Saving Seafood

NEFMC September 24-27, 2018, Plymouth, MA – Listen Live, View Documents

September 17, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a four-day meeting from Monday, September 24 through Thursday, September 27, 2018. The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION: Hotel 1620 Plymouth Harbor, 180 Water Street, Plymouth, MA 02360; www.hotel1620.com.

START TIME: The webinar will be activated at approximately 1 p.m. on Monday, September 24 and at 8:00 a.m. each day thereafter.  However, please note that the meeting is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. on Monday and 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (415) 655-0052.  The access code is 471-062-244.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at September 24-27, 2018 NEFMC Plymouth, MA.

COMMENT DEADLINE:  Written comments must be received no later than 8 a.m., Thursday, September 20, 2018 to be considered at this meeting.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK:  A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.

ADDITIONAL EVENT:  On Wednesday, September 26, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold an “open office” in the Plympton Room of the same hotel.  BOEM staffers will be on hand to solicit input and answer questions about offshore wind-related activities, including: (1) the New York Bight Area Identification; (2) the Vineyard Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement; (3) the South Fork Wind Farm Construction and Operations Plan; and (4) other issues of interest to Council members and the public.

Learn more about the NEFMC here

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Public Meetings on New York Bight Offshore Wind

September 14, 2018 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will be hosting three public meetings and a webinar to discuss feedback that we have received from a recently published Call for Information and Nominations (Call) for potential offshore wind energy leasing and development in the New York Bight.

The meetings will be held at the following locations:

Monday, Sept. 17, 2018
Riverhead, NY
Shade Tree Community Center
60 Shade Tree Lane
Aquebogue, NY
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018
New Bedford, MA
Waypoint Event Center at Fairfield Inn & Suites
Sea Loft Room
185 MacArthur Drive
New Bedford, MA 02740
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018
Long Branch, NJ
Long Branch Library
328 Broadway
Long Branch, NJ 07740
5:00 -7:45 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018
Webinar hosted by BOEM
https://orep.adobeconnect.com/nybightareaid/
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

At each meeting, BOEM will present its most recent analysis that incorporates comments received from the Call. In addition, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to help inform BOEM’s decision-making process.

Read more from BOEM

New York’s offshore wind plan faces commercial fishing opposition

September 13, 2018 — The plan to turn ocean wind into energy calls for anchoring 15 wind turbines, each one a little taller than the Washington Monument, into the sea floor more than 30 miles off the coast of Montauk, Long Island.

They’ll be far enough out in the Atlantic that they won’t be seen from Long Island’s beaches, so far in fact, that it will require miles and miles of cable to deliver their 90 megawatts of energy – enough to power 50,000 homes – from ocean to land.

And that’s right smack in the middle of where Chris Scola makes his living.

Several days a week, Scola motors his rusting trawler – the Rock-n-Roll III — into the waters off Montauk’s coast, drops a dredging net onto the ocean floor and scoops up hundreds of pounds of scallops.

Once those cables go in, Scola fears his nets will get entangled, making dredging so difficult he’ll need to find a place to fish further offshore with a larger boat, sending himself deeper into debt.

“This isn’t just about fishermen,” said Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “This is about the environment. You’re industrializing the ocean floor.”

Brady said developers have failed to properly account for the impact that two processes essential to the Montauk wind farm project will have on fishing habitats. One is the pile driving required to anchor 590-foot tall turbines in the ocean floor and the other is jet plowing, which liquidizes sediment so cable can be dug four to six feet into the ocean floor.

The project’s developer, Deepwater Wind, says the processes might have an initial impact on fishing habitats but over time things will return to normal.

Read the full story at the Poughkeepsie Journal

Deepwater Will File Wind Farm Application With The State Without Waiting For East Hampton Trustees’ Approval

September 12, 2018 — Deepwater Wind says it will file its massive application for the South Fork Wind Farm with the New York State Public Service Commission this month—without waiting for the East Hampton Town Trustees to vote on whether they will grant a lease to the company.

A spokesperson for the wind farm company confirmed that the application, already months behind when the company originally hoped to file, is expected to be submitted to the state this week or next.

The Trustees have not voted on a resolution to allow Deepwater to run the wind farm power cable beneath Trustees-owned beach at Beach Lane in Wainscott, or to vote on one “memorializing” their intention to do so, as the Town Board did in July for allowing the cable to run under town roads.

But Deepwater spokesperson Meaghan Whims cited the recent unanimous support of the Trustees for hiring a municipal contract attorney to represent the board in the negotiations of the lease, and said the company has taken it as a sign that the Trustees ultimately expect to hammer out an agreement with Deepwater—though she acknowledged that the application with the state also will account for the possibility that one or both of the town entities will balk when it comes to signing actual contracts.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

Fishermen’s Energy, EDF Renewables to Start Ocean Wind Power Off New Jersey

September 12, 2018 — On Sept. 5, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities deemed the application by EDF Renewables and Fishermen’s Energy for the Nautilus Offshore Wind project is complete.

The BPU has 90 days from Aug. 1 to review the project and make a decision on whether to approve the small-scale project to be located approximately 2.8 miles off the coastline of Atlantic City.

According to a press release from EDF and Fishermen’s Energy, once approved construction would start immediately and could be completed in 2020.

The project is expected to be comprised of three wind turbines with a combined capacity of up to 25 megawatts (MW).

“It’s a crucial first step toward implementing the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act and building a workforce capable of meeting Gov. Phil Murphy’s statewide goal of 3,500 MW of offshore wind generation by 2030,” said EDF spokesperson Cathy Rought.

Nautilus Offshore Wind is expected to employ about 600 workers for a year during construction, as well as additional jobs during operation and maintenance. New Jersey residents across the state could expect to begin receiving power generated by Nautilus Offshore Wind as early as 2021. The company estimates that for the average New Jersey electric consumer, the additional cost of power will amount to about $1.76 per year. At the same time it would offset 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide. It will also serve as a laboratory for new avian monitoring (bird strikes) and marine mammal impacts.

“Nautilus will make it possible for Atlantic City to become the birthplace of an emerging industry, creating new jobs and sustainable economic growth,” said New Jersey Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (Atlantic County). “When approved, the project will be the start of an energy transformation that will allow for a brighter and cleaner future here in Atlantic City, in Atlantic County and across the state.”

According to EDF and Fishermen’s Energy, an independent analysis showed that Nautilus is expected to increase New Jersey’s total economic output by $150 million with construction by 2020. Maintaining the offshore wind project could add $16 million annually for the state, with a projected economic and environmental net benefit of $235 million.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Developers see value in California offshore wind development

September 11, 2018 — Now that offshore wind energy has taken a strong position in New England’s future power planning, due in part to unexpectedly competitive prices, developers are looking toward new markets.

State mandates and contractual commitments promise to make offshore wind a key part of the East Coast power mix by the mid-2020s. But offshore wind is not limited to the east. A Sept. 17 meeting of a federal-state Energy Task Force could clear federal permitting obstacles, bring thousands of California coastal wind MWs into the market, and pioneer floating turbine technology.

Regulators are saying little ahead of the meeting but the Trump administration sees wind energy as “affordable and reliable,” Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Chief of Staff Alex Fitzsimmons told Utility Dive. And because of its high capacity factors, offshore wind “has the potential to contribute to reliability,” he added. “It is a critical resource for the future.”

First, however, developers will need the rights to build. That remains in doubt until at least Sept. 17. If they get those rights, a three-step plan may allow California to bring prices down enough to begin harvesting wind, just when it will be needed the most.

Read the full story at Utility Drive

US East Coast could build nearly 9 GW of offshore wind capacity over next decade

September 10, 2018 — The US East Coast is leading the nation’s charge toward developing an offshore wind industry, and while the country only has 30 MW of offshore wind capacity installed currently, if goals are met and announced projects are built, the East Coast could have nearly 9 GW of offshore wind capacity by the 2030s.

The US has a long way to go in closing the gap with Europe in terms of offshore wind capacity, but with several East Coast states committing to achieve aggressive offshore wind development goals, the country could make considerable progress over the next decade.

Europe had nearly 16 GW of total installed offshore wind capacity at the end of 2017, according to trade group Wind Europe, compared with just one operating facility in the US — Deepwater Wind’s 30-MW Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island.

New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts are leading the way when it comes to setting offshore wind development goals. New York has a target to receive 2.4 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and plans to issue requests for proposals for 800 MW in fourth-quarter 2018.

Not to be outdone, New Jersey has a goal of 3.5 GW of offshore wind generation by 2030. The state’s Board of Public Utilities Wednesday accepted an application from EDF Renewables and Fishermen’s Energy for the small-scale 25-MW Nautilus Offshore Wind project that would be located off the Atlantic City coast and could be generating power by 2021. Building a smaller project first has been touted by the companies as a way to kick start New Jersey’s offshore wind industry.

Read the full story at S&P Global

NEW YORK: Plea to Fund Fishing Survey

September 7, 2018 — Several months after they asked East Hampton Town for $30,000 to collect data aimed at protecting fishing grounds and compensating commercial fishermen when they are unable to work, that request has still not been granted, the director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the liaison chosen by East Hampton Town’s fisheries advisory committee to communicate with Deepwater Wind complained to the town board on Tuesday.

While the liaison, Julie Evans, and Bonnie Brady of the fishing association addressed the board, Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company planning to construct the 15-turbine South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles off Montauk, is in the midst of a projected four-month survey at the site and along the transmission cable’s route to shore.

Commercial fishermen are mostly opposed to the wind farm, fearing damage or destruction of fishing grounds and potential alteration of migration patterns caused by the electromagnetic frequency emitted by its transmission cable.

A “mariners briefing” dated Tuesday and posted on Deepwater Wind’s website states that “all mariners transiting or fishing in the survey area are requested to give a wide berth to survey vessels as they will be limited in their ability to maneuver and towing gear out to 300 meters behind the vessel.”

Ms. Brady told the board that the purpose of a fisheries representative is to develop a mitigation-monitoring plan with a Deepwater Wind representative. “Unfortunately,” she said, “when it comes to Deepwater, their communication as far as the survey is ‘Get out of the way,’ and outreach is ‘Get out of the way now.’ ” Commercial fishermen who work in the survey area are now restricted, she said. “For how long? Who pays that? If you’ve got a day’s pay and have made that same day’s pay over the course of the last 10 or 20 years, and suddenly you can’t fish because the survey boat is there,” a mitigation plan is not only needed but should have been in place prior to commencement of the survey.

Read the full story at The Hampton Star

Massachusetts: Vineyard Wind Submits Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report

September 5, 2018 — Vineyard Wind announced today that it has submitted the project’s Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report (SDEIR) to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA.) The latest report will further ensure that members of public have ample opportunity to provide input about the United States’ first large-scale offshore wind farm.

The SDEIR filing captures additional project refinements following the award and negotiation of long-term contracts with Massachusetts’ electric distribution companies (EDCs) for construction of an 800-megawatt (MW) wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Vineyard Wind remains on schedule to begin site construction in 2019 and become operational by 2021. When Vineyard Wind’s project is completed, it will reduce Massachusetts’ carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars from state roads.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Today