Saving Seafood

BILL STRAUS: Fishing industry could be endangered by planned wind turbines

January 4, 2019 — Whatever the future for large scale off-shore wind farms in New England, New Bedford and its first in the nation fishing industry will feel the effects. Renewable energy from sources which include off-shore wind, are an undeniable part of our future. It’s a fair question though whether commercial fishing as it now exists in southern New England, will survive the installation of the largest and most extensive array of ocean based wind turbines in the world. The offshore wind lease areas in federal waters overlay some important fishing grounds and navigation transit areas for the commercial fishing fleet which sails from our coast.

The project furthest along in the leasing process is being pursued by Vineyard Wind, which hopes to have all its approvals by the summer of 2019 and begin construction later in the year. Critical decisions are about to made at the state and federal levels regarding the design, spacing and layout of the initial turbines which are planned for the waters near Martha’s Vineyard. This process involves the filing of reports which are public and provide opportunities for comment and reactions. The Draft Environmental Impact Report before the lead federal agency involved, BOEM, is open for public comment through Jan. 21, 2019 and there are parallel state agency filings as well. The public has a responsibility to participate in shaping the decisions that are going to be made and monitor the filings as they are announced.

It’s a lot to expect that the fishing industry alone can handle the needed public oversight. Off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coast alone there are seven different lease areas under review totaling about 1 million acres; their ultimate design configuration will be the first test of how seriously marine resource, safety and navigation issues involving the wind towers will be handled by the government agencies involved. The first maps and plans to be approved are especially important because how those turbines are set up and reviewed by the government will likely set a precedent for how the process is run for the additional lease areas sought by other developers. In other words, there’s a lot at stake not only for the developers, but importantly, the public interest in preserving ocean habitat and the existing ocean-going economy of New England.

Read the opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Governors, attorneys general join fight against seismic testing

December 28, 2018 — North Carolina’s Attorney General Josh Stein, along with attorneys general from Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Virginia and New York have moved to take their own action stop the proposed use of airguns to survey the Atlantic Ocean floor for oil and gas.

“North Carolina’s beautiful coastline supports tens of thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity,” said Stein in a statement. “That is why I am fighting this move to take our state one step closer to offshore drilling. I will continue to do everything in my power to protect our state’s coast.”

A lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, and federal officials was filed last week in South Carolina by a coalition of local and national non-governmental organizations.

“In moving to intervene on the side of the organizations, the attorneys general are seeking to file their own complaint on behalf of their respective states,” according to the announcement.

The seismic testing surveys is one step closer to allowing offshore drilling, “An action that would result in severe and potentially irreparable harm to our coastline and its critically important tourism and fishing economy,” the release continued.

Five private companies applied in 2014 and 2015 to the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, for permits to use air guns for seismic testing to search for oil and gas on the Atlantic Ocean floor.

Read the full story at The Outer Banks Voice

Mass. AG sues to protect fishing, wildlife from offshore oil and gas exploration tests

December 27, 2018 — Attorney General Maura Healey Thursday joined a multistate lawsuit against U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to put an end to a plan that allows harmful seismic testing for offshore oil and gas resources in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a news release from Healey’s office, the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, joins a challenge by environmental groups last week against Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) recently issued by NMFS that permit five private companies to harm marine wildlife in connection with seismic testing for offshore oil and gas exploration in the Mid- and South-Atlantic Ocean. Healey’s office said the action reflects her longstanding opposition to the Trump Administration’s plan to open up nearly all currently restricted ocean areas — including federal waters off the Massachusetts coast — to oil and gas drilling.

Healey announced the multistate lawsuit at the New England Aquarium alongside aquarium officials, fishing industry representatives, business community leaders, and environmental advocates.

“Approving these blasting tests paves the way for the Trump Administration to open up the Atlantic coast to drilling and poses a severe threat to our coastal communities, our fishing industry, and the health of the ocean,” said Healey, in the release. “Today we are suing to stop this reckless plan that allows the oil and gas industry to destroy fishing families, local businesses, and marine life.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind, Regulators Holding Public Comment Periods in January

December 21, 2018 — Federal and state regulators are again holding public comment periods for the proposed offshore wind development off the coast of Massachusetts known as Vineyard Wind.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) establishing a preliminary assessment of the impact of the project.

The Bureau is accepting public comment on the DEIS until January 22.

Massachusetts is engaged in its review of state portions of the project and will be accepting comment through the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) review.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Public Aquariums Join in Opposition to Seismic Blasting Along Atlantic Coast

December 21, 2018 — A coalition of major public aquariums have announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits allowing for repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas.

The New England Aquarium says that marine scientists are concerned that the prolonged and extreme noise pollution introduced into already highly stressed ocean environments will disturb marine life from tiny plankton to commercially valuable fish stocks to giant whales.

The Boston-based marine conservation organization has joined the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, the North Carolina Aquariums and the New York Aquarium and parent Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in opposition to NOAA’s recent affirmation of the sound blasting program from Delaware to Florida.

“We do know that there are a range of effects from severe lethal mortality in a number of species as well as sub-lethal effects that effect the ability of animals to communicate with each other and find prey, which can essentially result in larger ecosystem effects,” said Mystic Aquarium’s Senior Researcher, Peter Auster.

“This is ultimately a decision about balancing the desire for exploration and finding new oil and gas deposits with our obligation as stewards of the environment. We just think that the decision that was made doesn’t consider all the risks and we hope that this garners greater scrutiny of the decision and then potentially other decisions down the road.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

East Coast states sue to challenge Trump’s offshore oil move

December 21, 2018 — Nine states along the East Coast have joined a lawsuit challenging a key move by the Trump administration that could allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The states’ Democratic attorneys general are objecting both to the possible harm to marine life from the administration-approved seismic testing and to the potential offshore drilling that could result from the testing.

The states filed a motion to join a lawsuit environmental groups filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

“Seismic testing will have dangerous consequences for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including endangered species,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who is leading the multistate effort, said in a statement Thursday.

“While the administration continues to place the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of our precious natural resources, attorneys general up and down the Atlantic coast will continue to fight these and other efforts to open the waters off our shores to drilling for oil and gas.”

Frosh announced his lawsuit at Baltimore’s National Aquarium in an effort to highlight what he says would be the damage to marine life from both the testing and any drilling.

Read the full story at The Hill

Vineyard Wind Submits Final Environmental Impact Report To Massachusetts

December 20, 2018 — Massachusetts offshore wind developer Vineyard Wind has submitted a final environmental impact report (FEIR) to the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recently issued a notice of availability for the project’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). According to the developer, both these steps move the project closer to approval of environmental permitting by state and federal officials. Endorsement of the FEIR will be the final step in the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review process, which includes a focus on cables connecting the proposed 800 MW project in federal waters to the grid connection point in Barnstable, Mass.

BOEM prepared the DEIS as part of the agency’s review of the entire Vineyard Wind project, which will be constructed 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The report provides an analysis of potential environmental impacts associated with proposed actions as set forth in the construction and operations plan, submitted to BOEM in 2017.

According to the developer, the FEIR reflects refinements that have been made to the project, including many based on input from state agencies, the Town of Barnstable and members of the public. The MEPA office will accept public comment until Jan. 25, 2019.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

Connecticut Regulators Approve Revolution Wind Power Contract

December 20, 2018 — Ørsted US Offshore Wind has received approval from Connecticut regulators of its 20-year power-purchase agreement for the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm.

Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority today approved Ørsted’s long-term power-purchase agreement with Eversource and United Illuminating, two Connecticut utilities, for the 200 megawatts of clean energy that Revolution Wind will deliver to Connecticut. That’s enough renewable energy to power 100,000 Connecticut homes and to displace six million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Connecticut is now an important player in America’s offshore wind industry,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, Co-CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind. “We’re proud to be building the state’s first offshore wind farm. We’re ready to make major investments in our local workforce and in the Port of New London to ramp up this project.”

With the power contract now finalized, Ørsted will accelerate development work on Revolution Wind. Offshore installation work on Revolution Wind will begin in 2022, with the project in operations in 2023. Offshore oceanographic and geophysical survey work already began in 2018.

Deepwater Wind – now Ørsted US Offshore Wind – committed to investing at least $15 million in the Port of New London to allow substantial aspects of Revolution Wind to be constructed in New London. The company also plans to open a development office in New London and use a Connecticut-based boat builder to construct one for the project’s crew transfer vessels in Connecticut. The project is expected to create over 1,400 direct, indirect and induced jobs.

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection selected Ørsted US Offshore Wind (then Deepwater Wind)’s Revolution Wind in June in the state’s first procurement for offshore wind energy.

Revolution Wind, located in federal waters roughly halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is designed to serve as regional energy center. Rhode Island separately selected 400MW from Revolution Wind to power that state.

Read the full story at Wind Business Intelligence

New Jersey ready to commit to offshore wind

December 19, 2018 — As offshore wind developers worked their way up to a record-setting New England lease sale last week, New Jersey energy planners met once more in Atlantic City before setting their own goalposts.

“We’re looking for proposals that deliver not only the best price, but the best value,” said Anne Marie McShea of the Board of Public Utilities, the state energy regulators who will soon make a deal to buy up to 1,100 megawatts of power to be generated from future wind turbines.

For wind power advocates, that means a deal that will bring new jobs to New Jersey, both in building and operating offshore turbine arrays, and manufacturing components locally.

Almost a decade ago, it looked like the Garden State might take a lead role in developing offshore wind power. In Atlantic City, the Atlantic County Utilities Authority built the state’s first commercial-scale wind power project, adding the sight of five spinning rotors to the resort’s gaudy skyline.

In April 2009, then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar came to town, talking up the new Obama administration plan to develop East Coast leases for wind power along with oil and gas, part of the “all of the above” energy strategy.

There was the Fishermen’s Energy plan for a five-turbine offshore array, within sight of the Atlantic City beaches, conceived by the late Daniel Cohen of Atlantic Cape Fisheries, Cape May,N.J., as a way for seafood companies to get a place at the table for planning renewable energy.

But then-Gov. Chris Christie’s administration began to cool on the idea.

The Board of Public Utilities did not like aspects of the pilot project, including the projected cost to ratepayers. Then there were Christie’s presidential ambitions, which meant playing to the conservative Republican base with its dislike of renewable energy subsidies.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Rhode Island Fishermen Condemn Offshore Wind Farms Despite Potential Benefits

December 18, 2018 — Nearly 390,000 acres of prime ocean real estate are being auctioned off Thursday, with 19 bidders hoping to win a chance to establish the next major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts.

At the same time, a recent vote by the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board to block a wind farm project by Vineyard Wind has raised questions about the future of offshore wind power.

Over the next decade, Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration are expecting the state to receive more than 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power.

Read the full story at WBUR