Saving Seafood

Blow to Biden as offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico fails to stir interest

September 2, 2023 — The Biden administration on Tuesday held the first ever auction for the right to develop offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico, with just one of the three available leases provisionally awarded and only two bidders.

The historic sale fell on the anniversaries of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2021’s Hurricane Ida, climate crisis-fueled disasters that devastated Gulf communities. It also comes the day after the Gulf cities of New Orleans and Houston saw their hottest temperatures in recorded history, and as the largest wildfire in state history ravages Louisiana.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held auctions on one lease area off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two others off the coast of Galveston, Texas, which together have the capacity to power almost 1.3m homes. Last month, officials said the sale would show that the Gulf – currently the nation’s primary source of offshore oil and gas – can become a key player in a new green economy.

But the result was anti-climatic, with neither of the two lease areas off the Texas coast receiving bids. The German developer RWE was provisionally awarded the third area off Louisiana, beating out just one other bidder.

Several factors may have put a damper on developer interest, the newsletter Heatmap reported last week. Gulf wind speeds are often lower than other coastal areas’, requiring the use of specific turbines for which a robust supply chain must be developed. No Gulf states’ energy policies specifically require the use of offshore wind. And analysts say building out offshore wind in the Gulf will be more expensive than in the north-east, making it harder for wind projects to compete in local energy markets, where existing energy prices are lower.

Read the full article at the Guardian

Offshore wind is here, but who’s really getting the work?

September 2, 2023 — As a golden sunrise lights up New Bedford’s commercial fishing fleet, an unusual passenger ship is steaming out of the harbor toward Vineyard Wind.

The vessel is painted all over in a single color — battleship gray — though it’s not military or law enforcement.

Seated at the helm, Captain Fred Spaid says the look is deliberate.

“We were coming around Cape Hatteras this spring and came up on a catamaran sailboat. He calls us up on the radio, … and he said, ‘Are you guys with the Navy or the Coast Guard?’ I said, ‘Neither one,’” Spaid says, laughing. “But we do have that impression, and that is intentional, absolutely.”

Read the full article at CAI

MASSACHUSETTS: SouthCoast Wind Will Pay $60 Million To Terminate Power Purchase Agreements

September 2, 2023 — While Vineyard Wind’s turbines are rising in the waters off Nantucket, another offshore wind energy developer seeking to build an even larger wind farm south of the island is facing a major setback.

SouthCoast Wind, which hopes to construct 149 offshore wind turbines 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket, is attempting to back out of the power purchase agreements it had signed with three Massachusetts utility companies.

In a petition filed this week with the state Department of Public Utilities, SouthCoast Wind stated it would pay dearly to terminate those agreements. The offshore wind company – which is a joint venture of the petrochemical giant Shell and Ocean Winds North America – agreed to pay $60 million to rip up its deals with Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil.

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Poll: Public support for offshore wind power drops sharply in NJ

August 31, 2023 –A new Monmouth University Poll finds that public support for New Jersey offshore wind projects has dropped sharply, with 54 percent of respondents in favor – down from 76 percent the poll reported in 2019.

The decline comes after a long drumbeat of public debate over how the future seaside vista of turbine arrays visible off Jersey Shore resorts could affect the region’s summer tourist economy.

Those arguments heated up with a wave of whale strandings on New Jersey and New York beaches starting in December 2022. Offshore wind opponents tied the deaths to vessels conducting surveys on wind power sites.

Federal agencies insist there is no evidence to link the projects to stranded whales, while marine mammal rescue groups found evidence that dead humpback whales were injured by ship strikes.

Now a majority of New Jersey residents still favor developing offshore wind power, but those numbers are far below what Monmouth University pollsters have found as recently as 2019.

“Four in 10 residents think wind farms could hurt the state’s summer tourism economy and just under half see a connection between wind energy development and the recent spate of whales washing up on New Jersey beaches,” according to a summary from the Monmouth University Poll. “Few see wind energy leading to major job growth in the state.”

The split is 54 percent in favor of offshore wind power and 40 percent opposed. It’s a sharp contrast to early optimism about wind energy for New Jersey, when in 2019 support was at 76 percent with 15 percent opposed.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

GOM wind lease sale disappoints but doesn’t surprise

August 31, 2023 — The problems derailing various East Coast offshore wind developments because of inflation, supply chain issues, and the rising cost of capital, are reflected in the recent Gulf of Mexico wind lease sale. The Biden administration talked up this first sale in the Gulf, but the results were a resounding dud!

The government offered three offshore wind leases for bid Tuesday — one off Lake Charles, La., and two off Galveston, Texas. Only the Louisiana lease was contested with two bids received.

Germany’s RWE Renewables won the 102,480-acre lease by paying $5.6 million.  That works out to $54.65 per acre, well below the bounty the government collected from its last sale in the New York Bight area. That 2022 sale raised nearly 800 times more money ($4.37 billion) in a 64-round bidding contest than the Gulf sale.  The average price per acre paid was 160 times the Louisiana sale.

In reviewing our offshore wind sale records, the Gulf outcome is more comparable to the 2013 sale result for the two leases off Massachusetts than any other sale. In that sale, 164,000 acres were leased for $3.8 million, or $23 per acre. The price paid per megawatt of potential offshore wind power was nearly $30,000/MW, 11 times the price for the Louisiana lease.

BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein applauded the sale. “Today’s lease sale represents an important milestone for the Gulf of Mexico region — and for our nation — to transition to a clean energy future,” she said.

A more sobering view was offered by Mona Dajani, global head of renewables, energy and infrastructure at law firm Shearman and Sterling. “This first-ever Gulf offshore wind auction was viewed as a big deal, a potential game changer.  Those of us hoping to see a real offshore wind boom in the Gulf may have to wait.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Why the Gulf of Mexico’s first offshore wind auction wasn’t a smash hit

August 30, 2023 — The Biden administration on Tuesday received a top bid of $5.6 million during the first-ever auction of offshore wind development rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

German energy giant RWE placed the highest bid for a 102,500-acre swath of water off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, which has the potential to host 1.24 gigawatts’ worth of offshore wind capacity. Two other lease areas near Galveston, Texas didn’t receive any bids.

The lease sale is an important step toward building clean energy projects in a region that has long been dominated by offshore oil and gas production. Wind turbines are already spinning off the East Coast and more are being installed; meanwhile, floating offshore wind farms are being planned for California’s coastal waters. This week’s auction officially brings the emerging U.S. offshore wind industry to Gulf waters.

Read the full article at Canary Media

Delaware eyes its first offshore wind target, but trouble looms

August 30, 2023 — For years, Delaware has been on the sidelines as the emerging offshore wind industry flocked to neighboring states, but a new law could transform the industry in the state — if it’s not too late.

Delaware’s Democratic-led Legislature recently ordered a study of the state’s offshore wind potential to be reported back by the end of the year. The move, which was signed by Gov. John Carney (D) this month, adds momentum for the state to set its first target for offshore wind, a goal of many lawmakers and environmental groups.

“We’re alone among our neighbors of not really having wind targets,” said state Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D), who has spearheaded the state’s reassessments of offshore wind to meet its climate targets as chair of the state Senate Environment and Energy Committee. “Delaware, as of now, I think, is really firing on all cylinders to move into the next phase of energy planning and implementation.”

If the study leads to a state offshore wind goal, it would bring Delaware in line with neighboring states and give it an opportunity to compete for industry jobs and businesses emerging along the East Coast. Power grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC is assisting with the study in looking at transmission impacts. But concerns about the cost of offshore wind still linger from a 2018 analysis that effectively tabled wind ambitions in the state for years.

Read the full article at Energy Central

Support growing for offshore wind moratorium, by Sen. Vince Polistina

August 29, 2023 — Earlier this month, the Democratic state Senate president and Democratic speaker of the state Assembly released a joint statement echoing our calls for a pause on offshore wind development until more research could be done. Their statements read, in part: “There are still many unanswered questions about the economic impact these projects will have on ratepayers as well as potential impacts to one of our state’s largest economic drivers, tourism at the shore.” A reasonable and rational statement one would expect from their elected officials.

In doing so, the Democratic legislative leaders joined non-partisan, concerned citizens groups like Clean Ocean Action, Defend Brigantine Beach, Save LBI and others, who have called for a pause in the project. For the record, I released my own statement urging Gov. Phil Murphy to suspend the project all the way back in February — calling for a moratorium until scientists could be ascertain what was causing the unusual number of whale and dolphin deaths plaguing our region.

Shortly after I released my statement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conceded that New Jersey’s offshore wind farm development “is likely to adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, while stopping short of solely blaming it for the deaths — copping to something many of us had long-since concluded based on the tragic scenes we had witnessed throughout the late winter and early spring.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City

Hope for Offshore Wind Boom in Gulf of Mexico Fades With Low Bids

August 29, 2023 — The first-ever US government auction of leases to build wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico ended with only one tract sold, a blow for advocates cheering on renewable-power development in the region.

RWE Offshore US Gulf LLC won a 102,480-acre (41,472-hectare) tract near Lake Charles, Louisiana, for $5.6 million, after just two rounds of bidding. The area has room for enough turbines to generate approximately 1.24 gigawatts of power, which could supply nearly 435,400 homes.

The results reflect the technological challenges of erecting turbines in the Gulf, despite the opportunity to take advantage of the region’s rich infrastructure and supply chain.

Read the full article at GCaptian

Experts fear American fishing industry, boating at risk as Biden prioritizes climate, green energy

August 29, 2023 — The Biden administration has prioritized green energy at the expense of endangered whales and the U.S. fishing industry with regulation that limits both commercial fishing and recreational boating, according to experts.

The Vessel Strike Reduction Rule is a new rule proposed by the Biden administration’s Commerce Department in partnership with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that would limit the speed of all motorboats over 35 feet from Florida to Massachusetts to 10 knots, or 11.5 miles per hour, for up to seven months of the year. The rule is marketed as a way to protect the endangered right whale, but fishing experts and anglers say the move would have far-reaching implications for their industry.

Meghan Lapp, the fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen seafood on the U.S. East Coast, told Fox News Digital there are complexities behind fishing that require anglers to know where they can go and what they are allowed to do in that area.

“It’s funny because we joke like you need a law degree to go fishing, but that’s actually the level of regulation that us commercial fishermen are held to,” Lapp said.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration has made fishing more difficult in “pretty much every way they can” under the guise of climate protections, such as the expansion of offshore wind energy infrastructure with marine protected areas at the expense of domestic commercial fishing.

Read the full article at Fox News