Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: Foundations of South Fork wind farm off of Long Island now complete

August 10, 2023 — Installation of 13 foundations for the nation’s first major offshore wind farm is now complete off the coast of Long Island.

It’s named South Fork. It will be the first of five wind farms in the works. The project site is located roughly 35 miles east of Montauk.

Twelve wind turbines and a wind substation will be constructed at the site. Installation of the turbines is expected to begin later this summer and into the fall. Meanwhile, work continues at the site, including the installation of cables to connect the wind turbines to the offshore substation.

Read the full article at CBS News

Fishermen slam Biden admin’s offshore wind push as threat to jobs, sea life

August 9, 2023 — New England fishermen are sounding the alarm on studies that reveal offshore wind turbines emit electic currents that are deforming lobster and haddock, and “imitate effects of climate change” by raising ocean surface temperatures.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) on Monday released an Offshore Wind Research Summary, a compilation of scholarly articles that identify dangers offshore wind farms pose to ocean ecosystems.

NEFSA concluded that there is “no scientific consensus as to the effects of offshore wind on ocean ecosystems and marine life,” and is demanding that the Biden administration conduct the necessary studies before green-lighting offshore wind.

Read the full article at Fox News

Another Lawsuit Against Vineyard Wind Dismissed

August 9, 2023 — Another attempt to stop the Vineyard Wind project southwest of Nantucket has failed.

Federal Court Judge Indira Talwani last Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Thomas Melone in July of 2021 that attempted to block the Vineyard Wind and its 62 turbines now under construction. It was the second lawsuit challenging the project to be dismissed, with the first one being rejected back in May.

Melone, the president of various solar energy companies, owns a home in Edgartown and accused the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when issuing an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Vineyard Wind for its offshore wind energy project.

“Plaintiff’s argument regarding “old data” relies entirely on information that emerged after the IHA was issued,” Talwani says in the memorandum and order filed on August 4. “Plaintiff has not, and cannot, demonstrate that NMFS was unreasonable in failing to consider reports and studies that did not exist at the time the IHA. To the extent Plaintiff complains that NMFS also failed to consider current population data at the time of issuance, that argument is contradicted by the Record. As such, Plaintiff’s argument that NMFS relied on ‘old data’ and that such reliance was arbitrary and capricious fails.”

“Plaintiff has not shown that NMFS acted arbitrarily, capriciously, or otherwise unlawfully,” Talwani continued. “Accordingly, NMFS and Vineyard Wind’s motions for summary judgment are granted and Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is denied.”

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

SouthCoast Wind appeal highlights project’s risk

August 8, 2023 — SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC petitioned the Rhode Island Supreme Court on July 28. SouthCoast said that the unanimous decision of the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board to suspend the review of the project’s permit application for its offshore power cable traversing the state “is contrary to law and should be vacated.”

SouthCoast Wind’s 149-turbine, 1,200-megawatt offshore wind farm project planned for federal waters over 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 miles south of Nantucket is in limbo. Power was to be delivered to several Massachusetts utilities until the company determined its power purchase agreements generated inadequate revenues to finance the project, so it moved to terminate the agreements.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

NEW JERSEY: The future of East Coast wind power could ride on this Jersey beach town

August 9, 2023 — Known as “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” this beachside city now has a new distinction: It has become the epicenter of opposition to wind energy projects off New Jersey and the East Coast.

Residents of Ocean City and surrounding Cape May County, helped by an outside group opposed to renewable energy, are mobilizing to stop Ocean Wind 1, a proposal to build up to 98 wind turbines the size of skyscrapers off the New Jersey coast, which could power half a million homes.

The future of East Coast wind energy could hang in the balance. If opponents succeed, they hope to create a template for derailing some 31 offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change.

“We have a lot of leverage,” said Frank Coyne, treasurer of Protect Our Coast NJ, which gathered over 500,000 signatures on a petition opposing proposed wind farms. “The objective is to hold them up and make the cost so overwhelming that they’ll go home.”

Read the full article at the Washington Post

4 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea

August 8, 2023 — Wind power developers proposed four new projects off the New Jersey Shore on Friday, a surge that would more than double the number of wind farms built off its coast if they are approved by regulators.

At least two of them are more than twice as far out to sea than others that have drawn the ire of residents who don’t want to see windmills on the horizon. These two would not be visible from the beach, the companies proposing them say.

They would join three wind farms already approved by New Jersey regulators as the state races to become the East Coast capital of the fast-growing offshore wind industry.

In the first project to be made public Friday by the companies proposing it, Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint venture is called Community Offshore Wind, and it aims to generate enough electricity to power

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Fishermen, activists protesting offshore wind projects on the East Coast: ‘A manmade environmental disaster’

August 8, 2023 — Critics are sounding the alarm on the ecological consequences of the Biden administration’s green energy agenda, specifically the increase marine wildlife deaths in conjunction with offshore wind farms.

Activists along with local fishermen are particularly concerned about the rise in whale and dolphin beaching.

“What we’re seeing is a failure to properly manage the situation,” Rhode Island fisherman Chris Brown said on “The Bottom Line” Wednesday.

“The whales have been migrating from their southern stations during the spring up through the mid-Atlantic region, and they didn’t even slow down the acoustic carpet bombing. And as a result, the Atlantic was littered with the dead whales and dolphins and sharks. There doesn’t seem to be any environmental concern. This is a manmade environmental disaster that’s unfolding. I expect that it will half a whale population in 10 years and probably the same for our fish.”

So far this year, more than 30 dead whales and 30 dead dolphins have washed up on the East Coast.

Brown is among those protesting and calling on leadership to consider the consequences of such an aggressive green energy push.

Other activists including the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) have staged protests at offshore wind farms such as the South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island.

Read the full article at Fox Business

More Offshore Wind Turbines Could be on the Way to Ocean City

August 4, 2023 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified three new Wind Energy Areas or WEAs. They lie off the coasts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland.

For Ocean City leaders, this new proposal does not seem to be as controversial as US Winds, and it is all about the distance. The new site would be 23.5 nautical miles Southeast of Ocean City’s coastline. Essentially running parallel to Assateague.

“That’s a lot better than 11.9 miles, as is currently being proposed in the lease area for US Wind,” said Rick Meehan, Ocean City’s mayor.

Back in July the town hired an outside firm to look at US Wind’s proposal and deem if it is responsible. The end goal would be getting US Wind to move its turbines back. And now, the town can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Read the full article at WBOC

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind isn’t a partisan issue. This is how real NJ people will be impacted

August 4, 2023 — Much has been written and reported about the plans to build offshore wind turbine developments off the East Coast of the United States. Proponents argue that clean energy is better for the environment, more affordable, that in areas where these systems will operate they will generate jobs and that other countries have already installed offshore wind turbines. Opponents argue that the turbine developments will affect the economy of shore communities, commercial and recreational fishing, marine mammals and birds, public safety and national security. Some proponents have even gone so far as to mislabel and attack the opponents of offshore wind as partisan and backed by oil companies, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, the rush to set up offshore wind has been advanced only by partisan politics and internationally backed lobbying efforts without studying the impact these turbines will have in their current planned placement in many cases less than 15 miles from our shores.

Our legislators must take the time to understand the implications of what thousands of turbines will do to our oceans, marine mammals, national security, navigation commercial and recreational fishing and coastal economies before moving forward.

The thousands of turbines planned for the shores of Massachusetts and New Jersey should not be the case studies to learn the good, the bad and the ugly of offshore wind. Those who live in coastal communities who have taken the time to learn the facts about offshore wind do not want these turbines built in the oceans. In fact, in February, 50 coastal mayors signed onto a letter calling for a moratorium on these developments.

Current plans for the next decade alone include building 3,411 turbines and 9,874 miles of cable directly in the migration path of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, a species on the brink of extinction with only an estimated 350 left in the world. If the NARW does survive the multi-year construction of the turbines, will they be able to survive the noise these thousands of turbines will generate while in operation?

The currently slated turbines and cables are planned to be built across 2,400,000 acres of federally managed ocean and there are other plans to then lease an additional 1,700,000 acres, according to a recent Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management “Vineyard Wind” Offshore Wind Energy Project draft environmental impact statement. One planned wind energy area off the coast of Rhode Island is larger than the state itself.

Read the full article at northjersey.com

Vineyard Wind wind plans to deliver power in mid-October

August 3, 2023 — The first clean wind power generated by the Vineyard Wind 1 project is expected to flow onto the regional grid by mid-October and the first-in-the-nation offshore wind project should be fully operational by this time next year, project officials said Wednesday during a boat tour of the construction.

Project developers have maintained for years that the $4 billion project they are building about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard would start to generate cleaner energy by the end of 2023, but they told a group of state lawmakers, clean energy advocates, organized labor representatives and others that the target is now mid-October, or just over two months from now.

At first, the project will send power generated by a string of six turbines onto the grid, totaling about 78 megawatts, with plans to ramp the project up to between 200 and 300 MW by the end of the year and full commercial operations of 806 MW expected by mid-2024, according to Sy Oytan, Avangrid’s chief operating officer for offshore wind.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, began offshore construction activities in June by setting the foundations for the 62 turbines that will make up the project that has been years in the making.

On Wednesday, about 15 representatives and two senators were among those who got to see the progress of that construction from aboard the Captain John and Son II, which was chartered for the tour by Avangrid, the Environmental League of Massachusetts and the New England for Offshore Wind Coalition.

When they are fully assembled, each of Vineyard Wind 1’s 62 turbines will stretch about 850 feet above the Atlantic Ocean — taller than any building in New England. There was not much to see in the way of towers or turbines Wednesday — those on the boat tour saw a series of foundations with “transition pieces” sticking up out of the water, each arranged one nautical mile away from others in a grid pattern.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light