Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Who will pay for Dominion’s $9.8 billion offshore wind farm?

September 8, 2022 — In a regulatory conflict over who should bear the costs of a proposed offshore wind farm in Virginia, the Youngkin Administration and environmental groups have found themselves on the same side, calling for action to limit Dominion’s profits from the project.

In an August ruling that will be finalized later this month, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) ordered limited consumer protections on the project, while rejecting the more aggressive controls requested by the Youngkin administration and environmental groups like Clean Virginia.

Read the full article at WRIS

VIRGINIA: Utility: Guarantee for large offshore wind farm ‘untenable’

August 24, 2022 — A ratepayer protection that state regulators included in a recent order approving Dominion Energy Virginia’s application to build and recover the costs of a massive offshore wind farm will force the utility to scrap the project, Dominion said in a filing this week.

The State Corporation Commission granted approval this month for the 176-turbine, multibillion-dollar project off Virginia Beach. Dominion immediately raised concerns about the commission’s inclusion of a performance guarantee for the wind farm and in a petition Monday asked the regulators to reconsider that element of their order.

Dominion “shares the Commission’s concern, as expressed in the Final Order, that the Project be constructed and operated in a way that reasonably mitigates risk for its customers. The Commission’s unprecedented imposition of an involuntary performance guarantee condition on its approvals, however, is untenable,” the filing said. “As ordered, it will prevent the Project from moving forward, and the Company will be forced to terminate all development and construction activities.”

Read the full story at the AP News

The Spinning of Virginia’s Wind Farm

August 22, 2022 — Now that their climate spending bill has been signed by President Biden, Democrats might go to bed dreaming of wind farms. What they’re sleeping through is the green logrolling and corporatism already evident in the clean-power transition. A good example is an offshore wind farm that Virginia regulators approved recently under obvious duress.

Dominion Energy plans to build 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. That’s enough to power about 660,000 homes. The capital cost is $9.8 billion. The state Corporation Commission assented to a related rate increase, but it noted that the downside risk is on consumers. Typically, the commission says, a utility might buy such power from an outside developer, “which limits the risks to customers.” Yet Dominion “has chosen to construct, own and operate the Project.”\

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal

VIRGINIA: Contract Awarded for Modifications for Wind Staging Port in Virginia

August 17, 2022 — The Virginia Port Authority is moving ahead with the redevelopment of a portion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal for use as an offshore wind staging port. The port authority has awarded a contract to Skanska for work at the terminal to prepare it as the staging area to support the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which currently is the largest offshore wind energy project of its kind in the U.S.

Skanda was selected for projects at the site which will make it ready to handle the vessels which will transfer materials from the assembly and staging operations planned for the Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Skanda reports the contract is valued at $223 million.

“Virginia plans to construct 180 off-shore wind turbines to provide enough energy for 660,000 homes,” said Brook Brookshire, senior vice president of Skanska civil operations. “Skanska is honored to work on an innovative and sustainable project that supports the state’s clean energy goals and reflects our value to build for a better society.”

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

VIRGINIA: Northampton to meet with VMRC over fish spills

August 15, 2022 — Net tears have resulted in two large fish spills in Kiptopeke and Silver Beach. Last year, Omega Protein spilled more than 400,000 dead menhaden fish into Hampton Roads waters, something the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) criticized as an “environmental failure.”

The result of the latest spills has led Northampton County Board Chair Betsy Mapp and Administrator Charlie Kolakowski, along with Senator Lynwood Lewis, to set a meeting with the Virginia Marine Resources Commissioner Jamie Green.

The meeting is scheduled for August 19.

Read the full article at Cape Charles Mirror

Fisherman Gets 20 Years in Prison for Nantucket Murder

August 15, 2022 —

A Virginia fisherman was sentenced Thursday to nearly 20 years in prison for murdering a crewmate and attacking others with a hammer aboard a scalloping vessel off the coast of Nantucket in 2018.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 31-year-old Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez was sentenced to 235 months — more than 19 and a half years — in prison followed by three years of probation.

According to the office, the Mexican national is in the U.S. illegally and will face deportation after his sentence.

Meave Vazquez pleaded guilty in March to one count each of second degree murder, attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.

He was one of seven crew members on the scalloping vessel The Captain Billy Haver when he attacked three fellow crewmates about 50 miles off the Nantucket coast in September 2018.

Read the full article at WBSM

VIRGINIA: Regulators OK Dominion’s planned wind farm off Virginia Beach’s coast

August 8, 2022 — State regulators on Friday approved an application from Dominion Energy Virginia to build an enormous offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach and recover the cost from ratepayers.

No parties to the monthslong proceeding had opposed the approval of the project, which will help the utility boost the proportion of its generation that comes from renewable resources. But many had raised concerns about affordability and possible risks to the utility’s captive ratepayers.

In its Friday order, the State Corporation Commission noted that the 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project will likely be the single largest project in Dominion’s history and said that because of its size, complexity and location, it faces an array of challenges. The commission included in its order three “consumer protections,” including a performance standard.

The commission’s order also approved facilities that will connect the wind farm to the existing transmission system.

Read the full article at 13 News Now

VIRGINIA: SCC backs millions in rate increases for Dominion’s offshore wind project

August 8, 2022 — Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Energy’s application to recover costs for its proposed massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project — but the $9.8 billion wind farm comes with a significant cost to electric utility ratepayers.

The commission approved a revenue requirement of $78 million for the rate year of Sept. 1, 2022, to Aug. 1, 2023, to be recovered through higher rates for customers in a new clause attached to their monthly bills.

Over the next 35 years, the SCC estimates that a Dominion residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month will see an increase of $4.72 a month, with a peak monthly billing hike of $14.22 in 2027.

The wind farm, planned 27 miles off the Atlantic coast from Virginia Beach, is the largest energy project ever undertaken in Virginia and would be the largest wind project in the country, as well as one of the biggest in the world.

The commission was constrained by the General Assembly from rejecting the project, which the legislature declared two years ago to be in the public interest. But the constitutionally independent regulatory body ordered Dominion to abide by a performance guarantee to protect consumers from additional costs if the farm of 176 wind turbines doesn’t perform as the company predicts.

Read the full article at Richmond Times

With Ecosystem-Based Reference Points in Place, Atlantic Menhaden Assessment Again Shows Fishery Healthy, Sustainable, Not Overfished

August 4, 2022 — The latest Atlantic menhaden stock assessment accepted today by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) confirms once again that Atlantic menhaden is healthy, not overfished, and that overfishing is not occurring. Significantly, this assessment was completed using new ecological reference points, standards that account for the needs of predator species when determining menhaden’s sustainable status.

In the past, single-species stock assessments that found menhaden to be healthy and not overfished were criticized by some for not taking into account interdependencies between species. The ASMFC’s ecosystem-based reference points were developed over years, with support from industry, recreational fishermen, and environmental groups, to move away from managing species in isolation and consider the needs of predator species and the ecosystem as a whole.

Read the full article Accesswire 

Fishery regulators will discuss possible rise in minimum lobster size

July 28, 2022 — Fishing regulators will gather in Virginia next week to talk about the potential of raising the minimum size lobsters need to be in order to be harvested by New England fishermen.

The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster management board is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the implications of a proposal that would install new minimum size limits and other regulations for the crustaceans, either gradually over time or triggered by lobster populations dipping below a certain level.

The proposal was drafted to protect the lobster population as surveys show indications of potential future decline. The idea has rankled many Maine lobstermen, who claim the Pine Tree State often bears the hardest brunt of any new regulations, despite having some of the strictest rules in place already.

Maine lobstermen currently have the lowest maximum size limits in New England. They can only keep a lobster if the distance between its eyes and the start of the tail is at least 3 ¼ inches but no longer than 5 inches. This is done to protect future populations and the most productive breeders.

Other areas of New England have different size limits and could undergo area specific changes under the proposal.

For Maine, one option being considered by regulators is increasing the minimum size by 1/16 of an inch if the abundance of lobster drops by 17 percent, and then again at 32 percent. Another would raise the minimum size gradually between 2023 and 2025.

Analysis done by the commission projected that raising the legal size minimum could increase the number of lobsters that reached maturity, allowing for more resilient populations.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News