers stand to reap billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration’s new offshore wind-investment tax credit and the sky-high prices for the intermittent and unreliable power that regulators will force utility customers to buy.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

NEW JERSEY: Long Beach Island Residents Critical of Ocean Wind Project During Scoping Meeting

April 21, 2021 — Long Beach Island residents aired criticisms and concerns about a proposed wind farm off the Atlantic City coast at a scoping meeting held online April 15, as required by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

When the BOEM published its notice of intent to engage in an environmental impact study for Ørsted’s Ocean Wind offshore wind farm, it triggered these so-called scoping meetings in which the public is invited to voice concerns or alternatives to the planned wind farm.

Ørsted, a Danish energy company, is in the process of developing a wind farm to be located 15 miles off Atlantic City on the outer continental shelf that will include 98 turbines on monopoles and generate 1,100 megawatts of wind-generated power, enough to power 500,000 homes.

Ørsted held three online scoping meetings this month and on April 15, Beach Haven Mayor Colleen Lambert and Bob Stern, a representative of the Long Beach Island Coalition for Wind Without Impact, both asked that the Ocean Wind turbines be moved farther out to sea. Lambert asked why the Hudson South call area had been abandoned in favor of a lease much closer to shore when there would be more wind farther out. She expressed concern about the visibility of turbines if they are located nearer to the coast. “The alternative is to impact tourism with a decrease of 40% of revenue if turbines are visible.” She noted that New York has required turbines to be located 17 miles from shore.

Read the full story at The Sand Piper

Ocean Wind project worries New Jersey beach resorts, fishing industry

April 20, 2021 — As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management prepares for an environmental review of the Ocean Wind project off New Jersey, the prospect of seeing wind turbines arise on the horizon is raising alarms in prosperous resort towns.

Politically the state government has been all-in on offshore wind, with $250 million planned for investment in manufacturing at the port of Paulsboro on the Delaware River, and plans for a new port downriver – beyond the air draft limitations of river bridges – to accommodate wind turbine installation vessels.

The Biden administration’s policy imperatives for renewable energy include a dramatic expansion of new wind leasing in the New York Bight. Ocean Wind, a 75/25 percent joint venture of Ørsted and the PSEG utility group, could be sending power ashore in 2024.

The 1,100-megawatt array would be built between 15 and 27 miles offshore on Ørsted’s federal lease east of Atlantic City, with up to 98 turbines feeding power to three offshore substations.

From there, export cables would carry the energy to a couple of once-thriving power plants on New Jersey bay shores: The disused BL England coal plant, considered by state regulators for conversion to natural gas a few years ago, and the obsolete Oyster Creek nuclear generating station, an industry showpiece when it entered operation in the 1960s. Both sites have grid connections to handle the wind-generated power.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW JERSEY: Residents, officials reiterate concerns about wind farm off Atlantic City

April 19, 2021 — Rick Robinson likens the idea of building up to 98 wind turbines on the ocean horizon to placing them on the rim of the Grand Canyon. The Seven Mile Island homeowner was among numerous people who spoke this week at a federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management virtual hearing on a proposed wind farm 15 miles off Atlantic City.

In addition to ruining a magnificent view, the 850-foot turbines will endanger wildlife, scar coastal land, scare away fish, interfere with shipping operations and raise electric bills, according to about 20 speakers in opposition.

Others at the hearing spoke in favor of the Ocean Wind farm. They touted wind energy as a way to bring abundant and clean energy to New Jersey, while helping fight climate change and creating jobs.

“Rather than continue down the path toward catastrophic sea level rise and flooding,” said Hayley Berliner of Environment New Jersey, “we can instead start to mitigate that by replacing our fossil-fuel power with clean, renewable offshore wind power.”

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

N.J. fishing groups worry offshore wind will adversely affect their industry: ‘This is our farmland’

April 19, 2021 — Capt. Hank Lackner docked a 100-foot trawler in Cape May on a recent day after unloading a catch of squid that might end up as calamari on someone’s plate just about anywhere in the United States.

Lackner fears that offshore wind farms coming to the waters off the New Jersey coast in the next few years could threaten his business. Other commercial and recreational anglers, along with the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), a political action organization, share his concerns.

They worry that wind farms with their soaring turbines could disrupt fish habitat, reroute fishing lanes, and force sport anglers farther out to sea.

Lackner, of Montauk, N.Y., believes that the farms will narrow the currently wide-open pathways to the vessel he docks at Cape May so often that he calls it his second home.

“We have no power,” said Jeff Reichle, chairman of Lund’s Fisheries, a processor of scallops and squid in Cape May that employees 300. “We’re being bulldozed here. It’s just being rammed down our throats.”

He also has attended meetings, and concludes the wind industry and its government backers have all the clout.

Reichle said he is not opposed to offshore wind and was part of a group called Fisherman’s Energy that tried to install five turbines a few miles off the coast of Atlantic City. He said that project, had it succeeded, might have generated data that could have shown potential impact on marine life.

Read the full story at The Philadelphia Inquirer