Saving Seafood

New Bedford says wind boundary changes just a start

January 18, 2022 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made minor boundary adjustments in its New York Bight wind lease areas to reduce conflicts with the scallop fleet. That’s just a small start toward reducing the impact of wind development on the nation’s seafood industry, New Bedford port officials say.

The 480,000-acre wind lease offering – the first of the Biden administration and biggest to date – has brought on a wave of proposals, from both the fishing and wind power industries, for how they could co-exist.

Six lease areas outlined by BOEM in a final offering notice Jan. 12 include a westward shift of 2.5 miles to the Hudson South wind energy area, and a reduction of the so-called Central Bight area. The modest adjustment responds to requests last year from the scallop industry and the East Coast’s highest-earning fishing port – now also a base for offshore wind developers.

It could be a baby step toward better avoidance of conflicts between the Biden administration’s aggressive push to open more ocean spaces to wind energy development, and urgent warnings from the fishing industry and some ocean environmental advocates that regulators need to build more foresight and safeguards into the permitting process.

Those tweaks in the New York Bight auction plan came as a surprise, said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.

“We didn’t know that had happened until we actually dug into it,” said Mitchell, who wrote to BOEM during 2021 in support of the Fisheries Survival Fund recommendation to move the southwest boundary of Hudson South by five miles, aimed at giving a buffer zone between turbine arrays and scallop grounds.

The Fisheries Survival Fund and Responsible Offshore Development Alliance – both well-established coalitions of fishing interests – presented highly detailed recommendations to BOEM for dealing with those issues. The American Clean Power Association, an influential group in the renewable energy sector, likewise came out with its own proposals.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Atlantic Sea Scallop Group Pushes BOEM to Create Plan for Fisheries and Wind to Prosper

January 14, 2022 — The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), a group that represents the majority of Atlantic sea scallop fishermen called on federal regulators to create an “adaptive and proactive mitigation plan” that will allow both fisheries and the offshore wind industry to thrive.

The FSF’s public comments follow the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)’s announcement that it will conduct a wind lease auction for 480,000 acres of ocean in the New York Bight area of the Atlantic.

“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” FSF wrote. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

BOEM to offer six New York Bight wind leases in Feb. 23 auction

January 13, 2022 — The Biden administration announced plans Wednesday to auction more than 480,000 acres in the New York Bight for six new offshore wind energy leases, the administration’s first wind sale and the largest lease area ever offered, with a potential build-out capacity up to 7 gigawatts.

In a joint announcement with governors of New York and New Jersey, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the “administration has made tackling the climate crisis a centerpiece of our agenda, and offshore wind opportunities like the New York Bight present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fight climate change and create good-paying, union jobs in the United States. We are at an inflection point for domestic offshore wind energy development. We must seize this moment – and we must do it together.”

Commercial fishing advocates stressed that BOEM needs to make a priority of avoiding and mitigating negative impacts their industry and the nation’s seafood supply.

The waters between New York and New Jersey are some of the most productive on the East Coast and account for much of the sea scallop harvest, valued at $746 million in 2019, according to the Fisheries Survival Fund.

In comments submitted to the agency, the group called on BOEM “to create an ‘adaptive and proactive mitigation plan’ that will allow both fisheries and offshore wind to prosper.”

“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” according to a statement from the Fisheries Survival Fund. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Nation’s Leading Fishing Port Reacts to Federal Announcement of Offshore Wind Leasing in New York Waters

January 13, 2022 — The following was released by the City of New Bedford:

The Port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the center of the East Coast commercial fishing industry, is offering mixed reaction to the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management’s (BOEM) announcement Wednesday that the agency will conduct a wind energy lease auction for six areas totaling 480,000 acres of the New York Bight in February.
 
The New Bedford fishing fleet–the nation’s top-grossing fleet–relies heavily on the fishing grounds of the New York Bight for its success.  Given the importance of the Bight, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and the New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) have been actively engaged with BOEM regarding the development of the Bight for offshore wind energy projects.
 
In an April 2021 letter to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, Mayor Mitchell, as Chairman of the Port Authority, recommended changes in the configuration of the proposed Bight lease areas to help reduce the impact on the Atlantic sea scallop industry and other fish species principally landed in New Bedford.
 
Specifically, the Mayor called for the southeastern boundary of the Bight’s Hudson South lease area to be shifted 5 miles to the west.  The Mayor’s letter was followed in August 2021 by a second letter further explaining the need for a boundary adjustment.
 
With its announcement yesterday, BOEM responded to the New Bedford requests, agreeing to shift the boundary in question 2.5 miles to the west, as well as reducing the size of another Bight lease area, the so-called “Central Bight” area.
 
Mayor Mitchell commented on yesterday’s developments, “The overarching lesson from yesterday’s announcement is the importance of staying engaged and offering pragmatic solutions that are responsive to the concerns of both wind proponents and fishing interests.  I appreciate the willingness of Director Lefton and the BOEM team to listen and adjust their approach based on the strength of the case we have made to them.”
 
Mitchell added, “This is by no means to say that the Port’s concerns with BOEM’s approach to offshore wind development in the Bight are all addressed.  We will continue to call on BOEM to use the wind project permitting process to minimize the economic impact on commercial fishing, and, equally important, to ensure fishermen are compensated for any economic damages caused by wind project development.”
 
“I can’t emphasize enough how important the fishing industry is to our nation’s food security and how economically important the industry is to state economies of New England.  The federal government should pursue a policy agenda that simultaneously takes into account the economic consequences to fishermen and the economic opportunities from offshore wind energy development.  It’s not an “either/or” proposition.  Federal regulators at BOEM and other agencies must consider both in all their decision-making,” said Mitchell.
 
For its part, New Bedford is uniquely positioned on issues of both economic impact and economic benefit.  The Port is the largest and most profitable seafood port on the East Coast and also has the distinction of being home to the nation’s only purpose-built offshore wind staging facility, the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.  The nation’s first industrial-scale offshore wind project, Vineyard Wind, will begin staging from the Commerce Terminal in 2023.
 
Advocating for an effective mitigation strategy is part of the Port’s commitment to ensuring that offshore wind advances in ways that safeguard the viability of our commercial fishing industry.  Of particular concern to the Port is BOEM’s mitigation approach, which remains limited to consideration of environmental impacts.  The Port’s position is that wind project mitigation plans need to consider economic impacts, given the size of the fishing industry:  Thirty percent of the nation’s $5.5 billion seafood industry is landed in the Northeast, with seafood landings in the Port of New Bedford itself worth $450 million annually. In New Bedford, the scallop fishery alone is responsible for $300 million in annual landings.
 
A 2019 economic impact study of the Port of New Bedford conducted by Martin Associates and Foth-CLE Engineering Group determined that the regional seafood industry’s economic contribution comprises 39,000 jobs, $11 billion in local economic impact, $162 million in direct state taxes and $391 million in direct federal taxes.
 
Mitigation efforts also need to acknowledge that economic disruptions to commercial fisheries from wind farms will be felt across multiple states, not just those whose waters will host wind projects.  While wind projects may be built off the coast of New York and New Jersey, their impacts will not be limited to those states.  Large volumes of sea scallops caught off the coast of New York and New Jersey are landed daily in New Bedford, and fishermen who live in New England regularly fish in federal waters off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. Commercial fishing is an interconnected, region-wide industry, and needs a mitigation plan that is similarly broad in its scope.
 
The Port has therefore advocated for BOEM to take a proactive approach to its fisheries mitigation efforts by establishing definitive minimum standards for the mitigation process and requiring developers to use specific measures and methodologies to mitigate the impacts of offshore wind projects.

 

 

The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind

January 12, 2022 — The US Department of the Interior is scheduled to hold its first offshore wind lease sale this week. The move is important as one of many necessary mechanisms to lower reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate warming levels. As a renewable energy source, turbines blowing in the wind have few effects on the environment. Pervasive in Europe, they reduce the amount of electricity generation from fossil fuels, which results in lower total air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

Not all constituents are in favor of the New York Bight project. The fishing industry is especially in opposition, revisiting their previous contention about the 5 Rhode Island offshore wind turbines in the Block Island Wind Farm. Fast forward to 2022. Within the bight, commercial fishermen fish for scallops, summer flounder, and surf clams, among other species. In a letter sent in April, 2021, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote the Central Bight and Hudson South were established on “significant” scallop fishing grounds. He proposed the removal of a five-mile strip along the eastern boundary of Hudson South to minimize fishery impacts.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), which is a broad membership-based coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing companies committed to improving the compatibility of new offshore development with their businesses, has risen as a main oppositional voice to the New York Bight offshore wind project. The group has argued that fishers should receive compensation for losses caused by turbines in commercial fishing grounds.

For example, the group filed a Petition for Review in the First Circuit US Court of Appeals regarding the Secretary of the Interior’s 2021 decision approving the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind energy project, a 62-turbine project under construction off Martha’s Vineyard.

Read the full story at CleanTechnica

Biden Clean Power Push Hits New York With Offshore Wind Sale

January 12, 2022 — The Biden administration is preparing to sell offshore wind rights near New Jersey and New York, a down-payment on its bid to decarbonize the U.S. power grid and generate renewable electricity from nearly all U.S. coasts.

Under the auction, which could be announced as soon as Wednesday, the U.S. government aims to sell leases to install wind turbines in shallow Atlantic waters between New Jersey and New York’s Long Island, with the potential to generate some 7 gigawatts of carbon-free electricity.

As a sign of the opposition, a conservation group on Monday sued the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, asking a federal court to reverse the agency’s March 2021 decision to recommend five areas for offshore wind projects in the New York Bight.

Save Long Beach Island told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the bureau failed to study the effects the projects would have on the environment. The group also faulted the agency for failing to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine if any wind project would affect North Atlantic right whales or other protected species.

Separately Tuesday, groups representing fishing interests, including the Responsible Offshore Development Association, urged the bureau to take more steps to limit the impacts of offshore wind development, including by developing formal benchmarks to assess projects.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

 

Interior Department Announces Historic Wind Energy Auction Offshore New York and New Jersey

January 12, 2022 — The following was released by the Department of the Interior:

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced today that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a wind auction next month for more than 480,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey, in the area known as the New York Bight. Secretary Haaland was joined by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and Liz Shuler, President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, to highlight what will be the first offshore wind lease sale under the Biden-Harris administration.

The Feb. 23 auction will allow offshore wind developers to bid on six lease areas – the most areas ever offered in a single auction – as described in BOEM’s Final Sale Notice. Leases offered in this sale could result in 5.6 to 7 gigawatts of offshore wind energy, enough to power nearly 2 million homes. As offshore wind technology continues to advance, these areas may have the potential to produce even more clean energy.

“The Biden-Harris administration has made tackling the climate crisis a centerpiece of our agenda, and offshore wind opportunities like the New York Bight present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fight climate change and create good-paying, union jobs in the United States,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “We are at an inflection point for domestic offshore wind energy development. We must seize this moment – and we must do it together.”

On today’s call, the leaders outlined a shared vision for developing a robust offshore wind domestic supply chain that will deliver benefits to residents of New York and New Jersey and the surrounding region, including underserved communities. This collaboration will serve as a model for future engagement and establish the U.S. as a major player in the global offshore wind market.

The Biden-Harris administration’s goal to install 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 is complemented by state offshore wind policies and actions throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Collectively, New York and New Jersey have set the nation’s largest regional offshore wind target of installing over 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035.

“Offshore wind holds the tremendous promise for our future in terms of climate change, economic growth, strengthening our work force, and job creation,” said Governor Murphy. “New Jersey is already committed to creating nearly one-quarter of the nation’s offshore wind-generation market and these transformative projects are proof that climate action can drive investments in infrastructure and manufacturing, while creating good-paying, union jobs. By acting on this this shared vision, we can promote our joint offshore wind goals, and deliver benefits to residents of both states, particularly those in overburdened communities. Together, with this critical cooperation with the Biden-Harris administration and our state partners, we will turn this vision of becoming a leader in the global offshore wind market into a reality.”

“Here in New York, we are already living with the effects of climate change through extreme weather that pose a direct threat to our way of life,” Governor Hochul said. “We must chart an ambitious path toward a cleaner energy economy now more than ever, and today’s milestone further highlights New York’s commitment to reaching it’s offshore wind goals. This effort will require collaboration at all levels, and I applaud the Biden Administration for their action and thank Secretary Haaland and BOEM, as well as New Jersey Governor Murphy, for their partnership as we build on New York’s offshore wind energy development.”

A recent report indicates that the United States’ growing offshore wind industry presents a $109 billion opportunity in revenue to businesses in the supply chain over the next decade.

The New York Bight offshore wind auction will include several innovative lease stipulations designed to promote the development of a robust domestic U.S. supply chain for offshore wind and enhance engagement with Tribes, the commercial fishing industry, other ocean users, and underserved communities. The stipulations will also advance flexibility in transmission planning and make use of project labor agreements throughout the construction of offshore wind projects. Stipulations include incentives to source major components domestically – such as blades, turbines, and foundations – and to enter into project labor agreements to ensure projects are union-built.

To advance the Department’s environmental justice and economic empowerment goals, the Sale Notice also requires lessees to identify Tribes, underserved communities and other ocean users who could be affected by offshore wind development. The Interior Department will hold companies accountable for improving their engagement, communication and transparency with these communities.

These additions are intended to promote offshore wind development in a way that coexists with other ocean uses and protects the ocean environment, while also facilitating our nation’s energy future for generations to come.

BOEM initially asked for information and nominations of commercial interest for 1,735,154 acres in the Bight. Based on the bureau’s review of scientific data, and extensive input from the commercial fishing industry, Tribes, partnering agencies, key stakeholders, and the public, BOEM reduced the acreage by 72% to avoid conflicts with ocean users and minimize environmental impacts. BOEM will continue to engage with stakeholders as the process unfolds.

More information about the auction, lease stipulations, list of qualified bidders for the auction and Interior’s collaboration with New York and New Jersey can be found on BOEM’s website.

Background

The Biden-Harris administration catalyzed the offshore wind industry by announcing the first-ever national offshore wind energy goal, creating a clear vision for the future of this innovative industry. This goal is reinforced by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will make robust investments in sustainable economies, clean energy, and climate resilience.

The Administration has already made significant progress toward creating a pipeline of projects. It has approved the nation’s first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters: the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project (approved on May 11, 2021) and the 130-megawatt South Fork Wind project (approved on November 24, 2021). BOEM expects to review at least 16 plans to construct and operate commercial offshore wind energy facilities by 2025, which would represent more than 22 GW of clean energy for the nation.

In addition, this past fall Secretary Haaland announced a new leasing path forward, which identified up to seven potential lease sales by 2025, including the New York Bight and offshore the Carolinas and California later this year, to be followed by lease sales for the Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of Mexico, and offshore Oregon.

Read the release here

 

Atlantic Sea Scallop Group Calls on BOEM to Ensure “Mutual Prosperity” of Fisheries and Offshore Wind Industries

January 12, 2022 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it will conduct a wind lease auction for 480,000 acres of ocean in the New York Bight area of the Atlantic. In public comments submitted late last week, the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the vast majority of full-time Atlantic sea scallop fishermen, called on federal regulators to create an “adaptive and proactive mitigation plan” that will allow both fisheries and offshore wind to prosper.

“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” FSF wrote. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is the most valuable federally-managed wild-caught fishery in the United States, worth $570 million in ex-vessel value and $746 million in total processed value in 2019. FSF’s comments were sent to BOEM in response to a request for information on offshore wind fisheries mitigation.

Across 15 pages of detailed recommendations, FSF called on BOEM to take a long-term, flexible approach to reducing impacts to scallops, which are extremely sensitive to changes in the ocean environment. This approach should ensure “cohesive and meaningful coordination between fishing communities, developers, state agencies, and federal regulators.” BOEM should also identify high-risk areas to be protected and require baseline surveys to be conducted immediately.

While FSF supports a comprehensive compensation plan that addresses direct and indirect losses to scallop fishermen, the top priority should be avoiding and mitigating such losses from the outset.

FSF wrote that BOEM should “ensure that the fishing community and the fisheries technical community are able to work collaboratively with wind developers.” They urged BOEM to work with the fishery management councils’ technical plan development teams “that are experts in conservation and management of the specific fisheries resources under their jurisdiction.” They noted that facilitated workshops “may be useful if they are interactive and not simply listening sessions,” and expressed concern that “developers conducting mere desktop exercises to simply check a NEPA box are neither sufficient to mitigate impacts comprehensively nor to compensate fisheries fully and accurately.”

The comments also detail the scallop industry’s proactive approach to research and management that has taken scallops from a low point in the 1990s to one of the most lucrative fisheries in the country today. FSF called on offshore wind developers to support scallop research through research grants and access and logistical support for marine scientists.

“Just as scallop fishermen made sacrifices to mitigate their negative impacts on the fishery years ago, FSF’s proposed strategy here may require sacrifices on the part of [offshore wind] developers that want to operate, and will change the ecosystems, in the ocean commons,” FSF wrote.

Read FSF’s full comments on offshore wind fisheries mitigation here.

 

The first offshore wind lease sale under Biden is coming soon. Will the fishing industry intervene?

January 11, 2022 — The Interior Department is expected to greenlight the first offshore wind lease sale under President Biden as soon as this week, a move that would lower the nation’s reliance on the fossil fuels that are dangerously warming the planet.

But the effort has sparked concern from the fishing industry, which contends that towering turbines in the waters off New England could harm fishermen’s catches and livelihoods. It’s the latest sign of tensions between Biden’s ambitious clean-energy agenda and industry interests concerned about its economic impact.

The details: Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is poised to issue a final sale notice for the New York Bight, a nearly 800,000-acre area of the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance has emerged as the fishing industry’s main voice in disputes over offshore wind. The group has argued that fishermen should receive compensation for losses caused by turbines in commercial fishing grounds.

Annie Hawkins, executive director of the alliance, told The Climate 202 that the group remains concerned about offshore wind development in the New York Bight. She said the turbines could prevent fishing altogether if they are spaced less than a mile apart.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Biden admin clears way for N.Y. offshore wind leases

December 17, 2021 — The Biden administration has found that huge arrays of offshore wind turbines off the coast of New York and New Jersey won’t cause significant impacts to the local environment, clearing the way for highly anticipated lease sales.

Issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today, the finding moves the New York Bight closer to being auctioned off to offshore wind developers — a sale that would be the first under President Biden.

Over 7 gigawatts of electricity could be produced in the New York Bight, enough for about 2.6 million homes, according to Interior. That’s close to one-fourth of the offshore wind power that Biden wants to develop across the country by 2030, making it a priority area for the administration.

The wind power would also feed into dense, fossil-fuel-reliant cities located in two states that are hungry for carbon-free electricity to meet their own net-zero goals.

In its finding, BOEM said that selling off as many as 10 commercial and research leases to wind developers in the New York Bight would result in “no significant impacts” to the environment, at least during the phase where developers carry out preconstruction surveys and testing in the lease areas.

Read the full story at E&E News