Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Controversial New Jersey Offshore Wind Developer Asking For More Taxpayer Funds

June 27, 2023 — According to a Politico article by Ry Rivard, the Danish wind developer responsible for constructing New Jersey’s first industrial offshore wind farm is seeking additional funds from state taxpayers before proceeding with their project to industrialize the state’s inshore waters.

Rivard reported from a Board of Public Utilities (BPU) meeting, where the five-member board began accepting proposals for new wind farms off the coast of New Jersey. During the meeting, it was revealed that the governor and the wind developer were renegotiating previously agreed-upon terms.

The negotiations between the Murphy administration and Ørsted, the Danish energy giant, have been ongoing to ensure the financial sustainability of the state’s first offshore wind farm. Ørsted is seeking to modify a portion of the 2019 deal made with the BPU, citing factors such as inflation, interest rates, and supply chain challenges. However, the specific details of Ørsted’s requests from the state have not been disclosed publicly. Two BPU commissioners revealed that Ørsted aims to retain federal tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, which could cover up to 40% of construction costs.

Read the full article at Shores News Network

BOEM’s Atlantic Shores public sessions dilute, but don’t deter criticisms

June 24, 2023 — Local groups opposing New Jersey offshore wind projects hoped this week’s public meetings on the Atlantic Shores development would be a platform for voicing their strenuous objections.

But the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first session Wednesday evening in a highway Holiday Inn hotel in Manahawkin, N.J., in the style of an informal informational session, rather than a formal public hearing on its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on Atlantic Shores.

Dozens of visitors, many of them seaside residents from nearby Long Beach Island, made a circuit of poster presentations. Presentations on how turbines will be visible from the beach – and the project’s impact on marine mammals – attracted the most attention.

Some visitors went toe-to-toe debating with BOEM staffers and agency contractors about the DEIS findings. Others, who had hoped for publicly making their cases before an audience, were dismissive of the proceedings.

“Typically BOEM. Totally tone-deaf,” said Greg DiDomenico, a fisheries management specialist with Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, N.J.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: Maine congressman’s bill to block wind power from Lobster Management Area 1

June 23, 2023 — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, introduced a bill in Congress that would block commercial offshore wind development from Lobster Management Area 1, and require a new study of how federal agencies are conducting environmental reviews for potential wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

“BOEM’s decision not to remove one of the most lucrative and productive fishing grounds in the region from consideration for commercial offshore wind projects is just the latest in a series of unrelenting challenges to Maine fishermen,” Golden said in announcing the bill Thursday. “Prohibiting commercial wind development in LMA 1 protects Maine fishermen’s way of life and of making a living for their families and their communities, just as they have for generations.”

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified more than 9.8 million areas of federal waters in the Gulf of Maine for consideration as wind energy areas for future leasing to developers. The agency included LMA 1 “and areas closed seasonally or permanently to protect the North Atlantic right whale, as potential commercial offshore wind sites,” according to Golden. “Prohibiting offshore wind development in LMA 1 would help to avoid conflict with the New England commercial and recreational fishing industries.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: How dead whales became the symbol of a political battle in NJ and elsewhere

June 22, 2023 — Cindy Zipf wears a whale pendant around her neck each day to work at her office at Clean Ocean Action in Long Branch, touching the necklace and worrying that at any moment, another whale will wash onto a beach somewhere in New Jersey.

It was Zipf who first sounded the alarm on Jan. 9, two days after a second humpback whale washed ashore dead in Atlantic City, making it at the time the sixth dead whale in New York and New Jersey since Dec. 1. Zipf held a press conference in Atlantic City calling for President Joe Biden to step in and do an immediate federal investigation and halt offshore wind farm activities. Biden did not answer.

The press event thrusted whales into the crossfires of a contentious, often partisan political debate over the wind farms that re-ignites every time a marine mammal strands. And during this past winter and early spring, an abnormal amount of cetaceans have washed up to roil public opinion one way or the other.

Read the full article at app.

Port facilities must be part of Maine’s offshore wind strategy

June 22, 2023 — Tony Buxton is a partner with Preti Flaherty. He represents New England Aqua Ventus and Pine Tree Offshore Wind, developing the Monhegan Project and the Maine Research Array, respectively.

Gov. Janet Mills’ Offshore Wind Initiative in 2021 negotiated a historic bipartisan legislative compromise to facilitate offshore wind development while protecting the Gulf of Maine from threats to fisheries and lobstering. The compromise banned offshore wind in Maine waters, mandated a power contract to enable construction and operation of the Maine Research Array and established the Maine Offshore Wind Research Consortium, all to protect our iconic Gulf of Maine resources, relying on both science and common sense.

The compromise continued Maine’s decades of preparation for offshore wind development to come to the Gulf of Maine’s vast and wind-rich federal waters over which Maine has no legal control. The paired objectives of resource protection and deliberate offshore wind development remain wise.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

NEW JERSEY: Cape May County to Host Forum in Battle Against Wind Farm

June 22, 2023 — Opponents of a proposed offshore wind energy farm are intensifying their legal, political and public relations campaign against a project they say will create a “superhighway of windmills” in the ocean.

In the latest salvo against the Ocean Wind 1 project, Cape May County will hold an online forum on Saturday to present more arguments against the wind farm planned 15 miles off the South Jersey coast.

Cape May County Commission Director Leonard Desiderio, who is also the Sea Isle City mayor, said in a statement Wednesday that the wind farm forum will be a “factual presentation of our many concerns about the Orsted windmill projects.”

“We believe that the plan to create a superhighway of windmills should be subject to more specific and serious studies to answer the questions about the whale and dolphin deaths and other serious negative environmental and economic impacts that are likely to occur,” he said. “And if those studies show that our losses will be severe, then these windmills should not be built.”

The online forum closely follows the county’s hiring of more law firms to oppose the project in court and also to challenge state and federal regulatory permits needed for the wind farm.

The public is invited to join the livestreamed forum on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. The attendees will learn more about the potential negative impacts of Orsted’s Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects. The link Capewindinfo.com will go live at 10 a.m.

Read the full article at OCNJDaily

US government watchdog to investigate impacts of offshore wind development

June 21, 2023 — A U.S. government watchdog agency will investigate the impact of offshore wind development on the fishing industry and the environment at the behest of congressional Republicans.

In March 2023, Republicans began a push for more federal scrutiny of efforts by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to advance offshore wind projects along the U.S. East Coast, culminating in a request to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – an independent agency that conducts investigations and audits for Congress – to conduct a study on the sufficiency of the environmental review processes for offshore wind projects.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: Offshore wind foes in New Jersey gathering force legally and politically

June 21, 2023 — Opponents of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey are gathering force legally and politically as they seek to snuff out the nascent industry.

Within the last week, three residents groups sued New Jersey over a key approval of its first planned wind farm; the research arm of Congress agreed to investigate the impact of offshore wind on the environment and other areas; and lawmakers in two counties most heavily impacted by wind farms stepped up their efforts to block the projects.

Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed an appeal Friday in state Superior Court of New Jersey’s determination that the Ocean Wind I project is consistent with state coastal management rules.

The project is New Jersey’s first, and a U.S. subsidiary of Danish wind developer Orsted could begin construction this year if remaining approvals are obtained.

Read the full article at WHYY

NEW JERSEY: Atlantic County commissioners seek offshore wind delay, not moratorium

June 21, 2023 — The Atlantic County Board of Commissioners passed an amended resolution on offshore wind Tuesday, eliminating a request for a moratorium on the new technology and instead supporting a new federal investigation and more public comment time on the Atlantic Shores South project.

“In light of recent events — the announcement of a federal investigation into the impact of offshore wind development … I’d like to offer a few amendments so we don’t muddy the waters,” said Republican Commissioner Richard Dase, one of two sponsors of the resolution.

The board then amended the resolution to remove requests for a moratorium and to instead support a federal investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office into “matters relating to the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development” in the northern Atlantic between Maine and New Jersey

Read the full article at The Press of Atlantic City

Critics sue to challenge New Jersey Ørsted Ocean Wind 1 project

June 20, 2023 — Three groups in coastal New Jersey communities filed a new lawsuit against state environmental regulators and offshore wind developer Ørsted seeking to overturn state approvals for the Ocean Wind 1 project.

Community organizers in Ocean City, Brigantine and Long Beach Island, N.J., filed the action in New Jersey state appeals court, they said in an announcement June 16.  

Ørsted’s planned layout of 98 wind turbines, each about 900 feet tall within nine to 15 miles of the beach,  “will be fully visible from New Jersey’s beaches and will crush and destroy the seabed, each tower weighing up to five million pounds,” according to the groups Save LBI, Defend Brigantine Beach and Protect Our Coast NJ.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman