Saving Seafood

U.S. Fishermen Are Making Their Last Stand Against Offshore Wind

September 30, 2021 — A few hundred yards south of the fishing boat docks at the Port of New Bedford in southeastern Massachusetts, workers will soon start offloading gigantic turbine components onto a wide expanse of gravel. Local trawlers and lobster boats will find themselves sharing their waterways with huge vessels hefting cranes and massive hydraulic jacks. And on an approximately 100-square mile patch of open sea that fishermen once traversed with ease, 62 of the world’s largest wind turbines will rise one by one over the ocean waves.

Known as Vineyard Wind, the project is set to be the first-ever commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, generating 800 megawatts of power, or enough to power about 400,000 homes. Dozens of other offshore wind projects are in development up and down America’s east coast. But some in the fishing industry, including many New Bedford fishermen, are concerned that the turbines will upend their way of life.

Earlier this month, a coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing outfits, including 50 New Bedford fishing boats, filed a lawsuit against several U.S. agencies, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which approved Vineyard Wind in May, alleging that they violated federal law in allowing the project to go forward. The fishing groups frame that fight as a matter of survival, a last ditch effort to slow down a coalition of banks, technocrats and global energy companies set on erecting multi-billion dollar projects that they worry could devastate their livelihoods.

Money is certainly a big issue for many of those behind Vineyard Wind—backers like Bank of America and J.P. Morgan have pledged about $2.3 billion in funding for the project, and they’re looking for returns on that investment. But there’s also a societal imperative to push ahead with such projects, with many green energy proponents saying there is little choice but to get offshore turbines built as soon as possible if the U.S. is to have any chance of meeting its obligations under the Paris Agreement and averting the worst effects of climate change. The Biden Administration is counting on such turbines to produce about 10% of U.S. electricity by 2050, and in coastal, population dense states like Massachusetts and New York, leaders view sea-bound wind farms as a lynchpin of their net zero ambitions.

Read the full story at TIME

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Biggest offshore wind procurement draws just 2 bids

September 27, 2021 — The two companies already chosen to develop offshore wind projects for Massachusetts were the only two to submit proposals for the state’s third offshore wind solicitation, each offering up to 1,200 megawatts of power generation and various economic development-related sweeteners.

The state’s third competitive solicitation attracted bids from just Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind, a smaller pool of bids than House Speaker Ron Mariano and others were hoping for. Both developers submitted bids that maxed out at 1,200 MW of capacity, 25 percent short of the 1,600 MW upper limit that the state’s solicitation sought but still 50 percent more than either project currently under development.

Though key details like the price of the cleaner power and the number of turbines planned remain under wraps until later stages of the selection process, the two developers vying for the work outlined Thursday what they think are the benefits of their bids.

If one of its multiple proposals is chosen, Mayflower Wind said it would set up an operations and maintenance port in Fall River and spend up to $81 million for supply chain support, training and education, port investments, and diversity and inclusion programs on the South Coast.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

What’s behind one lawsuit against Vineyard Wind

September 21, 2021 — Annie Hawkins has a message you don’t hear very often in Massachusetts these days.

The executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a national group of fishing interests, Hawkins is questioning the rush to develop offshore wind. Her organization is suing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, alleging the agency is failing to protect the fishing industry as it races to develop the nation’s offshore wind potential to help address climate change.

“In taking action to address climate change, we have to acknowledge that these new uses [of the ocean] have a lot of environmental uncertainty. They have a lot of impacts of their own,” Hawkins said on The Codcast. “They can be better understood and minimized before we go whole hog on this 30 gigawatts tomorrow. A lot more upfront due diligence needs to be done.”

The 30 gigawatts reference refers to President Biden’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. It’s a goal that meshes with Gov. Charlie Baker’s push to develop 3.2 gigawatts by 2030. The Baker administration has already procured 1.6 gigawatts and is in the midst of reviewing proposals that would double that amount.

Read the full story at CommonWealth Magazine

 

New Bedford’s $2.3 Billion Vineyard Wind Project Fully Funded

September 16, 2021 — The $2.3 billion Vineyard Wind project off the Nantucket coast can officially begin, as the company announced the project’s financial close today.

Vineyard Wind 1 is slated to be the first commercial scale offshore wind farm in the U.S.

The project has hit some headwinds, after a coalition of fishing industry professionals filed a federal lawsuit Monday asking for a court review of the project’s approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management earlier this year.

But according to a release from the company, now that the project is fully funded, Vineyard Wind is able to give its contractors a notice to proceed.

This allows suppliers to start hiring, training and mobilizing people to prepare for both on and offshore construction.

Onshore work is set to begin this fall in Barnstable, with offshore work starting in 2022, the release stated.

The first power from Vineyard Wind 1 will be delivered to the grid in 2023.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

New Bedford Fishermen Among Those Suing Over Vineyard Wind

September 15, 2021 — Local fishermen are among those in a coalition of commercial fisheries suing the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management over its approval of the Vineyard Wind project.

More than 50 fishing vessels based in New Bedford and Fairhaven are listed as members of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, along with 13 Massachusetts-based businesses and associations.

The group filed a petition in federal court on Monday to review the agency’s approval of Vineyard Wind, a project slated to become the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm off the coast of Nantucket.

According to a statement from the coalition, fisheries professionals had been participating in the planning process for the 62-turbine project — but, the group said, their input was “summarily ignored by decision-makers.”

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Fishing Industry Group Files Legal Challenge to Wind Farm

September 14, 2021 — A coalition of commercial fishing groups on Monday sued the federal agency that approved construction of a 62-turbine wind energy farm off the coast of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, saying it did not adequately take into account the project’s potential impact on the industry.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance’s petition for review of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the Vineyard Wind 1 project was filed with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

“The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s hasty approval of this project, which could be the nation’s first commercial scale offshore wind installation, adds unacceptable risk to this sustainable industry without any effort to minimize unreasonable interference with traditional and well-managed seafood production and navigation,” the organization said in a statement.

The federal agency, in an emailed statement, said it had no comment.

A spokesperson for Vineyard Wind, a joint project of a Danish company and a U.S. subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola, said the company dies not comment on pending litigation.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at US News and World Report

 

U.S. fishing group sues Biden administration over offshore wind project

September 13, 2021 — A U.S. fishing group on Monday sued the Biden administration over its approval of the huge Vineyard Wind offshore wind project off the East Coast, saying the government had failed to address industry concerns about its potential safety and environmental impacts.

The development is the latest in a string of clashes between the fishing industry and public and private efforts to create a new domestic renewable energy industry to help wean the economy off fossil fuels and combat climate change.

Fishing interests view offshore wind as a threat to catches of crucial stocks, including squid, scallops and clams, charging that towering wind turbines would interfere with navigation and alter habitats. If built, Vineyard Wind would be the nation’s first major offshore wind farm.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which advocates for fishing industry interests in offshore wind development, said it filed a brief petition in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The petition asks the court to review the administration’s approval of the project.

Read the full story at Reuters

Nantucket Group Sues To Stop Massive Wind Farm, Claiming Threat To Endangered Right Whales

August 27, 2021 — A federal lawsuit is aiming to stop the construction of thousands of wind turbines off the Massachusetts coast.

The “ACK Residents Against Turbines” who filed the lawsuit said the proposed Vineyard Wind project poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

“The whales belong to all of us and with fewer than 400, of which there are fewer than 100 breeding females left, each one is worth protecting. The people of Nantucket have a long history with these whales and we have done so much recently to protect this species,” said group co-founder Mary Chalke in a statement. “It would be a tragedy to see all of them lost in order to build an industrial offshore development.”

The project is set to be the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which are named in the suit, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Vineyard Wind, a joint project of a Danish company and a U.S. subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola, also declined to comment.

But the American Clean Power Association, a group that represents renewable energy companies, stressed the project has undergone a lengthy environmental review, permitting and public comment process.

Read the full story at CBS Boston

Concern about endangered whales cited in suit over wind farm

August 25, 2021 — The construction of dozens of wind turbines off the coast of Nantucket threatens the survival of a dwindling number of endangered Northern Atlantic right whales that inhabit the waters, a group of residents on the affluent resort island in Massachusetts argue in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

ACK Residents Against Turbines said Vineyard Wind’s proposed project of some 60 turbines 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the island is located in a crucial area for foraging and nursing for the species, which researchers estimate number less than 400.

Mary Chalke, a Nantucket resident and member of the opposition group, said the lawsuit isn’t just about Vineyard Wind, but other turbine projects also in the pipeline up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Bob Vanasse, who heads the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said Vineyard Wind and other projects proposed in the region could impact a range of significant fisheries, including squid, clams and scallops.

“There are a number of groups in various fisheries who have raised concerns about the insufficiency of the planning and review effort,” he said Wednesday. “This group is far from alone in that.”

Vineyard Wind also comes years after the infamous Cape Wind project, which failed after bitter litigation from another group that included Nantucket property owners.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

BOEM reaches out to RODA, acknowledges need to improve communication

August 16, 2021 — Four months after fishing industry leaders wrote a letter to the head of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management about the then-pending decision on the Vineyard Wind project, the federal agency finally responded and agreed to work on improving communications between the two sides.

In a release, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) said it received the five-page letter from BOEM Director Amanda Lefton on Tuesday, 10 August. In that letter, Lefton acknowledged the industry’s “serious concerns” regarding the decision-making process on Vineyard Wind and whether fishing interests were being considered in the agency’s decisions on the permitting of other wind-turbine arrays along the U.S. East Coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source