Saving Seafood

BOEM outlines two Oregon wind energy areas

August 17, 2023 — Two proposed wind energy areas located 18 to 32 miles off the southern Oregon coast would total less than 220,000 acres – much less than potential development areas first outlined by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in April 2022.

The Aug. 15 announcement from BOEM starts a 60-day public comment on the proposal. This new draft document comes after calls from Oregon state officials and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for BOEM to rethink its analysis of wind energy development and potential conflicts with fishing, maritime shipping and environmental issues.

As now proposed the areas would total 219,568 acres of federal waters – a reduction of 81 percent from BOEM’s original “call areas” drawn in 2022 to gauge wind developers’ interest and stakeholders’ reactions.

The agency will “continue to prioritize a robust and transparent process, including ongoing engagement with Tribal governments, agency partners, the fishing community, and other ocean users,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein in announcing the proposal.

“At the request of Oregon’s governor and other state officials, there will be a 60-day public comment period on the draft WEAs and BOEM will hold an intergovernmental task force meeting in addition to public meetings during the comment period,” said Klein. “We look forward to working with the state to help us finalize offshore areas that have strong resource potential and the fewest environmental and user conflicts.”

BOEM worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to use an ocean planning model “that seeks to identify and minimize conflicts,” according to BOEM.

Read the full article National Fisherman 

U.S. Offshore Wind: Throwing the fish and the fishermen under the bus

August 15, 2023 — Fish and fishermen are used to making their way in or on the water. But, in its rush to develop offshore wind, the U.S. Government is throwing both fish and fishermen under the bus.

The U.S. should learn from Europe, which is decades ahead in developing offshore wind. The first offshore wind farm in Europe was built 32 years ago. Since then, more than 116 offshore wind farms have been built. Europe was extremely slow in addressing the effects of offshore wind on the marine environment, but in the last decade or so they have been catching up.

In recent years, European scientists have developed and adapted various methods for qualifying changes to the marine ecosystem due to offshore wind development, beginning with establishing a baseline prior to construction. Surveys have been designed to examine stressors (physical presence and dynamic effects of turbines, acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) and receptors (pelagic/benthic habitat, fish and fisheries, mammals, food chain, etc.), in many cases, establishing a grid covering the site of a future offshore wind farm and systematically surveying that grid, often extending the survey for some distance beyond its borders. In so doing, the scientists establish a critically important baseline of data that is needed to compare with data obtained when re-surveyed after an offshore wind farm is operational. In this way, it is possible to quantify the short, medium and long term effects of offshore wind on the marine ecosystem. It’s just common sense to do this.

Contrast this with the current U.S. approach. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Federal agency that is the steward for all U.S. offshore properties, has repeatedly stated that they have no plans for requiring any offshore wind site to be surveyed prior to construction for the purpose of establishing a baseline of marine life. In so doing, the U.S. is simply failing to prepare for the potential effects of offshore wind on fish and fishermen, preferring to accept a highly uncertain outcome and ignoring important biological, ecological and socioeconomic effects of offshore wind development.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Revolution Wind Promises Fewer Turbines Off Aquinnah Ethan Genter

August 16, 2023 — An offshore wind energy developer says it will cut down on the number of turbines it is proposing to put in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard in order to reduce the number that can be seen from Aquinnah.

Revolution Wind, at the suggestion of the federal agency currently reviewing the project, will seek no more than 65 wind turbines about 14 miles off the western tip of the Island. The project is still facing backlash from Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), who is calling for officials to slow down the permitting process.

Revolution Wind initially proposed erecting up to 100 wind turbines in an area southwest of Aquinnah to supply 700 megawatts of renewable wind power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. In a July environmental report on the project from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the bureau found the project would impact Aquinnah’s scenic horizon and suggested potential changes.

In its preferred plan, BOEM recommended Revolution Wind install only 65 wind turbines, as well as potentially relocating some that would be close to the Island. As originally pitched by Revolution Wind, the closest turbine to Aquinnah was planned to be about 13 miles, but under BOEM’s preference turbines would be moved back to a minimum of 14.25 miles from the western side of the Island.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

OREGON: Defying Governor, BOEM Moves Ahead With Offshore Wind Areas off Oregon

August 16, 2023 — The Department of the Interior has identified its first two Wind Energy Areas off the coast of Oregon, the latest frontier in an expanding offshore wind permitting campaign.

The Biden administration hopes to foster installation of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, a goal that appears increasingly remote given supply chain cost hikes and a growing number of abandoned or canceled power purchase agreements on the U.S. East Coast. Any future projects will be even costlier to develop on the West Coast, where platform-based floating wind farms and new power transmission infrastructure will be required.

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Oregon has big opportunities for offshore wind deployment. The draft WEAs announced Tuesday would allow development of up to 2.6 GW of wind power.

The areas cover about 220,000 acres off Brookings and Coos Bay, and they are far smaller than the “call areas” previously outlined for expressions of industry interest.

Read the full article at the Maritime Executive

Off Alaska coast, research crew peers down, down, down to map deep and remote ocean

August 15, 2023 — For the team aboard the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska, exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands is a chance to surface new knowledge about life in some of the world’s deepest and most remote waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel is on a five-month mission aboard a reconfigured former Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps. The ship, with a 48-member crew, is outfitted with technology and tools to peer deep into the ocean to gather data to share with onshore researchers in real time. The hope is that this data will then be used to drive future research.

“It’s so exciting to go down there and see that it’s actually teeming with life,” said expedition coordinator Shannon Hoy. “You would never know that unless we were able to go down there and explore.”

Read the full article at the Associated Press

OREGON: Kotek requests public meetings on offshore wind

August 15, 2023 — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is calling for more transparency from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as officials work to identify areas for potential offshore wind development off the state’s southern coast.

BOEM is identifying which sites may be best to build floating wind farms within two “call areas” covering 1,811 square miles of ocean near Coos Bay and Brookings.

In a letter sent Aug. 3 to agency director Elizabeth Klein, Kotek asked that BOEM hold a series of public meetings to share its draft wind energy areas and solicit feedback.

“While we understand that BOEM has met individually with community and tribal members in the interim, the broader public has not had access to BOEM’s proposed analysis of least-conflict wind energy areas, developed over the course of the last 16 months,” Kotek wrote.

The governor is also asking for BOEM to provide an update to the Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, which last met on Feb. 25, 2022. The task force includes representatives from nearly 50 state, local, federal and tribal agencies.

Paul Romero, a spokesman for BOEM, said the agency has not yet released its draft wind energy areas publicly and “does not traditionally respond to letters from elected officials through the media.”

Read the full article at Capital Press

A fishermen’s alliance fights back against offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine

August 10, 2023 — The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) released an “Offshore Wind Research Summary” on Monday – a compilation of existing scientific research on the environmental impacts of offshore wind power development.

An alliance comprised of the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, the Maine Lobstering Union, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, New Hampshire Commercial Fishing Association, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance all signed on to the NEFSA letter urging federal and state governments to pause offshore wind development plans in the Gulf of Maine. 

NEFSA and many other organizations in Maine are pushing for a delay on any offshore wind development until an environmental review of its impacts is completed. This appeal comes shortly after Gov. Janet Mills’ recent signing of a bill that will begin the process of construction of a port on the coast of Maine that is specifically designed to facilitate a proposed offshore wind buildout.

The fishermen’s alliance wants to draw attention to the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 388-page document attempting to synthesize the existing research on how offshore wind will further impact fisheries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW YORK: Foundations of South Fork wind farm off of Long Island now complete

August 10, 2023 — Installation of 13 foundations for the nation’s first major offshore wind farm is now complete off the coast of Long Island.

It’s named South Fork. It will be the first of five wind farms in the works. The project site is located roughly 35 miles east of Montauk.

Twelve wind turbines and a wind substation will be constructed at the site. Installation of the turbines is expected to begin later this summer and into the fall. Meanwhile, work continues at the site, including the installation of cables to connect the wind turbines to the offshore substation.

Read the full article at CBS News

Fishermen slam Biden admin’s offshore wind push as threat to jobs, sea life

August 9, 2023 — New England fishermen are sounding the alarm on studies that reveal offshore wind turbines emit electic currents that are deforming lobster and haddock, and “imitate effects of climate change” by raising ocean surface temperatures.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) on Monday released an Offshore Wind Research Summary, a compilation of scholarly articles that identify dangers offshore wind farms pose to ocean ecosystems.

NEFSA concluded that there is “no scientific consensus as to the effects of offshore wind on ocean ecosystems and marine life,” and is demanding that the Biden administration conduct the necessary studies before green-lighting offshore wind.

Read the full article at Fox News

Another Lawsuit Against Vineyard Wind Dismissed

August 9, 2023 — Another attempt to stop the Vineyard Wind project southwest of Nantucket has failed.

Federal Court Judge Indira Talwani last Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Thomas Melone in July of 2021 that attempted to block the Vineyard Wind and its 62 turbines now under construction. It was the second lawsuit challenging the project to be dismissed, with the first one being rejected back in May.

Melone, the president of various solar energy companies, owns a home in Edgartown and accused the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when issuing an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Vineyard Wind for its offshore wind energy project.

“Plaintiff’s argument regarding “old data” relies entirely on information that emerged after the IHA was issued,” Talwani says in the memorandum and order filed on August 4. “Plaintiff has not, and cannot, demonstrate that NMFS was unreasonable in failing to consider reports and studies that did not exist at the time the IHA. To the extent Plaintiff complains that NMFS also failed to consider current population data at the time of issuance, that argument is contradicted by the Record. As such, Plaintiff’s argument that NMFS relied on ‘old data’ and that such reliance was arbitrary and capricious fails.”

“Plaintiff has not shown that NMFS acted arbitrarily, capriciously, or otherwise unlawfully,” Talwani continued. “Accordingly, NMFS and Vineyard Wind’s motions for summary judgment are granted and Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is denied.”

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current