Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: U.S. Coast Guard investigates report of diesel spill from vessel that ran aground in Narragansett

November 19, 2024 — The United States Coast Guard is investigating the report of diesel in Narragansett Bay around Austin Hollow after a vessel ran aground Monday morning.

Virginia Wave, a commercial fishing vessel, ran aground 1 nautical mile north of the Beavertail Light, and was reported listing, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Motor vessel Deep Cygnus responded and aided in the rescue of all four of Virginia Wave’s passengers, and the Jack M commercial fishing vessel took the passengers on board.

Later that morning, the Virginia Wave was able to successfully float due to the incoming tide and the crew was transferred back to the vessel.

During the Jamestown Police Marine’s initial response, units reported it noticed the smell of diesel and a visible sheen coming from the Virginia Wave.

Read the full article at ABC 6

US East Coast states select firms to run offshore wind development compensation fund for fishers

November 12, 2024 — A coalition of U.S. East Coast states have selected two firms to manage the Offshore Wind Fisheries Compensation Fund, a mitigation program built to compensate commercial and recreation for-hire fishers for revenue lost due to offshore wind developments.

The fund is a collaboration between the governments of 11 East Coast states – Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina – to provide financial compensation for economic loss caused by offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast. The states launched a competition earlier this year to select an administrator to run the new fund.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Richmond firm to oversee fishermen compensation related to offshore wind farms

November 6, 2024 — Richmond claims resolution firm BrownGreer PLC and London’s The Carbon Trust have been tapped to design and roll out a regional fisheries mitigation program on the East Coast.

The program is aimed at providing financial compensation to the commercial and recreational for-hire fishing industries related to the impacts of new offshore wind farms.

BrownGreer and The Carbon Trust will work with 11 East Coast states and their respective fishing industry communities on the program. The groups have established a design oversight committee and a for-hire committee to provide advice and guidance from respective parties on the program.

The involved states include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Read the full article at Richmond Inno

RHODE ISLAND: As NOAA Evaluates Rhode Island’s CRMC, Advocates Push to Dissolve Agency’s Decision-Making Council

October 21, 2024 — Chris Powell knows the score when it comes to coastal regulations in Rhode Island.

A retired wildlife biologist who spent decades working for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) in its marine fisheries program, Powell knows the ins and outs of environmental permitting and regulations. His stint as a state employee included a temporary assignment to the state Coastal Resources Management Council, during a time when the regulatory agency was particularly short-staffed.

Powell had nothing but praise for the agency’s staff, both when he was assigned to the agency and after, when he interacted with CRMC staff as a member of the public. But he has concerns about the 10-member, politically appointed council that makes final decisions for the agency.

“CRMC has always had good staff where they try to do the right thing,” said Powell. “I attended many meetings, however, where the council overrode the recommendation of staff.”

Lifelong Rhode Islander and chairman of Warren’s Harbor Commission, Woody Kemp, has similar concerns. Warren is one of the smaller towns in Rhode Island, and thanks to sea level rise and coastal flooding, the town is shrinking. Kemp offered praise for the work completed by agency staff, but, he said, the council moves too slowly when making decisions. “It took us maybe 10 years to get approval for our harbor management plan,” he said.

“I would like to see more staff for timelier reviews of agency applications,” added Kemp.

Powell and Kemp were part of more than a dozen members of the public testifying in a state Department of Administration conference room recently about their experiences — on both sides of the table — with CRMC. The testimony is part of the evaluation process conducted regularly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of all the state coastal programs for which it provides funding and oversight as part of the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act.

The CRMC is charged with regulating, developing and conserving the state’s 400 miles of coastline and ocean waters. But the agency’s council has a long history of controversy, of ignoring the broader public and, at times, the recommendations of CRMC staff when it comes to permitting decisions and project approvals.

Advocates of reforming the agency are putting pressure on NOAA to advise a restructuring of CRMC into a shape that abolishes the executive authority of the council.

Read the full article at EcoRi News

RHODE ISLAND: R.I. regulators resume review of SouthCoast Wind transmission lines

September 24, 2024 — A proposal to run underwater power lines from a Massachusetts offshore wind farm through Rhode Island waters is back before state regulators, following a 14-month pause.

The Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board voted unanimously Monday to resume consideration of SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC’s application to run transmission lines from its wind farm 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard up the Sakonnet River, over Portsmouth and out Mount Hope Bay to reach land in Somerset.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island will ramp up on offshore wind as part of a massive project with Massachusetts

September 9, 2024 — Rhode Island is set to ramp up its supply of offshore wind power with the announcement Friday that the state is will procure 200 megawatts of capacity from a much larger project that would send most of its electricity to Massachusetts.

The 1,278-megawatt total project, known as SouthCoast Wind, would be the largest offshore wind farm to be built so far in the Atlantic Ocean waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Rhode Island would take only a small portion of the project’s power capacity, with the vast majority – 1,078 megawatts – going to Massachusetts.

Read the full article at The Providence Journal

Mass. and Rhode Island pick 3 new wind projects, with less power than originally sought

September 9, 2024 — Massachusetts and Rhode Island announced the winners of their joint offshore wind auction on Friday. The three projects selected will be built south of Nantucket and collectively produce up to 2,878 megawatts of electricity — or about what it takes to power 1.6 million homes.

While this total is less than half of what the states originally sought to procure, it helps bring them closer to their legally binding offshore wind targets.

Connecticut, which was also part of the multi-state effort to solicit proposals, did not select any bids on Friday, but left the door open to doing so in the future. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the state was still evaluating projects and would announce “a final decision” about its solicitation “at a future date.”

When the three states announced their partnership, they had hoped to procure 6,800 megawatts of power — Massachusetts wanted 3,600 megawatts, Connecticut wanted 2,000 megawatts and Rhode Island wanted 1,200.

Though they missed that target, Massachusetts officials touted the bids as great news, noting that it is the largest offshore wind procurement to date in New England.

“We’re going big,” Gov. Maura Healey said at a press conference Friday. “These projects will help create a stronger economy, massive economic development, and importantly, lower electricity costs for our residents and our businesses.”

Read the full article at wbur

RHODE ISLAND: This major offshore wind company just announced a big Providence expansion

September 3, 2024 — The Danish offshore wind developer that owns America’s first offshore wind farm and is building a second, much larger wind project off the Rhode Island coast is expanding its presence in the Ocean State.

Ørsted is moving its office in Providence, one of two co-headquarters for the company’s U.S. operations, into a new 17,470-square-foot space at 500 Exchange St. to accommodate a growing staff that is expected to more than double in the next few years.

The move from a smaller Exchange Terrace office comes not only as the company moves ahead with construction of Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine wind farm on which it is partnering with utility Eversource, but also just before the announcement of a decision that could see its investment in Southern New England grow even larger.

Read the full article at the Providence Journal

RHODE ISLAND: How a Newport advisory commission ended up a part of the anti-offshore wind controversy

September 3, 2024 — One of the city’s volunteer advisory commissions was accused of censorship after denying an offer to put opponents of current offshore wind farm projects as experts on a series of educational panels on climate change and offshore wind.

While offshore wind opponents, including Councilor David Carlin, argued that the educational panel’s lack of offshore wind opponents made the series unbalanced and unfair, Carlin’s resolution to sponsor a panel of anti-offshore wind speakers was shot down by the rest of City Council for being outside the council’s jurisdiction.

In a statement regarding the response from the community and Carlin’s resolution, the commission said the events were designed to be “educational and informational” engagements with experts from their field, not a debate or public hearing.

Read the full article at The Newport Daily News

Fishermen stage floating protest at Vineyard Wind site

August 27, 2024 — As concerns mount over the July collapse of one Vineyard Wind turbine blade, a “flotilla” of about two dozen commercial and recreational fishing vessels steamed to the wind farm on Sunday to protest offshore wind development and its impact on the marine ecosystem.

The vessels, hoisting anti-offshore wind flags and blasting air horns, departed early Sunday morning from ports in New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Rhode Island and along the Cape, converging at about noon on the site of the crippled Vineyard Wind turbine.

“The blade collapse was an eye-opener to a lot of people who before didn’t know that offshore wind is a disaster for the ocean,” said Shawn Machie, 54, who is captain of the New Bedford scalloper F/V Capt. John.

On July 13, one of the three blades on turbine AW38 sustained damage while undergoing testing. Five days later, a 300-foot section of the blade collapsed into the water leaving fiberglass debris floating in fishing grounds and scattered across beaches, mostly on Nantucket. It marked an inflection point as the first industrial energy incident in this era of offshore wind development in waters off the Northeast coast.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light