Shell Archives - Saving Seafood

New Jersey collecting $26 million in wind fees for research

January 7, 2022 — New Jersey utility regulators will collect more than $26 million in fees from offshore wind energy developers to fund research and monitoring – an assessment of $10,000 per megawatt of capacity.

The state Board of Public Utilities in mid-December approved memoranda of understanding with developers Ørsted, the Shell New Energies US/EDF Renewables North America joint venture Atlantic Shores, and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Under the agreements the DEP will administer use of the funds collected by the BPU as part of its approvals in June 2021 for the second and third wind projects now planned foff New Jersey: The 1,509 MW Atlantic Shores array off Long Beach Island and the Ørsted 1,148 MW Ocean Wind 2 project to the south off Atlantic City.

Together the developers will kick in $26,576,000 according to BPU documents.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

NJ to Receive $26 Million from Offshore Wind Developers to Pay for Ocean Research

December 17, 2021 — More than $26 million in fees paid for by developers of New Jersey’s offshore wind farms will go to the state in an agreement approved this week, and officials say the money will pay for research and monitoring of hundreds of turbines to be erected in the years ahead.

New Jersey will also soon join a multi-state organization that jointly researches the effects of the nascent offshore wind industry along the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard, according to a memorandum of understanding by the state’s Board of Public Utilities.

Both agreements approved Wednesday are the newest steps in New Jersey’s long path toward allowing construction of several wind farms miles off the coast, which eventually will provide 7,500 megawatts of renewable energy by 2035.

In June, the BPU approved the state’s second and third wind farm projects: a 110-turbine, 1,509-megawatt wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine, 1,148-megawatt farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2.

Read the full story at NBC Philadelphia

Comments Sought on Offshore Wind Farms Proposed Off Jersey Shore

October 19, 2021 — The US. Department of the Interior is seeking comments for an environmental impact statement being developed by its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for two wind farms proposed off the coast of New Jersey that include an area off Long Beach Island. The public has until Nov. 1 to comment on possible disruptions to fishing, migrating whales, porpoises and sea turtles, bird and bat impacts and tourism.

Proposed by partners Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America, the projects would be located approximately 8.7 miles from the New Jersey shoreline at the closest point. BOEM is seeking public input to “identify issues and potential alternatives” for the preparation of an environmental impact statement for two Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind projects off New Jersey’s coast. BOEM will determine whether to approve, approve with modifications, or disapprove Atlantic Shores’ construction and operations plan.

Read the full story at The SandPaper

Another offshore wind project eyed off New Jersey coastline

September 30, 2021 — A company that has already received preliminary approval to build a wind farm off the southern coast of New Jersey is planning a second project.

Atlantic Shores, a joint venture between EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies US, already has approval from New Jersey regulators to build a wind farm about 8.7 miles off the coast.

But in a construction plan filed with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Atlantic Shores revealed it is planning a second such project, one it has not publicly announced.

Read the full story at the AP

Anglers and officials for offshore wind farm partnership explore effects of planned project on NJ’s recreational fishing industry

February 2, 2021 — The multinational partnership that wants to build an offshore wind farm hosted “another feel-good seminar to show that they care,” in the words of fisherman Bob Rush Jr.

A virtual session, it was attended by roughly 90 fishers, many of whom made comments less pointed than Rush’s, but who nonetheless did challenge the partnership to prove its wind farm would not ruin New Jersey’s vital recreational fishing industry.

Fishers expressed concern that summer flounder, black sea bass, bluefin and other species would be driven off — either by electromagnetic fields that result from underground cables, or by “cold pools” stirred up from the blades of 900-foot turbines.

Officially titled, “Second Recreational Fishing Meeting & Listening Session,” (the first happened earlier this month), the meeting was hosted on Thursday by Atlantic Shores, a collaboration between gas giant Shell and Paris-based EDF Renewables. The partnership has gained preliminary state and federal approval for a project that could see offshore construction as early as 2025, with operations slated to begin in 2027.

Running between Barnegat Light and Atlantic City, wind turbines would be as close as 9 to 10 miles from the beach. Up to 3 gigawatts of electricity could be produced, “a tremendous amount of energy for the state,” enough to power 1.5 million homes, Atlantic Shore s development manager Doug Copeland said at the meeting.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Shell line leaks 88,200 gallons into the Gulf, Coast Guard says

May 13, 2016 — NEW ORLEANS — About 88,200 gallons of oil have leaked from a Shell flow line into the Gulf of Mexico about 90 miles off the coast of Louisiana, the US Coast Guard said.

Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash said the leak has been secured and cleanup crews will be dispatched. The leak was reported Thursday.

Shell spokeswoman Kimberly Windon, in a statement late Thursday, said a helicopter saw an oil sheen near the Glider subsea tieback system at Shell’s Brutus platform shortly before 8 a.m.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe