Saving Seafood

For Vineyard Wind 1, one last hurdle

May 10, 2021 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is close to issuing a record of decision for Vineyard Wind 1. This is the last major step before work on the 62-turbine offshore wind farm project commences. In a statement to The Times, BOEM wrote that a review through the lens of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) is the only thing left before the record of decision can be issued.

“Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) requires federal agencies to consider the effects on historic properties of projects they carry out, assist, fund, permit, license, or approve throughout the country,” the agency stated. “If a federal or federally assisted project has the potential to affect historic properties, a Section 106 review will take place. In this case, the federal undertaking is to approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove the Construction and Operations Plan submitted by Vineyard Wind, LLC, for a wind energy development project southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.”

Among the things beneath the ocean that must be considered in the Section 106 review are shipwrecks and Native American archeological sites.

Read the full story at MV Times

MAINE: Fishermen back proposed offshore wind ban

May 10, 2021 — Fishermen from across the state gave their support last week to a local legislator’s bill that would ban the development of offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

If passed, the bill would prohibit state officials from permitting or approving offshore wind projects along the coast.

The bill, LD 101, was introduced by Rep. William “Billy Bob” Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) who is also a commercial fisherman.

“It is time to put a permanent halt to offshore wind development,” Faulkingham said during a hearing with the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.

Dozens of fishermen submitted testimony and felt that any development of wind turbines off the coast would pose a threat to the livelihoods of lobstermen.

Faulkingham also argued that offshore wind would put marine life at risk, provide poor energy rates and hurt the oceans and Maine’s tourism industry.

“If at some point in the future there’s strong and convincing evidence that this energy would be a worthwhile endeavor to the benefit of the people of Maine, then we could have that debate then,” he said. “But right now this is a science project proposing to turn the Gulf of Maine, her marine life sea mammals (and) ocean bottom into a test tube for the benefit of foreign corporations.”

The ban would only apply to state waters, according to Faulkingham.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Amid negotiations, R.I. fishing industry remains concerned over offshore wind impact, compensation

May 7, 2021 — What is the price of loss of livelihood?

This question is at the center of negotiations between local fishing industry representatives and offshore wind developers. And despite recent efforts to strike a better deal, some local fishermen say no number is high enough to justify the devastation they believe the projects will create for their jobs and industry.

The R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council at the urging of Gov. Daniel J. McKee delayed its approval of the South Fork Wind Farm to give developers Orsted A/S and Eversource Energy more time to reach an agreement with the fishing industry, the Associated Press has reported.

The CRMC through its Ocean Special Area Management Plan gets a say in the federal certification process for wind farm projects within a certain distance of the state coastline. Compensation is intended to offset losses from the construction and operation of the projects to the fishing industry.

The payouts help Rhode Island and Massachusetts fishermen, but there are no such benefits for fishermen in other states, even though many also fish in these areas. Other states also get no say in the federal approval process, unlike Rhode Island.

“Rhode Island holds the keys to the kingdom,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director for the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

NMFS reports right whales increasing use of New England offshore wind areas

May 7, 2021 — Endangered northern right whales that have been arriving earlier in spring and staying longer around Cape Cod have also expanded their presence south and west of Nantucket Shoals, into areas planned for large-scale development of offshore wind power, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists from the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducting surveillance flights spotted 57 fight whales March 30 off southeast New England, in and around wind energy areas that have been leased to developers by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

NMFS officials said those whales included three mother-calf pairs – results from what experts have called the most successful calving season in years for the highly endangered species, with 17 young reported and nine mother-calf pairs sighted in Northeast waters in recent weeks. The entire population was last estimated to number around 366 animals.

Right whales typically appear in Cape Cod Bay during the spring, but in recent years they have been showing up sooner and lingering longer, according to a summary released April 15 by NMFS.

A small portion of the whale population, mostly pregnant females, migrates to waters off Georgia and northern Florida for the winter calving season, according to marine mammal researcher Tim Cole who leads the NEFSC whale survey team.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BOEM presses wind studies, but U.S. projects may lag

May 7, 2021 — As promised, the Biden administration is speeding environmental reviews of East Coast offshore wind projects.

That’s raising alarms among competing interests of the fishing and coastal tourism industries. But even with the worldwide movement toward offshore wind power, its emerging limitations may allow more time for compromises.

Globally, $810 billion could be spent developing offshore wind power by 2030, analysts at Norway-based Rystad Energy predict.

Despite broad federal government support – the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking to have environmental studies underway for as many as 10 projects this year – the U.S. market may see only $70 billion of that investment during the 2020s, Rystad reported.

With offshore wind turbines’ physical size and developers’ ambitions getting bigger, the global demand for large wind turbine installation vessels will make it very expensive to hire foreign-flag WTIVs to cross the Atlantic.

The first U.S.-flag WTIV is under construction for Virginia-based Dominion Energy, whose planners see it not just as a requirement for building their own 2.6-gigawatt offshore project but a long-term merchant vessel enterprise to serve other developers.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Maine fishing interests seek total ban on offshore wind energy

May 6, 2021 — More than 60 commercial fishermen and their supporters testified Tuesday in favor of a bill that would block any attempt to develop offshore wind projects anywhere along the Maine coast.

The bill would prohibit any state agency from permitting or approving any offshore wind energy project regardless of its location. It was introduced by Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, a commercial fisherman, and co-sponsored by eight other Republican lawmakers.

The testimony on L.D. 101 from lobstermen, their families and town officials from fishing communities drew a clear line in the sand: Any offshore wind development, they told told lawmakers on the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, would threaten the very survival of their iconic industry and way of life.

In his testimony, Faulkingham said offshore wind was the worst kind of green energy — calling it up to five times more expensive than market prices, a threat to sea birds and mammals that would eventually take up an area four times larger than Casco Bay and enrich foreign corporations with taxpayer money. Nuclear power and Canadian hydro are better options, he said.

“It is time to put a permanent halt to offshore wind development,” Faulkingham said, calling it “a science project.”

Asked by a fellow lawmaker if his opposition was a case of not-in-my-backyard, Faulkingham said no.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader

Maine lawmakers asked to decide fate of offshore wind power

May 5, 2021 — The complex questions and decisions about offshore wind power for Maine have now been dropped in the laps of the Legislature.

Lawmakers on Tuesday heard two competing bills. One would ban any projects and the other would slow down some of it but keep the one current project moving.

Gov. Janet Mills and environmental groups are strongly supporting offshore wind development as a tool to fight climate change, with more renewable energy. But Maine fishermen say its risking great harm to the lobster industry and other fisheries because of a range of possible environmental impacts, from vibrations disrupting fish and marine mammals to mooring chains damaging the ocean floor and harming marine life here.

There are few scientific studies to prove or disprove those impacts, and fishermen say the risk of moving ahead with those wind turbine projects is simply too great.

“What if it is as bad as we think it is?” asked Jim Wotton of Friendship in a recent interview. “Where will we be then? Is it worth taking a chance on the Gulf of Maine for this?”

Read the full story at News Center Maine

NEW YORK: Energy giant to hold forum with fishermen over cross-Sound cable route

May 5, 2021 — A European energy giant on Wednesday will hold a forum for concerned North Shore fishermen to outline the plan for a power cable route that will extend across the Long Island Sound.

The meeting, which is closed to the media, will address concerns by some fishermen that the route could complicate trap and trawl fishing in the Sound and elsewhere, Newsday has confirmed.

The route, as proposed by Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant, will extend more than 150 miles from windmills in the waters off Massachusetts to an electrical station in Astoria, Queens, traversing the entire Long Island Sound. It will cross over or under a dozen other power or communication cables that have operated in the waters for decades with few problems, Equinor said. Some longtime fishermen acknowledged this, saying the buried cable is unlikely to pose problems. The cables will be buried 4 to 6 feet deep for the entire route, Equinor has said.

Read the full story at Newsday

Washington Governor Inslee Signs Bill Protecting Marine Waters From Seabed Mining

May 4, 2021 — The marine waters off the coast of Washington face an overwhelming number of threats, including industrialization, pollution, warming waters, ocean acidification, and more. Now it appears that the ecosystem and wildlife there will get a reprieve from at least one potential hazard: Governor Jay Inslee (D) signed bipartisan legislation today prohibiting seabed mining for hard minerals, including precious metals, metal-rich sands, and gemstones, within 3 miles of Washington shores. This farsighted measure, introduced Jan. 12 by Democratic state Senators Kevin Van De Wege and Christine Rolfes, protects commercial and recreational fisheries, marine wildlife, and the communities and Tribal Nations that depend on them from the damage such mineral extraction would inflict. The Pew Charitable Trusts thanks the Washington Legislature and Gov. Inslee for their precautionary approach to the issue.

Seabed mining could harm sensitive habitats, for example from dredges destroying corals and sponges or sediment plumes from mining machines injuring salmon and other species. This could in turn hurt communities that depend on fishing, tourism, and cultural resources.

This is not a theoretical problem. The hard minerals found in Washington’s nearshore waters have attracted interest from mining companies for decades. The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has issued exploration and mining leases for iron- and titanium-rich black sands in several areas at the mouth of the Columbia River, including one in the 1960s for a project that spurred construction of a concentrating plant. DNR issued a similar seabed mining lease in the 1980s for an operation off the Long Beach Peninsula that also failed to get off the ground.

Read the full story at Pew Charitable Trusts

Joe Biden’s call for more offshore wind turbines faces stiff headwind from Maine fishermen

May 3, 2021 — Last week, President Joe Biden told federal regulators that to combat global warming, they should speed up the deployment of offshore wind-energy turbines, with the goal of supplying enough to power 10 million homes by the end of this decade.

Maine wind power advocates said that ratifies their argument that the state must get into the game now or get left behind. But the White House directive is also amplifying fears among fishermen that they’re the ones who will be left behind.

Most offshore wind energy projects around the world are sited in relatively shallow waters, where their foundations can easily be driven into the ocean floor. But that won’t work so well off Maine, where the coastal shelf drops abruptly and the strongest, most consistent winds blow over waters that are more than 200 feet deep.

“We could not fix the turbines to the seabed,” said University of Maine engineering professor Habib Dagher, who has worked for more than a decade to design a system that would suit deeper waters.

Inspiration came, Dagher said, after a trip to Europe, where turbine platforms fixed to the seabed are common.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News