Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Fishermen, activists protest offshore wind farms near Montauk, cite recent whale deaths

July 25, 2023 — Conservative activists, environmentalists and New Jersey fishermen protested the construction of wind turbines off the East Coast on Monday, highlighting increasing whale deaths in the region that they say are tied to offshore renewable energy.

The coalition, organized by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, sent out three boats to South Fork Wind Farm, roughly 20 miles from both Martha’s Vineyard and Montauk, NY, holding signs that read “STOP WINDMILLS SAVE WHALES” while shouting through a bullhorn at machinery operators to halt construction.

“Since offshore wind operations began in 2016, there is a disturbing number of whales washing up dead on beaches along the Eastern shores, and it is shocking to see how quickly utilities are willing to rush to construct them,” the group’s president, Craig Rucker, told The Post in a statement. “Their motto is almost like, ‘Damn the Whales, full steam ahead.’”

Read the full article at New York Post

BOEM to seek fisheries funds for Gulf of Mexico wind leases

July 25, 2023 — The first offshore wind power lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico will offer a 10 percent credit to developers who contribute of a fisheries compensation fund for commercial and charter fishermen.

The Aug. 29 auction by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, La., and two areas off Galveston, Texas – one comprising 102,480 acres and the other 96,786 acres.

If developed to full potential, the lease areas could hold turbine arrays with nameplate ratings totaling 3.7 gigawatts of electricity, according to BOEM.

In planning the Gulf wind energy areas, BOEM excluded highly productive fishing areas after consultations with the Southern Shrimp Alliance and other fishing interests. With stipulations that BOEM has set for the bidding process, the “inclusion of a compensatory mitigation fund is a sound strategy,” the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance said Monday.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance Share Thoughts Following Offshore Wind Approval

July 25, 2023 — Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, an organization of commercial snapper and grouper fishermen in the region, released a statement following the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to approve offshore wind energy lease sale in the Gulf.

According to the organization, the major offshore wind news comes with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)’s decision to grant “bidding credits for companies and developers who commit to establishing or contributing to a fisheries compensatory mitigation fund.”

“These credits can count for 10% of the cash bid, allowing eligible bidders to put down slightly less upfront for the lease, with the guarantee that they will use an equivalent amount to develop or contribute to a fisheries compensatory mitigation fund for the Gulf commercial and charter/for-hire fishing industries,” the Alliance explained in its statement.

The funds will help offset the costs of gear loss, counterbalance reductions in fishing income, and reduce the cost of necessary upgrades to gear/navigational equipment and support fishermen’s involvement in the wind project.

The Shareholders’ Alliance said including the compensatory mitigation fund was a “sound strategy.”

“In offering these bidding credits, the Shareholders’ Alliance believes that BOEM has taken a positive step forward towards addressing potential adverse impacts of the offshore wind lease to the Gulf’s commercial fishing industry,” the group wrote.

It also said that it believes offshore wind holds promise for not only the Gulf of Mexico but the entire planet. It believes there is potential for a strong partnership between BOEM and fishermen. The group believes the industry and BOEM can create a “complementary rather than competitive” partnership.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

MAINE: Maine lawmakers endorse proposal that would jumpstart offshore wind projects

July 25, 2023 — Maine is poised to launch an offshore wind program that would meet clean energy goals and produce enough power for about 900,000 homes from floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine.

The legislation, which was endorsed by lawmakers Tuesday, calls for requests for proposals to be issued for 3,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind turbines by 2040. That’s enough electricity to power about half of Maine’s electricity load.

“This bill means jobs. It means lower, more stable energy prices, while at the same time addressing climate change. We need to pass this bill now,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Lawrence, the bill’s sponsor.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

What’s going on with offshore wind projects in New England?

July 24, 2023 — The offshore wind market in North America has attracted global developers and equity partners as state and federal policies finally align to encourage investment in domestic clean energy.

But at the same time, developers face challenges as inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, the high cost of materials, competition for vessels and ports, and workforce shortages threaten to slow progress.

With news from the industry shifting on a regular basis, it can be hard to keep track of the projects, the players, and the issues. Don’t worry. Here’s a cheat sheet.

Read the full article at The Business Journals

DELAWARE: Offshore wind developers renew interest in Delaware as DNREC weighs its options

July 24, 2023 — The offshore wind industry has plenty of interest in building a wind farm off Delaware but only if the state commits to buying a certain quantity of power from a turbine farm, according to an offshore wind specialist at the University of Delaware.

Kris Ohleth, executive director of the school’s Special Initiative for Offshore Wind, said she has had discussions with Orsted – which is planning two wind farms off New Jersey – and US Wind — which has plans for a project off Maryland and southern Delaware – indicating that they are both watching Delaware closely to see if it will for the first time procure offshore wind power from the rapidly growing industry.

Both companies have unused wind-power capacity in their ocean-lease areas, and could build more turbines if they could be assured of more customers in Delaware, Ohleth said. The developers could also add to their leases by acquiring new offshore wind areas that are expected to be auctioned by the federal government next year, she said.

“They are very interested,” she said. “The additional capacity for the Orsted and US Wind sites, plus the central Atlantic leasing that is scheduled to happen in 2024, there’s interest in having another off-taker, for sure. Developers are always interested in another customer.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

First U.S. auction of Gulf of Mexico tracts for wind power set for Aug. 29

July 23, 2023 — The first auction of offshore leases for wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico will take place Aug. 29 for tracts off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, the Biden administration announced Thursday.

The Department of the Interior said the lease sale will involve more than 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares). That includes a 102,480-acre (41,470-hectare) area off the southwest Louisiana coast, and areas covering 102,480 acres (41,470 hectares) and 96,786 acres (39,160 hectares) off Galveston, Texas.

Plans for the sale come as wind energy projects are already taking shape in the Northeast. Earlier this month, the government gave the go-ahead for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm to begin construction. That followed approval of projects now under construction in the northeast, one off Massachusetts and the other off New York and Rhode Island.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Rhode Island utility rejects Revolution Wind 2 project

July 23, 2023 — Rhode Island Energy said it will not enter a power purchase agreement for the proposed Revolution Wind 2 project because the projected costs to electric customers are too high.

The decision is a setback for offshore wind developers Ørsted and Eversource – coming just after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it had completed an environmental review for the partners’ first-phase Revolution Wind project.

The Revolution Wind 2 decision, announced Tuesday by Dave Bonenberger, president of Rhode Island Energy, stated that “affordability and reliability would be key factors in how the company evaluated” offshore wind bids.

“Higher interest rates, increased costs of capital and supply chain expenses, as well as the uncertainty of federal tax credits, all likely contributed to higher proposed contract costs,” according to the company. “Those costs were ultimately deemed too expensive for customers to bear and did not align with existing offshore wind PPAs (power purchase agreements).”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

America’s Bet on Wind Power Is Running Into a Big Problem

July 23, 2023 — Crane ships and construction barges have joined the pleasure boats floating off the coast of vacation hot spots Montauk and Martha’s Vineyard this summer. The hard hats working on them aren’t there to catch some rays. They’re driving steel cylinders deep into the seabed to build America’s first large-scale offshore wind farms, a milestone decades in the making. Both projects are set to start sending electricity to the shore by the end of the year.

Public officials in New York and Massachusetts toasted the news last month when the first turbine foundations were installed. “The windmills that will power hundreds of thousands of homes are beginning to emerge from the water,” said Massachusetts House Speaker Ronald Mariano. Offshore wind is a crucial technology to decarbonize large coastal population centers, including cities like Boston and New York that probably wouldn’t be able to go green without it. So, its arrival is a major milestone in the nation’s energy transition.

Read the full article at BARRON’S