Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind lease funds seen as potential aid for fishing industry

March 18, 2022 — The Baker administration and the Massachusetts Legislature have been gung-ho about pursuing offshore wind power and preparing the state’s infrastructure to deal with the consequences of climate change, but lawmakers during the week of March 7 impressed upon the administration the importance of keeping the state’s historic fishing industry in mind as well.

“We’ve been taking steps over the past couple of years to make sure that the commonwealth is a leader in the wind industry. However, I’m not insensitive to the fact that some of what we’re doing on wind and with renewables comes to the expense of one of our oldest professions, which is the fishing industry,” Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester said March 11 during a hearing on the energy and environment portions of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $48.5 billion fiscal-year 2023 budget bill.

Tension between the commercial fishing industry and offshore wind developers has been a constant thread as the new industry looks to establish its roots in the United States. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, among others, has sued federal agencies contending that by approving the Vineyard Wind I project “the United States has shortcut the statutory and regulatory requirements that were enacted to protect our nation’s environmental and natural resources, its industries, and its people.”

Annie Hawkins, executive director of RODA, said the fishing industry supports “strong action on climate change, but not at the expense of the ocean, its inhabitants, and sustainable domestic seafood.” The Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative, a group of seafood harvesters, processors and wholesalers, has come out in stout opposition to the offshore wind bill the House has passed and generally any other Beacon Hill plans to promote and grow the offshore wind industry here.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

New Jersey sets $3.3 million for offshore wind environment studies

March 18, 2022 — Amid growing concern about the environmental impact of offshore wind development, New Jersey’s environment and energy planners are putting up $3.3 million for studies on how building wind turbine arrays may affect wildlife and fisheries.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday announced funding for studies and said they will soon release shortly a request for proposals. The agencies will also join the Regional Wildlife Science Entity, formed last year with Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York to coordinate monitoring and research of wildlife and marine ecosystems.

Dubbed the Offshore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI), the New Jersey interagency effort has three areas of research, to be funded by wind developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC, and Ørsted’s Ocean Wind II project with each committing $10,000 per megawatt of planned project capacity – about $26 million in all for long-term research and ecological monitoring.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Offshore wind is set to soar. Fishing groups want to pump the brakes.

March 14, 2022 — Offshore wind is finally taking off in the United States. But fishing interests around the country are throwing one last obstacle in the industry’s way.

The Biden administration has ambitious plans to open up vast swaths of coastline in order to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Energy companies are stepping up: Six leases off the New Jersey and New York coasts sold for $4.3 billion last month, the most lucrative wind lease sale in U.S. history.

But the wind industry and federal and state agencies still haven’t managed to placate the fishing industry, which is lobbying against offshore wind proposals around the country over concerns the turbines could interfere with fishing routes.

The resistance could complicate President Joe Biden’s timeline. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management wants to review at least 16 offshore wind plans for potential approval in the next three years, up from two total approvals since the agency was created in 2011.

Oregon officials are asking BOEM to delay a planned lease sale next year over concerns about its potential impacts on commercial fishing.

Read the full story at POLITICO

Offshore Wind Energy Bill Sails Through Hawaii Senate

March 10, 2022 — State senators are pushing forward a measure to set the minimum distance power-generating wind turbines must be from Hawaii’s shores as part of an effort to meet a state-mandated goal of using 100% clean energy by 2045.

Senate Bill 2535, introduced by Sen. Chris Lee whose district includes parts of the Windward side of Oahu, originally called for prohibiting turbines closer than 12 miles from shore, but that proposition failed in two key Senate committees.

On Tuesday, the Senate approved a revised measure that does not set a limit, leaving it up to the House to decide how many miles wind turbines must be from shore. The bill passed on a vote of 23-2.

Lee said the bill is meant to steer Hawaii away from fossil fuels, reduce the cost of electricity and reduce the impact on coastal communities previously affected by land-based wind turbines.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

 

How an Offshore Wind Farm Would Come Onshore in Ocean City, NJ

March 10, 2022 — One of the world’s largest offshore wind developers, Denmark-based Ørsted, wants to bring 1,100 megawatts of electricity onshore from a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean using a transmission line that would run through Ocean City, New Jersey.

That is not sitting well with some people in and around the small, but well-known Jersey Shore community, where many families across the Philadelphia region visit in the summer. Look no further than Kate Winslet’s detective from “Mare of Easttown” for proof of Ocean City’s popularity.

Still, it’s becoming increasingly likely that Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project about 15-20 miles off Atlantic and Cape May counties will connect to the region’s power grid with an underground transmission line that comes onshore at an Ocean City beach. It would then run through the community to a decommissioned coal power plant in nearby Upper Township.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

 

MASSACHUSETTS: House approves plan to expand offshore wind

March 4, 2022 — The Massachusetts House of Representatives on Thursday approved a plan to expand offshore wind power to meet the state’s renewable energy needs, but the move faces pushback from Gov. Charlie Baker who says it will drive up consumer costs.

Commercial fisherman also are increasingly raising alarms about the rapid expansion of offshore wind power, warning it could make fertile grounds off-limits.

The legislation, approved by a 144-12 vote, calls for accelerating the development of offshore wind by changing how the state procures the energy, creating tax credits for offshore wind companies and setting environmental and fishing industry requirements for offshore wind projects, among other changes.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin, said the changes if approved would help position Massachusetts as “the Saudi Arabia of wind.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

European Energy Giants Still Dominate Future of Offshore Wind in US

March 4, 2022 — A group led by two American companies shelled out $645 million last week for the future development rights of an offshore wind farm off the New Jersey coast.

Invenergy Wind Offshore LLC, which is a partnership led by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRe, now owns the rights to 84,000 acres where company officials believe 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy can be harnessed using turbines larger than the Washington Monument.

“We’re very happy where we are, and it’s a huge opportunity for our two American companies to really shine,” energyRe Chairman Jeff Blau said in an interview Thursday.

Despite the Invenergy group’s win, the federal auction proved that European energy giants still dominate the burgeoning offshore wind industry. The other five leases up for auction were grabbed by companies based in Spain, Great Britain, France and Germany. (One of those five does include a New York investment firm.) In total, the six leases raised a whopping $4.4 billion for the federal government.

European energy companies already own most of the 17 leases awarded between 2013 and 2018. Industry experts say those foreign conglomerates have head starts from their decades of experience building wind farms in Europe. Most are former fossil fuel companies that years ago began renewable energy subsidiaries.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

March 3, 2022 — Offshore wind development has the potential to transform the nation’s energy supply by providing clean power directly to big coastal cities. In fact, the Biden administration is pushing to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030—enough to power 10 million homes and reduce carbon emissions by 78 million metric tons.

But a new study might throw a wrench in those plans. It turns out that massive wind turbines may interfere with marine radar systems, making it risky for both big ships passing through shipping channels near offshore wind farms and smaller vessels navigating around them. While European and Asian nations have relied on offshore wind power for more than a decade, the big wind farms proposed off the US continental shelf are larger and spaced further apart, meaning that ships are more likely to be operating nearby. These farms are proposed along the East Coast from Massachusetts to North Carolina, as well as for a handful of locations off the California coast, according to data from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

A panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded in a report issued last week that wind turbines can create two different problems. First, their steel towers can reflect electromagnetic waves, interfering with ships’ navigational radar systems in ways that might obscure a nearby boat.

Read the full story at Wired

NEW YORK: Long Island’s Offshore Wind Farm Plans Take Root

March 2, 2022 — After years of planning and debate, offshore wind farm developers recently took several big steps forward in a half dozen projects in various stages of development off the coast of Long Island.

A record-setting sale of offshore wind development rights last week saw combined bids for six areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey stretching to $4.73 billion. The auction came less than two weeks after officials held a groundbreaking — or a seafloor breaking, as it were — ceremony in Wainscott on Feb. 11 to mark construction starting on the 130-megawatt South Fork Wind, the first offshore wind project in New York State.

LOCAL OPPOSITION

The South Fork Wind farm’s developers, Ørsted & Eversource, who plan to build 12 turbines about 30 miles off Montauk’s coast — enough to power 70,000 homes annually — have faced legal challenges from some Wainscott residents opposed to the cable coming ashore in their community.

Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott filed a motion in the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court to block the construction until the court has an opportunity to rule on the group’s appeal of the state Public Service Commission’s decision allowing the cable to run through the community. The appeals court judges rejected that motion last month, but the suit is pending.

“We continue to support the move to renewable energy and celebrate the progress toward that goal,” the group said in a statement following the groundbreaking. “But we continue to have serious reservations regarding an infrastructure project that runs its cable through residential neighborhoods, and next to a PFAS superfund site, particularly when better alternative sites were available. Our focus will continue to be on protecting our community.”

The group isn’t the only one opposed. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, protested the groundbreaking ceremony while playing an audio recording of what she says the construction noise will sound like from on land. As officials left, she reminded them that the turbines will be built in North Atlantic Right Whale territory.

Read the full story at the Long Island Press

BOEM Identifies Three Potential Wind Lease Areas Off Oregon

February 28, 2022 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has selected three areas off the coast of southern Oregon for potential offshore wind development, and its picks have attracted immediate opposition from fishermens’ advocacy organizations.

According to BOEM, the planning for the three call areas has been under way since late 2019. The initial call for information is a request for comments from stakeholders and the general public, and it is a prelude to the designation of specific lease areas. BOEM’s objective is to identify enough space for three gigawatts of near-term offshore wind power capacity.

The northernmost call area is located just off Coos Bay, Oregon, one of the largest commercial fishing ports in the region. It is also the largest of the three areas – about 1,360 square miles – and the area with the greatest total potential for energy generation. The southernmost call area, near Brookings, has the highest average wind speeds and the lowest levelized cost of energy.

Read the full story at the Maritime Executive