Saving Seafood

RESPONSIBLE OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (RODA) STATEMENT REGARDING VINEYARD WIND FEDERAL REVIEW PROCESS

August 14, 2019 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

In light of the recent decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to perform a cumulative impacts analysis regarding the proposed Vineyard Wind project, and the recently released communications between that agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), RODA would like to clarify certain statements and representations.

The RODA Board of Directors particularly notes the citation of its statement regarding turbine spacing and orientation in BOEM’s response to NMFS’ letter of nonconcurrence. To provide the full context of this statement, which is not readily apparent from BOEM’s letter, it is posted here in its entirety.

RODA has not taken a position to specifically support or oppose any offshore wind energy development. We have repeatedly stated in multiple formats that decisions on any new uses of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that have the potential to affect commercial fishing must be based on a deliberative process and scientific record that fully incorporates the input of diverse fishing communities and avoids and minimizes such impacts to the maximum possible extent; and where impacts cannot be avoided effective mitigation strategies are developed to achieve co-existence.

During the development of the Vineyard Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), RODA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BOEM and NMFS in order to collaborate on the science and process of offshore wind energy development on the Atlantic OCS. We value the relationships and progress we are advancing with both agencies as well as those with developers, including Vineyard Wind, through cooperation on our Joint Industry Task Force and the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance.

The size, pace, and scope of proposed offshore wind energy projects on the Atlantic OCS demand that lawmakers, regulators, developers, and the public all employ due caution to ensure that these developments can coexist with our traditional and historic fisheries. It would be unacceptable to put at stake hundreds of thousands of skilled fishing jobs, healthy and sustainable seafood, important traditional ecological knowledge, and the very fabric of our coastal cultures in a rush to welcome a new industry before the trade-offs are fully considered. In many early natural resource-based industries—including the fishing industry—a race to develop without adequate science and planning has resulted in avoidable resource catastrophes. We would like to avoid those outcomes, and taking time to understand the cumulative impacts of multiple imminent industrial projects is critical to doing so.

Read the full release here

Environmental Groups, Fishermen Divided On Trump Administration’s Delay Of Offshore Wind Project

August 14, 2019 — The Interior Department is ordering further analysis of the Vineyard Wind project’s impact on commercial fishing as well as a study of the industry’s cumulative impacts on the environment.

New England commercial fishermen have applauded the decision saying the project has been moving too fast and hasn’t addressed their concerns about fish displacement and navigational safety.

Scallop fisherman Eric Hansen in New Bedford, MA says the industry has been expressing its issues with the Vineyard Wind project for years. He’s pleased the federal government is finally listening.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Vineyard Wind CEO says company remains committed to project

August 13, 2019 — Vineyard Wind is committed to building the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm off the Massachusetts coast despite a decision by federal regulators to delay issuing a key environmental impact statement, company CEO Lars Pedersen said Monday.

But the company will have to push back its deadline for the 800-megawatt project, Pedersen said.

“We are very proud of the Vineyard Wind team’s achievements so far and we are disappointed not to deliver the project on the timeline we had anticipated,” Pedersen said in a written statement. “We were less than four months away from launching a new industry in the United States.”

More than 50 U.S. companies have been awarded a contract or are currently bidding on contracts associated with the 84-turbine wind farm, Pedersen said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Vineyard Wind project delayed

August 13, 2019 — The proposed offshore wind project off the coast of New Bedford has hit another stumbling block.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it would delay the 84-turbine, 800-megawatt farm because stakeholders want a better analysis of it.

Vineyard Wind was calling on the federal government to complete its review so the project could move forward. Congressman Bill Keating says the Trump administration has decided to delay construction on the project.

“Vineyard Wind and the larger off-shore wind industry are anchors to a blue economy based in New Bedford and Southeastern Massachusetts,” Keating said in a statement over the weekend. “The effects of today’s announcement are the potential loss of over three thousand jobs in our region; the loss of the ability to heat 400,000 homes; and – in light of the decommissioning of Pilgrim Power Plant – twenty percent of our energy was anticipated to come from offshore wind by 2035. All of this is in jeopardy now.”

Read the full story at WPRI

Rep. Keating Criticizes Trump Administration for Vineyard Wind Delay

August 13, 2019 — Congressman William Keating is criticizing the Trump Administration after a decision last week by federal regulators to hold off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for the Vineyard Wind project.

The 84-turbine, 800-megawatt wind farm was being planned for South of Martha’s Vineyard and would be able to generate enough energy to power nearly 400,000 homes.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the agency took the action to delay issuing the EIS after receiving comments “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting a more robust cumulative analysis that would include projects that have been awarded power purchase agreements, but may not have submitted construction and operations plans.

Keating, a Bourne Democrat, said in a statement that the Vineyard Wind project, and larger off-shore wind industry, is an anchor to a blue economy based in New Bedford and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Trump admin throws wrench into offshore wind plans

August 13, 2019 — The Trump administration is ordering a sweeping environmental review of the burgeoning offshore wind industry, a move that threatens to derail the nation’s first major project and raises a host of questions for future developments.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of the Interior Department, is ordering a study of the cumulative impact of a string of projects along the East Coast. The review comes in response to concerns from fishermen about the impact of offshore wind development on East Coast fisheries.

A BOEM spokeswoman said the review would focus on projects with signed power purchase agreements. Nine projects in seven states with a combined capacity of 4.8 gigawatts are planned to come online in the coming years. The study will also consider the environmental implications of an even larger build-out of the industry, based on states’ development targets for offshore wind.

But conflicts with fishermen are only likely to grow. Vineyard Wind has primarily drawn opposition from squid fishermen. An area likely to be offered for lease next year near New York is prime scalloping water. Fishermen there are already raising objections.

If Vineyard Wind is ultimately found to have a detrimental impact on fisheries, that would have serious consequences for the rest of the industry, said Logan, the Wood Mackenzie analyst.

“It would be an exteremly bad precedent to set,” he said. “Based on the things they’ve brought up with fisheries, which is a problem up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it could be contagious, so to speak.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Feds delay environmental statement for offshore wind project

August 12, 2019 — Federal regulators are holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind, a proposed major wind farm planned off the Massachusetts coast — a move the company called a “surprise and disappointment.”

Connie Gillette, chief of public affairs for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Friday the agency took the action after receiving comments “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting a more robust cumulative analysis that would include projects that have been awarded power purchase agreements, but may not have submitted construction and operations plans.

“Because BOEM has determined that a greater build out of offshore wind capacity is reasonably foreseeable than was analyzed in the initial draft EIS, BOEM has decided to supplement the Draft EIS and solicit comments on its revised cumulative impacts analysis,” Gillette said in a statement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

SARAH CONLEY: Dominion’s approach to offshore wind is cautious

August 12, 2019 — Virginia has a dependence on coal and other fossil fuels that has plagued our state for ages. Dominion Energy has played a role in fostering this damaging relationship, as has an administration that favors the convenience of fossil fuels. So I found the news regarding Dominion Energy’s wind turbines in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area to be striking and refreshing.

Dominion Energy’s decision to build an offshore wind farm near Virginia Beach demonstrates a much-needed normalization of and transition toward renewable energy. This project includes the construction of two turbines capable of producing 12 megawatts total. While some have criticized the project for being too small scale, Dominion has expressed its need to prove the concept before moving forward with a large-scale wind farm. The payoff for this project to move ahead would be immense for the Hampton Roads region and for Virginia’s role as a leader in alternative energy.

The vulnerability of Hampton Roads to the impacts of climate change adds elevated significance to this project, for which Dominion is partnering with Denmark’s wind giant Orsted. I am amazed at how quickly I have seen the severity of storms and sea-level rise in Virginia Beach within my own lifetime. Residents of coastal neighborhoods are seeing more and more flooding of homes and streets. Rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns are leading to record-breaking hurricanes, such as Irma, Harvey and Maria. Hampton Roads has the highest rate of sea-level rise on the East Coast, and in the top three nationally with New Orleans and Miami Beach. Ocean levels along Virginia are expected to rise 1.5 feet by 2050. There is no time to waste in acting against these consequences of fossil fuel dependence.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Letter shows BOEM was ready to move ahead on US wind farm without NMFS blessing

August 12, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published by Undercurrent News:

Before the US president Donald Trump administration ordered a delay of the country’s first offshore wind farm late last week, it was the belief of at least some of its officials that making the changes requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be disastrous and NMFS approval was not needed to move ahead anyhow, Undercurrent News has learned.

Interior secretary David Bernhardt on Friday told Bloomberg that he has ordered an additional study by his department of the Vineyard Wind project, a plan to build more than 80 giant wind turbines on a 118-mile stretch of ocean some 15 miles from the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, before going ahead with a final environmental impact statement (EIS).

The decision puts in jeopardy the $2.8 billion project, which had promised to supply a combined 800 megawatts of power to at least 400,000 New England homes and businesses but had worried the commercial fishing industry. It was scheduled to begin construction this year and be operational by early 2022.

Bernhardt reportedly told the news service that it’s important the impact of the project be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s,” he said.

A Vineyard Wind spokesman called the Interior Department’s decision “a surprise and disappointment” and said his company urged the federal government to “complete the review as quickly as possible”.

As reported last week by Undercurrent News, the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has seemingly dragged its feet on Vineyard Wind’s final EIS since receiving at least two letters from Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for NMFS’ greater Atlantic office.

One 44-page letter, sent in March to James Bennett, head of BOEM’s Office of Renewable Programs, provided a detailed critique of a half dozen alternative approaches for the wind farm under consideration.  Another short three-page letter sent by Pentony on April 16, restated some of the same concerns, including NMFS’ request for more space between the turbines and an overall different directional orientation.

“We reviewed your preferred alternative and associated rationale provided in your letter dated April 3, 2019, and are writing to inform you that [NMFS] does not concur with your choice of a preferred alternative,” the second letter states.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Trump Delay Casts Doubt on First Major U.S. Offshore Wind Farm

August 12, 2019 — The following are excerpts from stories originally published by Bloomberg and State House News Service on the most recent developments on the Vineyard Wind project. For more coverage on Vineyard Wind, visit Saving Seafood.

The Trump administration cast the fate of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm into doubt by extending an environmental review for the $2.8 billion Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts.

The Interior Department has ordered an additional study of the farm, proposed by Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday. The project, which has drawn opposition from fishermen and coastal communities, had been scheduled to be operational by early 2022. The developers have warned that regulatory delays could put it in jeopardy.

Bernhardt said it’s crucial the impacts be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s,” he said.

An Interior Department review explored how Vineyard Wind may affect other industries and resources, including marine life. But the National Marine Fisheries Service raised concerns it looked too narrowly at potential cumulative effects on fishing, prompting the supplemental review, Bernhardt said.

“If it’s going to be developed, it needs to be developed in a way that everyone gets to say, at least, that we didn’t shave the ball,” Bernhardt said.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Federal Review Will Further Delay Vineyard Wind

Vineyard Wind, the $2.8 billion, 800-megawatt offshore wind project planned for the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, has been delayed and will not move forward on the timeline it has been anticipating due to a federal agency’s decision to undertake a broad study of the potential impacts of offshore wind projects planned up and down the coast.

The decision of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to launch a “cumulative impacts analysis” and hold up the approval of a key permit for Vineyard Wind until that analysis is complete will likely upend the supply chain, financing and construction timeline for the project chosen by the Baker administration and state utility companies to fulfill part of a 2016 clean energy law.

The project has been on unsteady ground in recent weeks after the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management notified project officials that the government was “not yet prepared” to issue a final environmental impact statement, which had been expected in July.

On Friday, BOEM said it had received comments from stakeholders and other federal agencies requesting “a more robust cumulative analysis” and decided to launch a more comprehensive look at offshore wind projects after federal officials “determined that a greater build out of offshore wind capacity is reasonably foreseeable than was analyzed in the initial draft EIS” for Vineyard Wind.

Read the full story from State House News Service at WBUR