Saving Seafood

Feds Push for Partial Dismissal in Ocean City’s U.S. Wind Lawsuit

April 11, 2025 — The federal government has asked a U.S. District Court Judge to partially dismiss a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), citing a similar offshore wind lawsuit in Rhode Island.

Ocean City and numerous co-plaintiffs first filed their lawsuit against the federal government in October of 2024 over the approval of offshore wind company U.S. Wind’s plans for wind turbines off of Delmarva’s coast. The lawsuit claimed U.S. Wind’s plans and the government’s approval, issued under the Biden Administration, were not in compliance with numerous federal agency rules and regulations.

On January 17, 2025, the federal government filed a motion of partial dismissal in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, according to court records. Specifically, the government argued that two of Ocean City’s claims against them were null. First was the allegation that BOEM violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) and the second that BOEM violated the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) in its approval of U.S. Wind’s proposed project.

Granting approval for a third-party project (like U.S. Wind’s) that could hypothetically violate those acts in the future did not constitute actual or present violations by the government, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued.

Read the full article at WBOC

Danger at sea — NY’s offshore wind power will kill whales, ground ships and more

April 11, 2025 — New York’s offshore waters are on the brink of a man-made disaster, one that threatens marine life, coastal economies and even national security.

The Empire Wind offshore wind project this week began construction in the New York Bight, a critical marine ecosystem and one of the busiest maritime zones on the East Coast.

The damage may be irreversible — and New Yorkers will be footing the bill.

This week, Empire started dumping thousands of tons of rock into the ocean to prepare for constructing huge monopiles, the foundations upon which its giant wind turbines will sit.

The rocks — 3.2 billion pounds of them, in just this first phase of a planned two-part installation — will destroy habitat, burying vital sand shoals that serve as spawning and nursery grounds for fish species like fluke, squid and scallops.

Entire fisheries and fishing communities from Massachusetts to North Carolina will be harmed.

Next month, Empire will start pile-driving the massive 180-foot monopoles into the seafloor.

The tremendous underwater noise and vibration will harm all marine life, especially endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale.

Read the full article at the New York Post

MASSACHUSETTS: What’s new with wind projects off Massachusetts and beyond?

April 9, 2025 — By sight, the offshore wind industry seems to be moving forward on the East Coast. Gargantuan, bright white turbine towers stand tall against New Bedford’s busy waterfront, and poke above I-95 as cars whiz by over the Thames River in New London. But the future of the industry beyond these active projects is uncertain at best under a hostile Trump administration.

In late March, Massachusetts announced another delay of contracts between state utilities and two projects that together promise to power more than 1.5 million homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The state said uncertainty about federal policy was a factor.

The Trump administration, through executive order, effectively froze new permits for offshore wind in January. That has empowered opponents to mount even more legal challenges to projects — including some in March from Nantucket town officials and activists.

The federal government could pause still-pending projects for at least the next four years, eventually leaving New Bedford and New London’s purpose-built marine terminals empty once again. And in an extreme scenario, the administration could even try to stop the projects that are already under construction.

Yet Massachusetts is counting on offshore wind to meet its climate goals of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and achieving net-zero emissions (meaning the state offsets or removes as much carbon as it emits) by 2050.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

NEW YORK: New York’s wind farms on Long Island face uncertainty after President Trump halts lease sales, permits

April 8, 2025 — Smith Point’s Park Beach is where offshore wind energy will soon come ashore. Crews there are laying cables for New York’s second wind farm with 84 turbines 30 miles off Montauk.

“We have this untapped renewable resource, the wind… this is going to power millions of homes… with almost zero fossil fuel use,” Melissa Parrot, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island said. “The planet is at stake. We see the glaciers melting… you see the storms, you see the floods… and the number one way to curb climate change is to stop our CO2 output, which is fossil fuel use.”

Hope has turned to uncertainty. On his first day in office, President Trump halted ocean wind lease sales and permits, ordering a full review. His strategy prioritizes oil, gas and coal to lower prices, he said.

“We have more energy than anybody and we are going to be unleashing it,” Mr. Trump said.

On the other end of of Long Island and on the flip side of the debate, Christina Kramer of Protect Our Coast – LINY applauds Mr. Trump’s decision. She turned against offshore wind when a transmission line was proposed on her Long Beach block. Her group argues wind energy is unreliable, costly and environmentally harmful.

Read the full article at CBS News

US offshore wind farm projects slow as Trump opposition adds to hurdles

April 7, 2025 —  Energy firms have slowed construction of offshore wind farms in the U.S. for various reasons in recent years, including, most recently, opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Offshore wind was a key pillar of former President Joe Biden’s promise that fighting climate change will create jobs and invigorate the economy. In 2023 and 2024, however, several offshore wind companies took billions in write-offs, impairments and other cancellation fees after determining they could no longer complete projects profitably due to rocketing construction costs, higher interest rates and supply chain snags.

After Trump suspended new offshore wind leasing on his first day back in the Oval Office in January, several energy analysts said they did not expect any new offshore wind projects other than those already under construction to move forward over the next few years.

There are four offshore wind farms in service and producing power in the U.S., and another four projects under construction that are expected to enter service from 2025-2027. There are also several projects in advanced development.

Recently, some analysts have warned that projects already under construction may not be safe from attacks by the Trump administration.

Read the full article at Reuters

Court case against New England offshore wind approvals can proceed

April 4, 2025 — A sweeping legal challenge to federal agency approvals for an offshore wind project under construction in New England has cleared an initial legal hurdle.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled this week that a number of legal claims could move forward against the Interior Department, NOAA Fisheries and the Army Corps of Engineers for approving the Revolution Wind Farm and the Revolution Wind export cable project in Rhode Island.

The case led by the Green Oceans nonprofit group alleges that the agencies violated a slew of environmental laws — from the Endangered Species Act to the National Historic Preservation Act — when they approved the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project 15 miles off the coast of Block Island. Construction began on the wind farm in 2023 and is projected to be completed next year, when it would provide 304 megawatts to Connecticut and 400 MW to Rhode Island.

Read the full article at E&E News

Biden’s ‘ambitious climate goals’ go down in literal flames by popular American beach

April 4, 2025 — A major part of a first-of-its-kind green energy project, which the Biden administration bragged about, is now lying in ruins and polluting some of America’s beautiful ocean and seashore in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Exclusive images obtained by Fox News Digital show the shattered remains of what is left of an ocean wind turbine constructed by Vineyard Wind in a green energy project touted by the Biden administration.

The turbine was recently struck by lightning and destroyed just months after one of its blades dangerously fell into the Atlantic Ocean, dropping non-biodegradable fiberglass shards into the water, some of which washed ashore, forcing six Nantucket beaches to close.

Read the full article at Fox News

SouthCoast Wind responds to Nantucket litigation against wind farm’s federal approval

April 3, 2025 — SouthCoast Wind is responding to litigation by the Town of Nantucket appealing federal approval of the offshore wind farm planned for waters 20 miles south of the island.

The CEO of SouthCoast Wind, Michael Brown, told CAI the federal review was rigorous with regard to Nantucket’s concerns for environmental and historic preservation.

The wind farm’s parent company, Ocean Winds, remains confident in the thoroughness of the process, he said.

SouthCoast Wind is still awaiting some permits but received its main federal approval in December.

Read the full article at CAI

MAINE: Anti-offshore wind fishing group backed by right-wing money eyes support from Maine towns

April 3, 2025 — Since its founding three years ago, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association has been a vocal opponent of offshore wind and relied on funding from a right-wing advocacy group connected to one of the most influential conservative activists in the U.S.

Now, the fishermen’s organization known as NEFSA is looking to diversify its revenue sources by asking coastal communities in Maine for financial support.

Jerry Leeman is the founder and CEO of NEFSA. And for the past three years he’s been the star of an advocacy campaign that’s led him up and down the northeast coast to preach against offshore wind.

Sometimes it’s in a banquet room in Rye, N.H., or in one of NEFSA’s slickly produced videos.

“These ridiculous data assessments that are based on little to nothing, we’re doing falsified research. It’s political science. This isn’t real science. Real science is the real observation of what things are,” Leeman said in one of NEFSA’s videos.

That message — and his sharp critiques of offshore wind — have also landed Leeman interviews on FOX News. When a blade from the Vineyard Wind project near Nantucket broke and sent debris onto nearby beaches last summer, Leeman joined a protest flotilla that drew interest from the network’s business channel.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: UMaine launches floating wind turbine prototype in Trenton

April 3, 2025 — The University of Maine has launched a quarter-scale prototype of a floating wind turbine base that researchers hope will pave the way for commercial-scale wind power development in the Gulf of Maine.

Project officials first sought to float the 380-ton floating concrete base for the prototype from the seaplane ramp at Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton on Sunday, but initially could not get it far enough down the ramp to get it to float when high tide peaked at around noon, according to Bar Harbor Story.

A later attempt, shortly after midnight, was successful, according to UMaine spokesperson Marcus Wolf.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News