Saving Seafood

New England wind farm, environmentalists agree on ways to protect whales

June 27, 2022 — The developers of an offshore wind farm and three environmental organizations announced Monday that they have reached an agreement to further protect rare North Atlantic right whales during construction and operation of the energy-generating project.

The agreement involving Orsted and Eversource — developers of South Fork Wind off the coast of New England and New York — was signed by the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Conservation Law Foundation, the groups said in a joint statement.

The agreement promotes the development of sustainable energy while protecting wildlife, said Alison Chase, a senior policy analyst at the NRDC.

“We don’t need to choose between clean energy development and wildlife protection, and this agreement shows how we can do both,” she said.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Surf clam fleet could take big hit from offshore wind

June 24, 2022 — Offshore wind projects off the East Coast could take up to a 15 percent bite out of the surf clam industry’s $30 million annual revenue, according to two new studies from Rutgers University researchers.

The biggest loss could be up to 25 percent for boats based in Atlantic City, N.J., a historic center for the fishery.

The paired studies, published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, show how total fleet revenue may range from 3 percent to 15 percent, “depending on the scale of offshore wind development and response of the fishing fleet.”

The researchers developed a complex computer model to predict how the surf clam fishery may change in response to large-scale wind turbine arrays – such as the 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind 1 project planned off Atlantic City.

“Understanding the impacts of fishery exclusion and fishing effort displacement from development of offshore wind energy is critical to the sustainability of the Atlantic surf clam fishing industry,” according to co-author Daphne Munroe, an associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Munroe and the research team worked closely with fishermen and the clam industry in developing the model.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

As feds eye more wind leases off Virginia, fishing industries fear losses

June 23, 2022 — Today, two wind turbines turn off Virginia’s coast. But by the middle of the next decade, hundreds more may have joined them.

With a major push underway by President Joe Biden’s administration to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind as a way to reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels, federal officials are looking to dramatically expand the areas where wind farms can be built in U.S. waters.

Virginia is an epicenter of interest: Of 4 million acres of ocean identified as potential wind energy areas in a new Central Atlantic call area, most lie off the Virginia coast.

For the commonwealth’s fishing industries, already wary of what their business will look like once Dominion Energy’s 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is constructed, the prospect of a much more expansive buildout of wind power throughout the rich fishing grounds off Virginia is sparking fears that the new industry will drive out the old.

“We know that when these lease areas are built out, it is going to be displacing fishermen, who are then going to be working smaller and smaller areas with more and more boats, which is going to lead to localized depletion,” said Tom Dameron, government relations and fisheries science liaison for Surfside Foods, a New Jersey-based commercial clam fishing company that last year landed roughly 10 percent of the East Coast’s entire surf clam harvest in Cape Charles.

Read the full story at the Virginia Mercury

Offshore wind industry boosted as New England governors team up with Biden

June 23, 2022 — The White House is launching a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden’s plan for climate change.

At a White House meeting on Thursday, Biden administration officials will meet with governors and labor leaders to announce commitments to expand important parts of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development.

The partnership comprises governors of both parties from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will “provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains,” including construction of wind turbines, shipbuilding and servicing.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Fishing advocates seek new federal funding for offshore wind studies

June 22, 2022 — A nationwide coalition of U.S. commercial fishing groups is asking Congress for nearly USD 74 million (EUR 69 million) in federal spending to survey and plan for how offshore wind energy development may change marine environments and fishing communities.

An accelerated drive to develop ocean wind power in the U.S. has so far led to 28 wind lease areas in federal waters, two projects now underway off southern New England, and nearly 55 million acres on all coasts in consideration for possible development.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Don’t endanger aquatic ecosystems in the name of solving climate change

June 20, 2022 — In New England, too, we are being told that jeopardizing fishery-supporting ecosystems is the price we must pay to solve climate change. Here, the argument is coming from offshore wind proponents, who are working hand-in-glove with the Biden administration to set a course to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 — from a baseline of almost zero in just eight years — and 110 gigawatts by 2050, with most of the initial development taking place off New England and the mid-Atlantic and limited environmental review taking place prior to the issuance of leases.

What would this scale of development look like? With today’s technology, 110 gigawatts would be almost 8,500 turbines — 137 times the size of the Vineyard Wind facility planned for south of Cape Cod. It would mean near-continuous construction on the continental shelf for three decades. While no one knows what the ecological impacts of such construction might be (and that’s precisely our point), evidence suggests they may include alterations of the acoustic and sensory environment, electromagnetic fields, and current and wind patterns, affecting a variety of species whose survival depends on these aspects of the underwater world.

Offshore wind off New England and mining in the Bristol Bay watershed are linked by more than just spurious ultimatums invoking climate catastrophe as the inevitable consequence of keeping these wild places wild. It also happens that offshore wind, which requires hundreds of miles of electrical cables measuring up to 11 inches in diameter, is the most copper-intensive of all renewable energy technologies. Every mile of cable laid across the ocean floor will spur greater pressure to mine copper in precious, irreplaceable places like Bristol Bay.

Read the full op-ed at The Boston Globe

Enjoy the View While It Lasts. Jersey Shore with 100s of Wind Turbines Revealed

June 20, 2022 — They look like small white crosses along the ocean horizon, about an eighth of an inch in size to ocean gazers along New Jersey’s beaches and shore communities.

But those little marks are actually giant, spinning wind turbines more than 900 feet tall, and they will span full panoramic views in places like Little Egg Harbor near southern Long Beach Island and Stone Harbor just north of Cape May, according to new illustrations released as part of the state’s first planned offshore wind farm.

The images were released for the first time publicly by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on June 17. BOEM published hundreds of pages of analysis, data, graphics and illustrations that reveal much of the details that have not been publicly known about New Jersey’s forthcoming offshore wind farms.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

 

BOEM Invites Public Comment on Draft Environmental Analysis for Proposed Wind Energy Project Offshore New Jersey

June 17, 2022 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Management:

As part of the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is announcing the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Ocean Wind 1 wind energy project offshore New Jersey.

BOEM’s DEIS for the proposed Ocean Wind 1 Offshore Wind Farm analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the proposed action described in Ocean Wind’s project plan for constructing and operating an offshore wind energy facility. This is the first DEIS published by this Administration for an offshore wind energy project.

The Notice of Availability for the DEIS will publish in the Federal Register on June 24, opening a 45-day public comment period, which ends on August 8. During the comment period, BOEM will conduct three virtual public meetings and accept comments on the DEIS. The input received via this process will inform preparation of the Final EIS.

“BOEM remains committed to an environmental review process that establishes a strong foundation for offshore wind projects in the U.S. while promoting ocean co-use and avoiding or reducing potential conflicts,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “The feedback provided by ocean users and our many stakeholders will help inform the Final EIS and provide invaluable insight to decision makers.”

Over the past year, the Biden-Harris administration and the Interior Department have launched the American offshore wind industry by approving and celebrating the groundbreaking of the nation’s first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters. The Department also announced plans to potentially hold up to seven new offshore lease sales by 2025, including the  record-breaking New York Bight auction and Carolina Long Bay auction held earlier this year. BOEM also expects to complete the review of at least 16 plans to construct and operate commercial, offshore wind energy facilities by 2025, which would represent more than 22 GW of clean energy for the nation.

Ocean Wind proposes to construct up to 98 wind turbines generators (WTGs) and up to three offshore substations within the lease area, located 15 statute miles southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with export cables making landfall in Ocean County and Cape May County, New Jersey. If all 98 WTGs are approved for installation, the estimated capacity range will be from 1,215 to 1,440 megawatts, capable of powering up to 504,000 homes per year.

BOEM will use the findings of the EIS to inform its decision on whether to approve Ocean Wind’s proposed project.

Public Meetings

During the comment period, BOEM will hold three virtual public meetings, where the public can learn more about: the review process, the EIS schedule, potential impacts from the proposed project, and proposals to reduce potential impacts. There will also be an opportunity for participants to provide comments on the DEIS.
The public meetings will be held on the following dates and times. All times are Eastern:

•Thursday, July 14, 2022; 1:00 p.m.

•Wednesday, July 20, 2022; 5:00 p.m.

•Tuesday, July 26, 2022; 5:00 p.m.

Registration for the virtual meetings is encouraged.

A virtual meeting room, information about how to register for the virtual meetings and instructions for how to submit comments will be published on BOEM’s website on June 24, 2022: https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/ocean-wind-1.

The virtual meeting room will be available throughout the 45-day comment period and will include a copy of the DEIS, fact sheets, posters, and pre-recorded presentations.

If you require a paper copy of the DEIS or public meeting materials, or require call-in information for the virtual meetings (for those without reliable internet access), please contact BOEM at boempublicaffairs@boem.gov.

 

CALIFORNIA: Coastal Commission greenlights surveys for Morro Bay offshore wind energy development

June 10, 2022 — The California Coastal Commission is allowing the proposed Morro Bay wind energy development a path forward.

In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, commissioners accepted a staff report that laid out certain conditions the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) must follow as it allows wind energy developers to survey the Morro Bay site for potential construction of floating wind turbines.

This means that the Coastal Commission determined those survey activities are consistent with the California Coastal Act, the law the commission is charged with upholding. The law mandates the protection of coastal resources and “the economic, commercial and recreational importance of fishing activities,” among other things.

Site assessment activities may include the placement of ocean buoys with data collection equipment and an expected 873 boat trips in the wind energy area over three years, according to the Coastal Commission.

Read the full story at the San Luis Obispo Tribune

Orsted, Eversource Host N.Y. Supply Chain Forum to Partner with Local Businesses

June 10, 2022 — Ørsted and Eversource are hosting an offshore wind supply chain forum in Albany to help New York businesses connect with Tier 1 suppliers on potential job opportunities at Sunrise Wind Farm. This the first New York forum of its kind to feature a large project supplier sharing details on opportunities for supporting vendors and subcontractors to work on the project.

The June 14 forum from 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. is the first of three that Ørsted and Eversource will host in New York; it aims to match New York businesses with near-term opportunities in the offshore wind supply chain. Eversource Energy, Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Inc., Riggs Distler, Ljungstrom, Carver Companies, Blue Ocean Energy Marine, Edison Chouest Offshore, Nexans, HeliService International, ATOS and LS Cable are scheduled to attend.

Read the full story at North American Windpower