Saving Seafood

Court shuts down offshore wind challenges over endangered whale

May 1, 2024 — Two attempts to sink the first major offshore wind project in the country over its impact to an endangered whale were shot down this week by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Solar developer Thomas Melone of Connecticut and a coalition of coastal residents in Massachusetts had separately sought to block the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. They argued that federal agencies did not address how offshore wind farm construction could threaten the endangered North American right whale population when issuing key permits.

Their appeals are part of a flurry of lawsuits that have sought, and so far failed, to bring down major offshore renewable projects that are keystones in President Joe Biden’s climate policy.

Read the full article at E&E News

 

Court shuts down offshore wind challenges over endangered whale

April 30, 2024 — Two attempts to sink the first major offshore wind project in the country over its impact to an endangered whale were shot down this week by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Solar developer Thomas Melone of Connecticut and a coalition of coastal residents in Massachusetts had separately sought to block the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. They argued that federal agencies did not address how offshore wind farm construction could threaten the endangered North American right whale population when issuing key permits.

Their appeals are part of a flurry of lawsuits that have sought, and so far failed, to bring down major offshore renewable projects that are keystones in President Joe Biden’s climate policy.

Read the full article at E&E News

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind expansion will rely on ports, including New Bedford

April 30, 2024 — The federal government’s announcement last week of up to 12 more lease sales on both coasts by 2028 means more demand (and potential work opportunities) for vessels and ports, including the Port of New Bedford.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland made the announcement at a wind industry conference in New Orleans, where she and other federal officials also shared the news of millions in funding for offshore wind research, and the streamlining of rules governing how the government holds auctions and reviews projects.

“This is so exciting because it means that developers and communities can expect predictability and transparency as they plan for future projects,” Haaland said. “It also means that all stakeholders from tribes to states to fisheries to academia have more time to weigh in on the process.”

The closest lease sales to Massachusetts will be the Gulf of Maine this year, and the New York Bight, in 2027 (the last one was in 2022 with six areas going to bid). There were no announced lease sales for the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Court Denies Nantucket Group’s Appeal of Vineyard Wind

April 29, 2024 — A federal court has rejected a Nantucket group’s claim that regulators didn’t follow the Endangered Species Act and other environmental law when reviewing the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy farm.

In a 36-page opinion Wednesday, a panel of judges with the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the ACK for Whales group claim, which sought to halt the project currently being constructed about 14 miles to the Vineyard’s south. It is just the latest in a slew of lawsuits that have not gained traction against the wind farm, one of the first commercial-scale projects to be built in the country.

The Nantucket group, formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, asserted that the project was endangering the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and the National Marine Fisheries Service was relying on defective data to make decisions.

The U.S. District Court in Boston rejected the claims in May 2023, prompting the group to turn to the federal appeals court.

But the higher court wasn’t swayed.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

Activists seek lockdown on New England wind project

April 28, 2024 — A Rhode Island-based environmental group asked a federal court to freeze work on the Revolution Wind project, saying the plans require a new biological opinion on potential effects on endangered sei and fin whales.

Green Oceans filed its original lawsuit in January challenging the southern New England offshore wind project.  On April 18 the group’s lawyers were back at U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth’s court in Washington, D.C., with a motion to stay all permits and approvals for the project.

The activists say they made their move because the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Protected Resources reinitiated a required consultation under the Endangered Species Act.

Originally issued by NOAA in July 2023, the ESA process was restarted because of

“insufficient protections for the endangered sei and fin whales and for two species of endangered turtles,” Green Oceans said in a statement. “The Biological Opinion, a required element for the approval and construction of any offshore wind project, is a comprehensive assessment of the anticipated impacts on marine animals during the life of the project, from construction to decommissioning.”

Read the full article at Workboat

Offshore wind threatens future of commercial fisheries

April 28, 2024 — Green Oceans, a new NGO, has emerged as a formidable force in the battle against wind farms in New England. Founded in January 2023 by a passionate group of individuals, Green Oceans has launched a series of lawsuits against wind farm developers, coupled with extensive educational and outreach initiatives.

The organization has forged a strong alliance with fishermen, recognizing their pivotal role in this struggle. “We’ve formed a bond with them, and they’ve reciprocated,” shares the group’s co-founder Bill Thompson. “Fishermen are at the forefront of this issue,” he emphasizes. “They will bear the brunt of the impact.”

The Green Oceans website showcases a video featuring Meghan Lapp of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, Rhode Island. Lapp, a co-plaintiff with Green Oceans in a federal suit against wind farm development, labels wind farms as the most significant threat to commercial fishing on the East Coast. “If the boats disappear, everything will vanish,” she warns, referring to many jobs in seafood processing, vessel repair and maintenance, and more

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gusts of activity underway by friends and foes of offshore wind energy projects

April 28, 2024 — Government supporters of offshore wind energy projects in New Jersey and New York are trading blows with opponents in some shore towns who say many vacationers and local residents don’t want to see turbines filling the ocean horizon.

Eight Jersey Shore beach towns wrote to state utility regulators Wednesday, saying one wind farm proposal will be vastly more expensive than projected, and it will cost tourism-driven jobs and economic activity.

Their move came on the same day that federal energy regulators approved new rules to streamline the application and approval processes for offshore wind farms, and also the day that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued supply chain and logistics proposals to help her state’s offshore wind industry. Hochul’s move came days after three New York projects were scrapped because the companies and state regulators couldn’t agree on the financial terms

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

Federal Court Rejects Nantucket Group’s Appeal Of Vineyard Wind Project

April 28, 2024 — A federal court has rejected the appeal filed by a group of Nantucket residents aimed at stopping the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project southwest of the island.

The group ACK For Whales – formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines – filed the appeal last September with the First Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn the May 2023 decision of U.S. District Court judge Indira Talwani, who dismissed the group’s original complaint. ACK For Whales had alleged that the federal agencies that permitted the Vineyard Wind project violated the Endangered Species Act by concluding that the project’s construction likely would not jeopardize the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. The group also asserted that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on a “flawed analysis” from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But on Wednesday, three U.S. Court of Appeals judges rejected those allegations and affirmed the ruling of the U.S. District Court which had previously dismissed ACK For Whale’s complaint.

“NMFS and BOEM followed the law in analyzing the right whale’s current status and environmental baseline, the likely effects of the Vineyard Wind project on the right whale, and the efficacy of measures to mitigate those effects,” wrote judges William Kayatta, Sandra Lynch, and Gustavo Gelpí wrote in their decision. “Moreover, the agencies’ analyses rationally support their conclusion that Vineyard Wind will not likely jeopardize the continued existence of the right whale. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.”

Read the full article at Nantucket Current

NEW YORK: Collapse of wind farm projects spoils New York’s climate goals. Here’s why.

April 25, 2024 — In the rush to save New York’s offshore industry from collapse last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration bet big on three new wind farms — and even bigger on General Electric, a blue chip American company founded in Schenectady in 1892.

A win would be just the kind the Biden administration is looking for: Pairing clean energy with union jobs and domestic manufacturing.

But the bet was a losing one.

For months, it’s been clear GE Vernova, a spinoff of GE, couldn’t deliver the crucial parts all three wind farms were forced to use. And, late last week, New York officials announced all three projects are dead in the water.

Industry and environmental groups moved to downplay the fallout, but 2024 was supposed to be offshore wind’s year. Instead, it’s looking more like the disastrous 2023, where several projects in New York and New Jersey were canceled or had to be reworked because of inflation and supply chain issues.

New York’s projects were key to President Joe Biden meeting his energy goals for the nation. The struggles of projects in the Northeast during his administration are a major setback for the industry and the woes could be much worse if former President Donald Trump, who is openly hostile to offshore wind, wins this fall.

Read the full article at Politico

Biden administration announces plans for up to 12 lease sales for offshore wind energy

April 25, 2024 — A new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production was announced Wednesday by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028.

Haaland announced the plan at a conference in New Orleans.

Under the plan outlined Wednesday, which includes some previously announced lease auctions, three of the anticipated sales would be for Gulf of Mexico tracts to be offered this year, in 2025 and in 2027. Central Atlantic area leases would be sold in 2024 and 2026.

Other anticipated sale areas include the Gulf of Maine (2024 and 2028); Oregon waters (2024); an area of the Atlantic known as New York Bight (2027); and California, Hawaii, and an as-yet unspecified U.S. territory (2028).

The sales will be coordinated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at the Associated Press