Saving Seafood

New York, California sue to block Trump administration deals canceling offshore wind projects

September 23, 2026 — Democratic attorneys general from California and New York sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as President Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he is suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June that it’s buying back the company’s U.S. offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the East and West coasts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, meanwhile, led seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and another proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.

The deals would hand energy companies $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the cancellation of multiple projects. ln all, the Trump administration has pledged nearly $4 billion to companies to walk away from projects across the country.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Offshore wind job training built for a boom is facing down a bust

September 22, 2026 — This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. ​

A former Navy sailor and union laborer from Local 1298 on Long Island, William “Billy” Bishop jumped at the chance to work on the water again when he learned two years ago about job opportunities on offshore wind construction projects.

After earning a safety certification from the National Offshore Wind Training Center — a collaboration between Long Island’s Suffolk County Community College, the Long Island Federation of Labor, and multinational wind farm developer Orsted — Bishop worked on a wind farm near Rhode Island. Now he’s doing structural inspections and maintenance on Sunrise Wind, which is under construction off the coast of Long Island in New York.

But the Trump administration’s efforts to crush offshore wind projects, part of its broader assault on clean energy, have created deep uncertainty for training programs like NOWTC and workers like Bishop.

“I would definitely do this forever, and I’ve looked into it since getting the job. But I see contracts are falling through nonstop now in America,” said Bishop. “This might be the last one for a while.”

In 2021, the Biden administration set a target to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade, starting from almost zero, which jump-started a massive effort to train people for jobs in the industry. That rapid ramp-up would have required an estimated 77,000 workers — to build the wind farms, connect the turbines to the grid, operate and maintain the facilities, manufacture the rugged steel components, and more.

Read the full article at Grist

US Offshore Wind Project Revolution Wind Installs Last Turbine

September 21, 2026 — One of the few large offshore wind projects proceeding in the United States, Revolution Wind completed the installation of its 65th and final wind turbine. The project began delivering power in March despite repeated opposition from the Trump administration and now expects to complete its commissioning by the end of the year.

Revolution Wind is being developed in a 50-50 partnership between Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables. Media reports indicate it represents an investment of $6.2 billion to develop and will become the third large, commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States to be completed. It is located in Rhode Island Sound, not too far from the Vineyard Wind and South Fork Wind projects, which have already been completed and commissioned.

The project received its final approvals in November 2023 after the companies noted more than nine years of planning and permitting. It has 20-year power purchase agreements to deliver 400 MW to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut.

The project started offshore construction in 2024, and by August 2025 it was reported to be nearly 80 percent complete. The first of its turbines was installed in September 2024, and by August 2025, Revolution Wind said 45 of the 65 Siemens Gamesa turbines were installed.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to Meet October 6-8, 2026, in Duck, NC

September 14, 2026 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet Tuesday, October 6 – Thursday, October 8, 2026, at The Sanderling in Duck, North Carolina. The meeting is open to the public, with the exception of a closed Executive Committee session, and will also be accessible via webinar. Meeting materials, webinar information, and public comment instructions are available on the October 2026 Council Meeting Page.

Major agenda items include:

  • Executive Committee: Review Ricks E Savage Award nominations (closed session); review draft deliverables for the 2027 Implementation Plan (open session).
  • Vessel Baseline Restrictions: Review evaluation of vessel baseline restrictions and consider initiating management action.
  • Scup Gear Restricted Areas: Review existing Scup Gear Restricted Areas, previous analyses, and recent project results; consider potential management action.
  • Illex Squid: Review 2027 specifications and revise as necessary; discuss Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Illex quota issues and consider next steps.
  • Atlantic Mackerel: Review previously adopted 2027 specifications and revise as necessary.
  • Longfin Squid: Receive an overview of the recently completed Research Track stock assessment.
  • Spiny Dogfish: Review previously adopted 2027 specifications and revise as necessary.
  • Blueline Tilefish: Review recommendations from the Joint MAFMC-SAFMC Blueline Tilefish Subcommittee and consider next steps.
  • Habitat: Receive an update from NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office Habitat and Ecosystem Services Division on habitat-related activities of interest in the region.
  • Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation: Receive an update on the draft design of the regional fisheries compensation fund and upcoming public comment opportunities.
  • Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan: Receive a NOAA Fisheries presentation on the scoping process for potential future modifications to the plan.
  • Business Session: Receive committee, agency, and liaison reports and provide an opportunity for general public comment.

The Council welcomes public comment from in-person and remote participants. Instructions and deadlines for submitting comments are available on the meeting page.

MAINE: What’s the biggest threat to the lobster industry?

September 1, 2026 — Lobstermen are under threat. They all agree on that much. The threats they describe vary from one to the next. But they are worried about their future, and the future of a livelihood that many learned from their fathers and grandfathers and want to pass to their children and grandchildren.

The risks are larger than any one lobsterman — or even the industry as a whole. Lobstering “is not only an economic driver of coastal and island communities, it is an identity of our communities,” said Kristin Garabedian, a community development officer with the Island Institute’s Center for the Marine Economy. In other words, losing lobstering would make a town like Harpswell less like Harpswell.

Most lobstermen see the biggest threats coming from outsiders pursuing their own aims without regard for the lobstermen who live and work here. Those might be wind-power proponents, whale protectors, big businesses or homebuyers.

Few, if any, see climate change as an immediate or catastrophic threat, although they are deeply in tune with the changes happening in the Gulf of Maine and are worried about human impacts on the environment they depend on.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor 

California Sues DOI Calling Offshore Wind Cancellation “Blatantly Unlawful”

August 31, 2026 — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission moved forward with their earlier challenges and filed a lawsuit on August 28 against the Trump administration and Golden State Wind over what it is calling “the unlawful buyout” of the offshore wind energy lease. The state is contending the deal to buy back the offshore wind lease is illegal and would jeopardize its investments to support the project, the state’s energy policy, and the commitments from the developer for workforce training, the supply chain, and investments in the local communities.

The California Energy Commission in May served an administrative investigative subpoena to Golden State Wind seeking documents and information related to the buyout. The California Department of Justice and CEC followed up in June by sending a Notice of Intent to Sue targeting what it terms an “unlawful agreement between the Department of the Interior and Golden State Wind.” It is asserting that the deal is “blatantly unlawful” and is asking the courts to strike it down.

“The Trump administration’s backroom buyout with Golden State Wind to stop offshore wind development in favor of gas and oil drilling is, unfortunately, a classic playbook for them to line the pockets of their Big Oil donors,” said Attorney General Bonta, announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive 

Court order could threaten permits for surviving US wind projects

August 19, 2026 — A court decision remanding prior approvals for a wind energy project off New Jersey could pose a new threat to offshore turbine arrays under construction, as the Trump administration presses its relentless campaign against them.

The Aug. 10 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb in the District of Columbia granted a request by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to reconsider its permitting for  Atlantic Shores, planned as a 2.8 gigawatt project near Long Beach Island, N.J.

Local activist group Save Long Beach Island had sought a remand and reconsideration of the project’s construction and operations plan, approved in October 2024 in the waning days of the Biden administration.

Save LBI contended that BOEM failed to adequately consider the project’s likely effects under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, among other federal laws.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Seafloor boulders challenge fishermen, and energy developers

August 18, 2026 — Boulder fields have strewn the sea floor off southern New England since the ice ages. Commercial fishermen have maneuvered around those obstacles for generations.

Now with offshore wind projects in the region, subsea cable installers have relocated some stones to make way – changing the bottom seascape and potentially creating new hazards for towed gear and access to traditional fishing grounds.

A new report from the Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program and the Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law is titled Boulder Relocation for Offshore Energy Development in Rhode Island: Artificial Reefs and Cross-Industry Collaboration.

The paper examines legal and policy considerations around the permitting of boulder relocation – and looks at how the process could “better incorporate commercial fishermen into planning and decision-making,” according to a Sea Grant summary.

Read the full article at WorkBoat 

Trump admin to reconsider permits for Atlantic Shores wind project

August 13, 2026 — In the latest blow to the offshore wind industry, a federal court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to reconsider permits for the Atlantic Shores project off the coast of New Jersey.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could review the construction permits it issued to the project. The permits were issued under the Biden administration.

“Remand is appropriate here in the interest of judicial economy and in light of the lack of prejudice to Atlantic Shores,” the order read.

Read the full article at E&E News

US Senate bill would incentivize offshore wind development, despite Trump buyouts

August 12, 2026 — A pair of U.S. senators have introduced legislation to enable more investment in offshore wind development, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to buyout existing lease holders.

Trump has made opposition to offshore wind power a key policy of his second term, issuing an executive order pausing offshore wind projects his first day back in office. That order was ultimately struck down by a federal judge, and a subsequent order by the U.S. Department of the Interior pausing development over vague national security concerns has not fared much better in court.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource