Saving Seafood

Trump reignites tariff threats, proposes 100 percent duties against Chinese goods

October 14, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has reignited trade uncertainty with a new threat that the U.S. was considering a 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods as of 1 November.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that China took an “extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade” and that the U.S. would respond with 100 percent tariffs on China, over and above any current tariff, as of 1 November. Trump said the move was in response to a letter sent by China saying that it would impose export controls on its products.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Neil Jacobs confirmed as NOAA head

October 9, 2025 — The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of former NOAA Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs to lead the agency once again as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Jacobs in February, but the Republican-controlled Senate lacked the Democrat votes needed to clear many of the president’s nominations. In September, Senate Republicans changed the legislative body’s rules to allow them to confirm multiple nominees at a time in bloc votes after accusing their Democrat colleagues of slowing the confirmation process with procedural motions.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Troubled Wind Developer Orsted to Cut 25% of Staff

October 9, 2025 — Orsted, the Danish renewable energy developer, said on Thursday that it would cut about 2,000 jobs, or around 25 percent of its work force, over the next two years.

The move was the latest sign of the diminished prospects for offshore wind, a low-emissions technology that Orsted helped pioneer.

“We’ll be saying goodbye to many skilled and valued colleagues,” Rasmus Errboe, Orsted’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Not long ago, Orsted looked on its way to becoming a global giant in the renewable energy industry, with a portfolio that includes high-profile projects in the United States. Now, the company suggested that it would dial back those aspirations and hunker down in its home base of Europe.

Read the full article on The New York Times

Maryland offshore wind lawsuit to push ahead during shutdown

October 8, 2025 — Litigation over an offshore wind project near Maryland will continue during the federal government shutdown despite a request from the Trump administration for a delay.

Judge Stephanie Gallagher of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said during a status conference Tuesday that she would not halt the proceedings while much of the U.S. government is shuttered.

Guidance from the Justice Department allows attorneys in civil litigation to continue working if ordered to do so by a court and under various other exceptions.

Read the full article at E&E News

MARYLAND: Maryland renewable energy projects face uncertain future

October 6, 2025 — In August, the Trump administration revoked hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for Maryland renewable energy infrastructure projects.

The Maryland Offshore Wind Project and the Maryland Solar for All initiatives took significant blows after President Donald Trump cancelled grants for renewable projects across the nation.

Trump has described wind and solar as “expensive and unreliable energy sources,” seeking instead to promote domestic fossil fuel production.

Since the onset of his administration, Trump has signed 15 executive orders shifting federal policy away from renewable energy initiatives toward more traditional energy sources such as oil and coal.

Read the full article at Capital News Service 

Judge denies motion to pause Ocean City wind farm litigation

October 6, 2025 — A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s bid to pause Ocean City’s lawsuit over offshore wind power due to the federal government shutdown.

Before the government shutdown, Judge Stephanie Gallagher was expected to issue a ruling that would either allow U.S. Wind to move forward or give the U.S. Department of the Interior the ability to pull back its approval. In August, the Department of the Interior, speaking for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, joined Ocean City in asking the court to send the case back and vacate the prior approval.

The government’s Thursday filing asked the court to pause the case because the Department of Justice’s attorneys are “prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, with few exceptions” since the shutdown began on Wednesday.

Read the full article at the Miami Herald

ALASKA: Shutdown threatens Alaska fisheries council decisions

October 2, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), responsible for overseeing federal fisheries off Alaska, is navigating turbulent waters marked by both budget uncertainty and the government shutdown. NPFMC is one of the eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976.

After months of delays due to the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA, the council finally secured its 2025 operational funding this summer. However, as Yereth Rosen reported for Alaska Beacon on September 30, a federal government shutdown now threatens to derail the science-based decision-making that the fisheries depend on.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Dept. of Justice Tells Court BOEM Will Review Atlantic Shores COP Approval

October 2, 2025 — The Department of Justice told a federal district court that it plans to review and likely change the approval of the Construction and Operation Plan for New Jersey’s Atlantic Shores South offshore wind farm. While the project has largely been abandoned for months, the move is symbolic because it was where candidate Donald Trump, during a 2024 campaign stop, vowed to bring an end to the offshore wind energy sector.

The filing, which was made on September 27, is similar to others the Department of Justice has made as part of pending lawsuits against wind farm projects from Massachusetts to Maryland. In each of the cases, DOJ has asked the court to stay the pending litigation brought by local activist groups, saying it was “potentially needless or wasteful litigation.” The Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are involved in the cases as the local opposition repeatedly challenges the approvals given to the projects.

The Atlantic Shores South project, which would consist of two large offshore wind farms, received its final approval from BOEM in October 2024 for a project that would have been off the southern New Jersey coast. It called for 197 turbines that would have been at least 8.7 miles from Long Beach Island as part of a project to provide 2.8 GW of energy to the state.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Democrats criticize Trump administration for withholding Congressionally-approved money from NOAA

October 2, 2025 — Two U.S. senators are demanding answers as to why the Trump administration is withholding USD 246 million (EUR 210 million) in Congressionally-approved funding from NOAA.

According to U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) and U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), a fiscal year 2025 spend plan issued by the Trump administration in August is hundreds of millions of dollars lower than what Congress had appropriated. U.S. President Donald Trump announced nearly USD 5 billion (EUR 4.3 billion) in rescinded funding in August, declaring that his administration “is committed to getting America’s fiscal house in order by cutting government spending that is woke, weaponized, and wasteful.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Funding problems, shutdown force changes for North Pacific Fishery Management Council

October 1, 2025 — After months of uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the council that manages commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska now has all the federal funding that had been allocated to it for 2025 operations.

But the North Pacific Fishery Management Council now faces a new source of uncertainty: the federal government shutdown.

The funding and shutdown complications have reshaped the council’s October meeting, underway this week.

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News