Saving Seafood

Offshore wind’s effects on fish won’t be studied due to federal cuts

October 7, 2025 — A research project that would have studied how New England offshore wind projects affect commercial fish species is now dead in the water.

The canceled study, which would have employed New Bedford fishermen, is one casualty of $7.5 billion in clean-energy funding cuts in mostly Democrat-led states, announced last week by the Department of Energy.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation, a Falmouth-based scientific research nonprofit, was awarded $3.5 million by the Energy Department in 2021 to survey commercial fish species in wind farm areas before, during and after construction. The surveys, which were scheduled to begin this year, would have helped fill large information gaps on how wind farms on the Atlantic Coast could affect fished species.

Wind developers already collect this type of data (to varying degrees), but the companies largely keep the data private. The project would have published open-source data, and would have paid a handful of fishermen — most from New Bedford — to assist in the project by towing or deploying specialized survey equipment through the waters in and around the wind leases.

Read the full article at the The New Bedford Light

MARYLAND: Maryland renewable energy projects face uncertain future

October 6, 2025 — In August, the Trump administration revoked hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for Maryland renewable energy infrastructure projects.

The Maryland Offshore Wind Project and the Maryland Solar for All initiatives took significant blows after President Donald Trump cancelled grants for renewable projects across the nation.

Trump has described wind and solar as “expensive and unreliable energy sources,” seeking instead to promote domestic fossil fuel production.

Since the onset of his administration, Trump has signed 15 executive orders shifting federal policy away from renewable energy initiatives toward more traditional energy sources such as oil and coal.

Read the full article at Capital News Service 

Judge denies motion to pause Ocean City wind farm litigation

October 6, 2025 — A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s bid to pause Ocean City’s lawsuit over offshore wind power due to the federal government shutdown.

Before the government shutdown, Judge Stephanie Gallagher was expected to issue a ruling that would either allow U.S. Wind to move forward or give the U.S. Department of the Interior the ability to pull back its approval. In August, the Department of the Interior, speaking for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, joined Ocean City in asking the court to send the case back and vacate the prior approval.

The government’s Thursday filing asked the court to pause the case because the Department of Justice’s attorneys are “prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, with few exceptions” since the shutdown began on Wednesday.

Read the full article at the Miami Herald

MARYLAND: Harris hosts offshore wind summit

October 3, 2025 — The Eastern Shore’s congressman said he believes the Trump White House likely will be working to halt a proposed wind farm off the coast of Ocean City after reevaluating its permits.

Federal officials came to Ocean City last week for a rare face-to-face meeting with local leaders and commercial watermen to discuss long-running concerns about the proposed US Wind offshore project.

Congressman Andy Harris (R-1st) hosted the meeting at Sunset Grille in West Ocean City, where a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration met with stakeholders.

Harris in an interview afterwards said the gathering gave watermen a rare chance to speak directly with NOAA scientists about the potential impact of offshore wind turbines on fisheries.

“I think they were very happy to hear that the officials from NOAA were cognizant of their concerns, and I think the officials who were there agreed with them that the offshore wind project likely would do permanent damage to the commercial fishery,” he said.

Read the full article at OC Today-Dispatch

Dept. of Justice Tells Court BOEM Will Review Atlantic Shores COP Approval

October 2, 2025 — The Department of Justice told a federal district court that it plans to review and likely change the approval of the Construction and Operation Plan for New Jersey’s Atlantic Shores South offshore wind farm. While the project has largely been abandoned for months, the move is symbolic because it was where candidate Donald Trump, during a 2024 campaign stop, vowed to bring an end to the offshore wind energy sector.

The filing, which was made on September 27, is similar to others the Department of Justice has made as part of pending lawsuits against wind farm projects from Massachusetts to Maryland. In each of the cases, DOJ has asked the court to stay the pending litigation brought by local activist groups, saying it was “potentially needless or wasteful litigation.” The Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are involved in the cases as the local opposition repeatedly challenges the approvals given to the projects.

The Atlantic Shores South project, which would consist of two large offshore wind farms, received its final approval from BOEM in October 2024 for a project that would have been off the southern New Jersey coast. It called for 197 turbines that would have been at least 8.7 miles from Long Beach Island as part of a project to provide 2.8 GW of energy to the state.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

NEW JERSEY: NJ Commercial Fishermen Can Apply For Compensation From Empire Wind Farm, Being Built Off Long Branch

October 1, 2025 — If you are a New Jersey commercial fisherman, or a shoreside business for commercial fishing, you can be compensated for any negative outcomes of the construction and operation of Empire Wind.

Empire Wind is the first wind farm to be built off New Jersey; it is being built 19 miles off Long Branch. Currently, they are about halfway done with construction, the company says. Empire Wind is owned by the Kingdom of Norway, a majority shareholder in Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor.

“Empire Wind is continuing to work with the fishing community to avoid and mitigate any project impacts,” said Empire Wind. “A fisheries compensation program has been established to provide compensation to commercial and charter/for hire fishermen along with shoreside businesses that have been economically impacted by construction and operations activities.”

Read the full article at The Patch

‘A real tragedy’: Trump’s policies create sea of uncertainty for New Bedford’s offshore wind ambitions

September 29, 2025 — The wind howled as Sonia Brito, clad in a white hard hat and yellow vest, looked out at scallopers, lobster boats, and trawlers crowding the waterfront of New England’s premier fishing port.

Not long ago, the fishing fleet was one of the few sources of good-paying jobs in New Bedford for blue-collar workers such as Brito. But here at the top of a white, 250-foot pillar, Brito had found a different way to earn a living as a millwright: connecting massive blades and tower sections for wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts.

“For kids like myself who went to a vocational school, this is a perfect industry that the United States needs,” said Brito, 22, of New Bedford. “All we really have here is fishing, so you either become a fisherman or leave. This gives people another option.”

Read the full article at The Boston Globe

Offshore wind labor force hoping for work that might not continue

September 26, 2025 — On a warm September day, Sonia Brito stood on a platform more than 200 feet high, securing a “gripper” atop a wind turbine tower with the help of a few of her millwright and ironworker brothers. It’s something they’ve done dozens of times to ready the towers to be grabbed by a crane, placed onto barges and shipped to sea.

The staging terminal, previously packed with blades, nacelles and towers for Vineyard Wind, has grown sparse, a result of a steady workflow during summer’s prime seafaring conditions — and a slowdown, workers say, of international shipments amid the Trump administration’s tariffs.

A Portuguese immigrant who grew up in New Bedford, Brito, 22, says she feels lucky to have happened upon an opportunity like Vineyard Wind. It has allowed her to work in her hometown and build a project that she thinks will have positive impacts for her city and the country’s climate future.

But since the federal government abruptly halted construction at Empire Wind for one month in the spring, and then Revolution Wind in August, workers supporting the buildout of offshore wind in New England have grown worried about the industry’s future — and theirs.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Revolution Wind can restart construction off Martha’s Vineyard, judge rules

September 25, 2025 — Construction on the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard can resume after a federal district court judge granted the developers reprieve from a stop work order issued by the Trump administration.

In a ruling on Monday, D.C. district court Judge Royce Lamberth granted Revolution Wind a preliminary injunction, halting the enforcement of an Aug. 22 order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM.

“Revolution Wind has demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of its underlying claims, it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction, the balance of the equities is in its favor, and maintaining the status quo by granting the injunction is in the public interest,” the judge wrote in his two-page opinion.

Read the full article at Mass Live

Federal judge lifts Trump administration’s halt of nearly complete offshore wind farm in New England

September 23, 2025 — A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project halted by the administration can resume, dealing President Donald Trump a setback in his ongoing effort to restrict the fledgling industry.

Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut has been paused since Aug. 22 when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order for what it said were national security concerns. The Interior Department agency did not specify those concerns at the time. Both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts.

Danish energy company Orsted and its joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables sought a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court that would allow them to move forward with the project.

At a hearing Monday, Judge Royce Lamberth said he considered how Revolution Wind has relied on its federal approval, the delays are costing $2.3 million a day and if the project can’t meet deadlines, the entire enterprise could collapse. After December, the specialized ship needed to complete the project won’t be available until at least 2028, he said. More than 1,000 people have been working on the wind farm, which is 80% complete.

Read the full article at The Associated Press