Saving Seafood

Trump halts work on New England offshore wind project that’s nearly complete

August 25, 2025 — The Trump administration halted construction on a nearly complete offshore wind project near Rhode Island as the White House continues to attack the battered U.S. offshore wind industry that scientists say is crucial to the urgent fight against climate change.

Danish wind farm developer Orsted says the Revolution Wind project is about 80% complete, with 45 out of its 65 turbines already installed.

Despite that progress — and the fact that the project had cleared years of federal and state reviews — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the order Friday, saying the federal government needs to review the project and “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.”

It did not specify what the national security concerns are.

President Donald Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Trump recently called wind and solar power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve wind or “farmer destroying Solar” projects. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social site this week.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

New legislation curtails offshore wind development in New Hampshire

August 18, 2025 —  New Hampshire’s Office of Offshore Wind Industry Development and Energy Innovation is losing a few words from its title. Now, it’s simply called the Office of Energy Innovation.

The name change announces an erasure of state resources once aimed at boosting offshore wind in the state. A new law signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte earlier this month eliminated most, if not all, of the language that required the office to specifically support offshore wind development.

Republican Rep. J.D. Bernardy, a sponsor of the bill, said the office will continue to remain updated on offshore wind possibilities, but the energy source will no longer be “driving [the office] forward.”

“They can look at hydrogen, they can look at battery opportunities,” Bernardy added. “It’s a full spectrum of all the various evolving energy sources that are potentially out there.”

The new law also shuts down two related state groups focused on workforce training and economic development. It’s a contrast from Gov. Chris Sununu’s administration, which had established and funded these offices in 2021, and it comes on the heels of the Trump administration rolling back support for offshore wind development by suspending new leases and rescinding funding for federal offices that would have supported those projects.

Read the full article at nhpr

Expanded commercial fishing eyed in Pacific marine monuments

August 15, 2025 — Opening marine monuments to commercial fishing may prove more challenging than President Donald Trump thought when he proclaimed in April he was “unleashing American commercial fishing” in the Pacific Ocean.

A federal court in Hawaii ruled last week that the president cannot reinstate fishing by executive fiat but must use the standard regulatory review and public comment process before allowing about 160 fishermen licensed to harvest tuna, mahi-mahi and wahoo access to roughly 256 million surface acres of ocean in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

The ruling effectively stayed NOAA’s action to implement Trump’s April 27 proclamation rolling back the commercial fishing ban across roughly 400,000 square miles of the Pacific Islands monument about 900 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Read the full article at E&E News

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey energy regulators delay offshore wind infrastructure, cancel approval for Atlantic Shores project

August 14, 2025 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday delayed offshore wind power transmission infrastructure in the state by more than two years.

The BPU, which regulates utilities and helps shape the state’s energy policies, said the decision follows President Donald Trump’s move to block plans for offshore wind development.

“Today’s action is a direct response to a shift in federal policy under the current administration, which has created significant uncertainty and potential for offshore wind project delays,” said BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy in a statement.

The board also canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores wind project, a two-phase wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light that aimed to power nearly 1 million homes.

The move was expected, as wind developer Atlantic Shores asked the BPU in June to cancel its contract for the 195-turbine project. The company called the move a temporary “reset” amid financial difficulties and industry uncertainties under a Trump administration that has vowed to increase coal, oil and gas production.

The BPU’s decisions are the latest blow to New Jersey’s plan to cut carbon emissions and reach 100% clean energy by 2035.

“At the end of the day, it’s very hard to lose 1,500 megawatts of electricity at a time when we need not just clean electricity but more electricity, so it’s tough,” Guhl-Sadovy said after the BPU canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores project.

Read the full article at WHYY

US judge blocks commercial fishing in Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument

August 12, 2025 –A judge has blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to reopen large swaths of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, ruling that the NOAA Fisheries letter authorizing fishing in the monument is unlawful.

“We applaud the court for rejecting the Fisheries Service’s attempt to gut fishing protections in the monument without going through the formal rulemaking process, which ensures a voice for all those concerned about protecting the monument’s vital species and ecosystems for today and for future generations,” Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi Executive Director Jonee Peters said in a statement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Judge blocks Trump bid to allow fishing at marine monument

August 12, 2025 — A federal judge in Honolulu blocked a NOAA guidance Friday that permitted commercial fishing around protected Pacific islands and atolls.

The ruling from Judge Micah Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii said the Trump administration’s unilateral decision to open a large swath of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument violated the Administrative Procedure Act by forgoing public comments or hearings.

That notice to fishermen came one week after President Donald Trump’s proclamation declaring 400,000 square miles of the monument would no longer be subject to commercial fishing prohibitions that had been in place between 50 and 200 nautical miles of Wake and Jarvis islands and the Johnston Atoll. The areas, which have ecological, cultural and historical value, became subject to fishing bans when President Barack Obama expanded the monument in 2014 under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

Read the full article at E&E News

Fishing in vast Pacific nature area halted after judge blocks Trump order

August 11, 2025 — Commercial fishing that recently resumed in a vast protected area of the Pacific Ocean must halt once again, after a judge in Hawaii sided this week with environmentalists challenging a Trump administration rollback of federal ocean protections.

The remote Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument is home to turtles, marine mammals and seabirds, which environmental groups say will get snagged by longline fishing, an industrial method involving baited hooks from lines 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) or longer.

President Donald Trump’s executive order to allow this and other types of commercial fishing in part of the monument changed regulations without providing a process for public comment and rulemaking and stripped core protections from the monument, the groups argued in a lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Micah W. J. Smith granted a motion by the environmentalists on Friday. The ruling means boats catching fish for sale will need to immediately cease fishing in waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles (93 kilometers to 370 kilometers) around Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island and Wake Island, said Earthjustice, an environmental law organization representing the plaintiffs.

Read the full article at ABC News

Judge discontinues commercial fishing in Pacific monument

August 11, 2025 — A Hawaii judge vacated an agency letter on Friday that allowed commercial fishing in a Pacific Ocean monument following a proclamation from President Donald Trump that walked back Obama-era environmental protections.

U.S. District Court Judge Micah Smith, a Joe Biden appointee, ruled that the letter — issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service — violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act and Administrative Procedure Act when it opened up protected water of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

Environmentalists had claimed that the government didn’t engage in any notification or comment process before issuing the letter on April 25, a week after Trump’s proclamation.

“Whether plaintiffs are right to contend that they are entitled to participate in a notice and comment procedure — the government has chosen to concede that they are,” Smith wrote, noting the government had opted not to argue the letter was an interpretive rule instead of a legislative one.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

MARYLAND: Offshore wind project for OC not impacted by federal action

August 8, 2025 — A decision to rescind all Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) located in federal waters will not affect an offshore wind project near Ocean City’s coast.

That’s the message City Manager Terry McGean delivered last week after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it was taking that action in areas located on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

“These are the ‘new’ lease areas that were being vetted back in 2022-24,” he explained. “It was known as the Central Atlantic planning area.”

On July 30, the Trump administration announced it was closing federal waters to new wind energy development, effectively reversing course on the Biden administration’s plan to build up the industry.

Read the full article at the OC-Today-Dispatch

Environmental lawyers, Trump officials meet in court over fishing in Pacific monument

August 7, 2025 — Was the process of allowing commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument followed properly?

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation in April to open PIHMNM to commercial fishing, in part by ordering that the secretary of commerce “shall not prohibit commercial fishing” in the monument, located in the central Pacific Ocean.

About a week later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that commercial fishing is no longer banned in those waters, and just days after that, longline fishing boats were observed fishing in the monument.

But environmental lawyers in a legal battle to stop the fishing say a formal process, which includes public hearings, is required first.

Read the full article at Hawaii Public Radio