Saving Seafood

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

Biden touts offshore wind at Philly Shipyard, opens door for turbines in Gulf of Mexico

July 23, 2023 — Metal sparks flew as crews sliced into massive plates during a steel-cutting ceremony at South Philadelphia’s shipyard on Thursday morning.

It marks the start of construction of a new vessel – Acadia – that will ferry rock from quarries to the ocean floor as part of construction on hundreds of new offshore wind turbines.

President Joe Biden visited Philly Shipyard to tout the growth of the offshore wind industry in the region and to announce the first lease sale in the waters off of the Gulf of Mexico.

“Our investing in America agenda is bringing our clean energy supply chains home,” Biden told the crowd of union workers and supporters. “Across the Delaware River in Paulsboro, New Jersey, workers are rolling the steel foundation for another large-scale wind project.”

The monopiles, which are the large poles that support the turbines, are being built at the Port of Paulsboro. New Jersey is also building a 200-acre wind port near the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in Salem County. The wind port and Paulsboro hub are expected to create 2,500 jobs.

Read the full article at WHYY

NOAA Issuing Biological Opinion on the Revolution Wind Offshore Energy Project

July 23, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries is issuing the final Biological Opinion under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, lead federal agency). The Biological Opinion considers the effects of the construction, operation, and eventual decommissioning of the proposed Revolution Wind offshore energy project off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

NOAA Fisheries has evaluated BOEM’s analysis of the effects of this project on endangered and threatened species, as well as the best scientific and commercial data available, and has concluded that while the proposed action is likely to adversely affect ESA-listed whales, sea turtles, and Atlantic sturgeon, it is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any ESA-listed species. The action is not likely to adversely affect any designated critical habitat. 

The proposed project includes a number of measures designed to minimize, monitor, and report effects to ESA-listed species, and additional measures are included through the Biological Opinion’s Incidental Take Statement. We do not anticipate any injury or mortality of any ESA-listed whale as a result of the proposed project. We also do not expect any injury to North Atlantic right whales due to exposure to increased sound levels resulting from this project. All effects to North Atlantic right whales will be limited to temporary behavioral disturbance. Additionally, no effects to the features of North Atlantic right whale critical habitat are anticipated.

BOEM is the lead federal agency for approving the construction, operation, and decommissioning of the proposed Revolution Wind offshore energy project. NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Protected Resources is also proposing to issue regulations and an associated Letter of Authorization pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which was evaluated through the Biological Opinion. Other authorizations or permits will be required from a number of other federal agencies.

We will continue working closely with BOEM and other federal agencies to ensure effects from the Revolution Wind offshore energy project to NOAA Fisheries’ trust resources are minimized.

The Biological Opinion will be available online upon publication in our libraryin approximately 10 days. 

Fishing industry reps raise concerns about wind energy areas

July 20, 2023 — A recent webinar on the impacts of offshore wind energy had some members of the Gloucester fishing community sounding off on their concerns to officials of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The webinar, hosted by the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station, drew about 50 participants to listen to BOEM Project Coordinator Seth Theuerkauf and BOEM Fisheries Biologist Brandon Jensen outline the planning process for siting offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine.

Commercial fisherman Al Cottone, executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission, and Angela Sanfilippo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership and president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, outlined the fishing industry’s concerns with offshore wind development.

“First of all the construction process, the areas that are going to be used will probably be lost forever for commercial fishing,” Cottone said. “We are going through that right now locally with the LNG terminals that were put in that are going to be decommissioned.” He worried the bottom where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are located might be lost to fishing when these facilities are decommissioned.

“This is going to be on a much larger scale and it’s going to be a vast area of bottom that’s going to be lost forever to commercial fishing, basically,” he said.

Read the full article at the Gloucester Times

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island Energy says it won’t move forward on offshore wind energy bid

July 20, 2023 — Rhode Island Energy says it won’t move forward on a power-purchase agreement for a joint Ørsted and Eversource proposal to build a major offshore wind project in the waters off Rhode Island, in part because it would be too expensive for customers.

The utility made the announcement Tuesday. It found that the proposal, called Revolution Wind 2, didn’t meet all the requirements under state law, including a requirement “to reduce energy costs.”

“We recognize some will be disappointed that we didn’t choose to move forward on negotiating this PPA, but that doesn’t mean we are abandoning our commitment to offshore wind in Rhode Island,” Dave Bonenberger, president of Rhode Island Energy, said in announcing the decision Tuesday. “In fact, we are already in discussions with state and regional leaders about new opportunities to bring more offshore wind to the state, which we hope to progress in the coming months.”

Read the full article at Boston Globe

RHODE ISLAND: Climate change and other offshore wind farms are already hurting R.I. fishermen

July 18, 2023 — Rhode Island fishermen warned for years that offshore wind farms will hurt their livelihoods. In the case of one project planned off Rhode Island’s coast, they might be right.

Indeed, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concluded in a report published Monday that the Revolution Wind Farm will have a “major adverse impact” on some commercial and for-hire recreational fishing activities.

The caveat: The same consequences are likely even if the wind farm planned off Rhode Island Sound never gets built, thanks to climate change and other offshore wind projects that are already causing major disruptions to species’ survival, boat traffic and more.

Any major environmental impacts resulting from the Revolution Wind Farm would have happened anyway, according to the 2,800-page environmental assessment. For project partners and advocates, the assessment was cause for celebration, marking what many consider to be the clearance of a major hurdle in the long and complicated federal approval process for ocean development.

“Revolution Wind is now one huge step closer to delivering renewable energy and significant economic benefits to Rhode Island and Connecticut,” David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO of Orsted Americas, said in a statement. “This major milestone keeps Revolution Wind on-track to complete environmental review and obtain approval by later this summer, with construction activities ramping up soon after. We’re ready to get to work to help Rhode Island and Connecticut expand their blue economies and meet their ambitious clean energy goals.”

Gov. Dan McKee also touted the significance of the report in the context of the state’s aggressive decarbonization mandates, which rely heavily on wind-powered energy to achieve.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

Environmental review puts Revolution Wind on the verge of federal approval

July 18, 2023 — A 4,928-page federal environmental review published Monday identifies the commercial fishing industry as a major stakeholder that would be affected by the construction of the proposed Revolution Wind offshore wind farm.

The report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management states that, on average, about 290 commercial fishing boats visit the site of the proposed project each year, catching about $1 million worth of seafood there. By revenue, the area’s most lucrative species are lobsters, scallops, monkfish and squid. By poundage, the most prevalent species are skates and herring.

The proposed path of the undersea electric cable that would deliver power onshore could also impact fishermen on a smaller scale, according to the environmental review. The statement estimates about $360,000 of seafood is caught annually by commercial fishermen along the cable’s path.

In a press release announcing the release of the report, BOEM said it plans to issue a final decision on whether to approve Revolution Wind this summer.

Connecticut and Rhode Island have already inked power purchase agreements with the project’s developer, Orsted, a multinational energy company headquartered in Denmark. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee called the completion of Revolution Wind’s environmental review a “major milestone” that brings the state closer to achieving its clean energy goals.

Read the full article at The Publics Radio

NEW JERSEY: Protesters Link Hands on Beach to Denounce Offshore Wind Farms

July 17, 2023 — Max Maher had no intention of going to an offshore wind farm protest in Ocean City on Saturday. But when the Johnstown, Pa., teenager read a pamphlet handed to her on the Boardwalk warning about what could happen if a wind farm is built off the South Jersey coast, she felt she had to go.

“I came for the weekend to see my friends. I’m not a huge beachgoer, but when I read that the wind farm could destroy the marine life and the environment, I was angry,” the 16-year-old said. “I wanted to do my part.”

Opponents of a proposed wind energy farm off the South Jersey coast joined hands and formed a human chain symbolizing their fight against a project they believe will cause harm to the shore’s economy and the environment. Dubbed “Hands Across The Beaches,” the protest, organized by Protect Our Coast NJ, a grassroots organization, brought out people of all ages to take a stand.

They stood together to send a message to the Danish energy company Orsted that they do not want the project, which would entail 98 towering turbines in the waters 15 miles off the coast from Atlantic City to Stone Harbor.

Read the full article at OCNJDaily