Saving Seafood

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

NEW JERSEY: NJ offshore wind industry impacts to be scrutinized by feds: Rep. Chris Smith

June 16, 2023 — The federal Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog, agreed this week to investigate impacts from New Jersey’s offshore wind farm industry, according to New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).

In particular, the agency will look at the industry’s impacts on the environment, commercial fishing industry, military operations and marine vessel safety, Smith said.

Smith called for the agency to investigate the industry earlier this year while raising concerns about a rash of whale deaths off New Jersey’s coast. So far, no wind turbine construction has started, but offshore wind companies have mapped the ocean floor and tested soils in their lease areas.

Read the full article at app.

Congressional watchdog agency to probe offshore wind impacts

June 16, 2023 — The independent watchdog agency of Congress agreed Thursday to look into the impacts that offshore wind development could have on the environment, fishing industry and other areas.

In a letter to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the U.S. Government Accountability Office said it would “review matters relating to the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development” in the northern Atlantic area between Maine and New Jersey. It said the review would include impacts on “infrastructure and vessel traffic.”

It fulfilled a major demand of citizen groups and elected officials opposed to offshore wind energy.

They cite the deaths of 50 whales off the U.S. East Coast since December, although three federal scientific agencies say there is no evidence linking offshore wind preparations to the whale deaths.

Further details of the inquiry are not available, said Chuck Young, a spokesman for the GAO, a nonpartisan research agency for Congress on government operations.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

States and clean energy: 3 issues to watch

June 16, 2023 — Statehouses across the country are enacting new energy laws this year, tackling issues that will directly affect President Joe Biden’s climate agenda even as Congress stands divided.

New laws signed in recent months and proposals still under consideration may affect the growth trajectory of low-carbon technologies including offshore wind and rooftop solar. In many cases, state plans may evolve over time along with national programs.

For emerging technologies like hydrogen, state lawmakers are trying to manage how the Biden administration’s ambitions will play out locally. Democrats have largely tried to implement Biden’s big-picture vision for promoting those technologies, while Republicans have sought to apply the brakes in some cases.

The state action is happening during an important period of implementation for last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

“We expected states to look into follow-on” laws that would respond to policies contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, said Frank Wolak, CEO of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association.

More laws of that kind are likely to emerge in additional state legislatures, he added. “I expect there’ll be others interested.”

The Treasury Department has recently rolled out guidance on how tax credits from the IRA could be claimed for rooftop solar projects and for U.S.-made offshore wind parts. And the Department of Energy is slated to award up to $7 billion of infrastructure funds for the first hubs of low-carbon hydrogen production, storage, transport and consumption this fall, for instance.

Both parties are angling to bring billions of dollars in infrastructure law funds to their states to support the first large demonstrations of low-carbon hydrogen. They include Republicans in Mississippi and North Dakota as well as Democrats in Hawaii and Washington.

Read the full article at E&E News