Saving Seafood

BOEM Announces Public Meetings For South Fork Offshore Project

October 31, 2018 — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced three upcoming public meetings in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to discuss Deepwater Wind’s proposed South Fork offshore wind project.

BOEM plans to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the construction and operations plan (COP) of Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind, proposed offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The plan would allow construction and operation of up to 15 turbines that connect via a transmission cable to a grid in East Hampton, N.Y., the east end of Long Island.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

 

BOEM opens process for New York offshore wind power

October 31, 2018 — Federal energy officials are opening an environmental impact study for what could be the first offshore wind power project in East Coast federal waters, with public sessions next week on the South Fork Wind Farm proposal east of Montauk, N.Y.

The 15-turbine array is proposed by Deepwater Wind, the company that pioneered the first U.S. commercial offshore wind project at Block Island, R.I. Now in the process of being acquired by Denmark-based energy company Ørsted for $510 million, Deepwater Wind would build the South Fork array about 19 miles southeast of Block Island and 35 miles east of Montauk.

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is holding public scoping meetings Nov. 5 to Nov. 8 at Amagansett,  N.Y.;  New Bedford, Mass.; and Narragansett, R.I. Agency officials say they provide “multiple opportunities to help BOEM determine significant resources (e.g. avian, marine mammals) and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS.”

Read the full story at WorkBoat

BOEM to hold public meetings for proposed offshore wind farm

October 30, 2018 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) says it will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Deepwater Wind that would allow it to construct and operate up to 15 turbines, an electric service platform offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and an export cable to East Hampton, New York.

Comments may be submitted until November 19, 2018 by either of the following two methods:

  • Federal eRulemaking Portal: In the entry titled “Enter Keyword or ID,” enter BOEM– 2018-0010, and then click “search.”  Follow the instructions to submit public comments and view supporting and related materials available for this notice.
  • U.S.  Postal Service or other delivery service.  Send your comments and information to the following address:

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Office of Renewable Energy Programs
45600 Woodland Road (VAM-OREP)
Sterling, Virginia 20166

BOEM’s scoping process is intended to identify any important issues and potential alternatives for consideration in the Deepwater Wind COP EIS. Throughout the scoping process, there will be multiple opportunities to help BOEM determine significant resources (e.g. avian, marine mammals) and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS.

Read the full story at Windpower Engineering & Development

Ocean wind has big week, fishermen need to step up

October 29, 2018 — Last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced three major developments in American offshore wind energy that set the table for fishermen engagement through public comment on plans. Two of the announcements impact fishermen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts directly.

Last Friday the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a Notice of Intent to prepare/review an Environmental Impact Statement (ESI) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the South Fork Wind Farm project off Massachusetts and Rhode Island being developed by Deepwater Wind.

If approved, the plan would allow construction and operation of up to 15 turbines that connect via a transmission cable to a grid in East Hampton, New York — the east end of Long Island. The project is approximately 19 miles southeast of Block Island. The notice will have a 30-day public comment period closing on November 19.

“The public will have the opportunity to review the Construction and Operations Plan and provide input to BOEM at three community meetings to be held in East Hampton, Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts, or through written comment,” Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind said. “We’re on-track to begin construction on the South Fork Wind Farm once the EIS and permits are in-hand, by 2021, and to deliver clean energy to the South Fork starting in 2022.”

An open house will be held at the Narragansett Community Center, at 53 Munford Road in Narragansett, RI, on Thursday, Nov. 8. In New Bedford, the meeting will be Wednesday, November 7 at UMass-Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology East, located at 836 South Rodney French Boulevard. Both open houses are from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session starting at 6 p.m. For copies of the plans and information on how to comment online, by mail or for information on the Long Island meeting, visit https://www.boem.gov/South-Fork/.

In a second development last week, Secretary Zink announced a much-anticipated wind auction in federal waters off the coast of Massachusetts which will take place on December 19. And, the third announcement pertained to the next steps to the first-ever wind auction in federal waters off California.

Read the full story at The Sun Chronicle

BOEM requires transit corridors for offshore wind energy areas

October 22, 2018 — The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is requiring offshore wind energy developers to set aside vessel transit corridors, amid intense discussions with the commercial fishing industry.

In a notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the agency announced it would offer an additional 390,000 acres south of Massachusetts for lease on Dec. 13. That would extend large areas already leased from Block Island, R.I., to south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The BOEM notice includes a new requirement for planning safe transit lanes through future arrays of turbine towers on the shallow continental shelf.

“The fishing industry has raised concerns with the ability to safely transit the existing and offered leases, particularly with their ability to quickly and safely return to port during inclement weather,” agency officials wrote.

At a Sept. 20 meeting in Massachusetts, Coast Guard officials and fishing industry groups proposed transit lanes through the leases to BOEM and wind developers Baystate Wind, Vineyard Wind and Deepwater Wind (since merged with Norwegian energy company Equinor, formerly known as Statoil).

“Representatives from the squid, groundfish, scallop, and other fisheries agreed that the two nautical-mile-wide transit corridors through the existing leases would provide the ability to safely transit to and from the fishing grounds. BOEM expects these, or similar, transit corridors to be finalized in the near future, and future lessees will be required to incorporate them into their plans,” the lease sale notice states.

Read the full story at Work Boat   

 

RODA Hosts Vineyard Wind Workshop October 31st in Warwick, R.I.

October 22, 2018 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) will convene a one-day workshop on October 31st, 2018 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island from 9 am-5 pm. The workshop will have two objectives:

To establish consensus on fishing transit lanes on the Vineyard Wind and adjacent lease sites; and
To provide broad-level input to Vineyard Wind regarding potential fisheries mitigation framework strategies.

This facilitated workshop will include representatives from the affected fishing industry, the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Vineyard Wind, Ørsted, Deepwater Wind, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, National Marine Fisheries Service, and others. We urge all interested fishing industry participants to attend and provide feedback on these critically important issues.

Background

The Massachusetts Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind has spent considerable time over the past several months developing consensus on transit corridors through the wind energy lease sites in federal waters off of Massachusetts and Rhode Island that are acceptable to the fishing industry from safety and operational perspectives. The Rhode Island Fisheries Advisory Board has also engaged at length on this issue. At its meeting on September 20th, the Massachusetts group finalized a document that represented broad consensus from fishing industry and other participants. That recommendation is described in the following map:

Since then, certain interests have stated that they will not support the recommendation and there is now a great deal of uncertainty regarding what transit lanes will ultimately be proposed and approved. Therefore, this workshop is intended to consider minor revisions to that recommendation in order to achieve certainty surrounding the transit issue, using the MA consensus document as a starting point for the discussion.

Additionally, Vineyard Wind is in the process of developing fisheries mitigation recommendations for its lease site, which it will finalize in the very near future. This forum will allow an opportunity for the fishing industry to provide general input on elements of a successful mitigation plan for Vineyard Wind’s consideration.

For questions or additional information, please contact Annie Hawkins at annie@rodafisheries.org.

Trump administration opens door for California offshore wind farms

October 18, 2018 — The Trump administration is considering allowing companies to build offshore wind farms off the coast of California.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said his department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will start taking comments this week on potential areas within about 1,073 square miles on California’s outer continental shelf that could host wind turbines.

The announcement, initially made at an industry conference Wednesday, came alongside news that BOEM will hold an auction in December to sell the rights to build offshore wind farms in an area off Massachusetts’s coast and that officials will start the environmental review process for the proposed South Fork Wind Project, a 15-turbine wind farm off Rhode Island.

While the Trump administration has sought to promote fossil fuels across numerous policy actions, Zinke said officials also strongly support wind power.

“I’m very bullish on offshore wind, and harnessing this renewable resource is a big part of the Trump administration’s made in America energy strategy,” Zinke said in a statement.

“We are always looking at new ways to increase American innovation and productivity to provide abundant and affordable energy for our homes and manufacturers. I think this is a win for America.”

The United States currently has just one utility-scale offshore wind farm, the Block Island project off Rhode Island. Companies have leased spots off the East Coast for other potential wind projects.

Read the full story at The Hill

Block Island Wind Farm to get a new owner

October 12, 2018 — When the news was announced this past week that Danish company Ørsted — billed as the largest owner and developer of wind farms in the world — was taking ownership of Deepwater Wind, Deepwater Wind Chief Executive Officer Jeff Grybowski was asked by The Block Island Times what, if anything, that change of ownership meant for the island and its wind farm.

“The project will continue to operate as it always has. Folks should know that. Maybe some people do, but maybe most don’t know, that Ørsted is the pioneer in the off-shore wind industry. They are the clear global leader. They built the first offshore wind farm in 1991 in Denmark. They have over 1,200 turbines in operation. They have a world-class record of successful, well-run, safe projects. You can’t be in better hands,” he said. Grybowski described former owners, D.E. Shaw, as an “investment firm,” while calling Ørsted a company that “overwhelmingly runs more offshore wind than anyone in the world.” Grybowski has been named co-CEO of the new combined company, which still has to go through a regulatory process to receive final approval.

When asked how this will impact the ownership and maintenance needed for both the Deepwater Wind cable, which connects the turbines to the island, and the National Grid cable, which connects the island to the mainland — both of which had unexpected exposure issues this past summer — Grybowski said “nothing in terms of the relationship will change.”

According to the press release issued by Deepwater Wind on Monday, Oct. 8, Ørsted “plans to grow Deepwater Wind’s current Rhode Island presence in the coming years, making Providence and Boston the two major hubs of the company’s U.S. offshore wind activities.”

When asked to elaborate, Grybowski said, “The plan for the combined company will be to have offices in Providence and Boston and we’ll merge the two teams together, grow our presence for the next series of projects. We have three separate projects going: South Fork project in Long Island, Revolution Wind for Rhode Island and Connecticut” — the large offshore wind project consisting of 50 turbines that was originally called Deepwater One — “and the Skipjack project for Maryland. Ørsted is also getting ready to build off the coast of Virginia. Providence will be one of the major hubs of all that activity.”

Read the full story at The Block Island Times

Fishing regulators approve measures to conserve Atlantic herring

September 26, 2018 — New England fishing regulators on Tuesday approved two measures aimed at conserving the dwindling Atlantic herring stock.

The New England Fishery Management Council approved a rule that “establishes a long-term policy that will guide the council in setting catch limits into the future” at a meeting in Plymouth.

Such an option will result in more herring being left in the water “to serve as forage and be part of the overall ecosystem,” according to the council. Under that proposal, catch limits can be adjusted based on new information.

Additionally, the council approved a measure aimed at preventing midwater trawlers from fishing too close to shore for herring. The boats are banned from fishing within 12 miles of shore, an area stretching from the Canadian border through Rhode Island, that includes areas east and southeast of Cape Cod, according to the council.

Recent surveys have found that the Atlantic herring population in the Gulf of Maine is at risk of collapse. The fish provide a crucial source of food to species that include cod, striped bass, and humpback whales.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

 

First offshore wind farm in federal waters inches closer

September 24, 2018 — What could be the first offshore wind farm in federal waters took a major step forward last month when Dominion Energy applied to the Virginia State Corporation Commission for approval to build two 6 MW wind turbines and the project’s grid infrastructure.

Called the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW), it would located about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach on 2,135 acres of federal waters leased by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. The two 6 MW turbines will sit in about 80 feet of water and generate wind energy for customers starting in December 2020.

Denmark’s Ørsted has been hired by Dominion Energy to build CVOW. Just this past Sept. 6, Ørsted opened the Walney Extension, the world’s largest offshore wind farm with 87 wind turbines generating potentially 659 MW of power in the Irish Sea.

A demonstration project, CVOW would be the second offshore wind farm in the U.S., following the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, which began operating in 2015. More importantly perhaps is that CVOW will be the first offshore wind farm to go through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) approval process.

Read the full story at Marine Log