Saving Seafood

Amid negotiations, R.I. fishing industry remains concerned over offshore wind impact, compensation

May 7, 2021 — What is the price of loss of livelihood?

This question is at the center of negotiations between local fishing industry representatives and offshore wind developers. And despite recent efforts to strike a better deal, some local fishermen say no number is high enough to justify the devastation they believe the projects will create for their jobs and industry.

The R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council at the urging of Gov. Daniel J. McKee delayed its approval of the South Fork Wind Farm to give developers Orsted A/S and Eversource Energy more time to reach an agreement with the fishing industry, the Associated Press has reported.

The CRMC through its Ocean Special Area Management Plan gets a say in the federal certification process for wind farm projects within a certain distance of the state coastline. Compensation is intended to offset losses from the construction and operation of the projects to the fishing industry.

The payouts help Rhode Island and Massachusetts fishermen, but there are no such benefits for fishermen in other states, even though many also fish in these areas. Other states also get no say in the federal approval process, unlike Rhode Island.

“Rhode Island holds the keys to the kingdom,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director for the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

NMFS reports right whales increasing use of New England offshore wind areas

May 7, 2021 — Endangered northern right whales that have been arriving earlier in spring and staying longer around Cape Cod have also expanded their presence south and west of Nantucket Shoals, into areas planned for large-scale development of offshore wind power, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists from the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducting surveillance flights spotted 57 fight whales March 30 off southeast New England, in and around wind energy areas that have been leased to developers by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

NMFS officials said those whales included three mother-calf pairs – results from what experts have called the most successful calving season in years for the highly endangered species, with 17 young reported and nine mother-calf pairs sighted in Northeast waters in recent weeks. The entire population was last estimated to number around 366 animals.

Right whales typically appear in Cape Cod Bay during the spring, but in recent years they have been showing up sooner and lingering longer, according to a summary released April 15 by NMFS.

A small portion of the whale population, mostly pregnant females, migrates to waters off Georgia and northern Florida for the winter calving season, according to marine mammal researcher Tim Cole who leads the NEFSC whale survey team.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BOEM presses wind studies, but U.S. projects may lag

May 7, 2021 — As promised, the Biden administration is speeding environmental reviews of East Coast offshore wind projects.

That’s raising alarms among competing interests of the fishing and coastal tourism industries. But even with the worldwide movement toward offshore wind power, its emerging limitations may allow more time for compromises.

Globally, $810 billion could be spent developing offshore wind power by 2030, analysts at Norway-based Rystad Energy predict.

Despite broad federal government support – the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking to have environmental studies underway for as many as 10 projects this year – the U.S. market may see only $70 billion of that investment during the 2020s, Rystad reported.

With offshore wind turbines’ physical size and developers’ ambitions getting bigger, the global demand for large wind turbine installation vessels will make it very expensive to hire foreign-flag WTIVs to cross the Atlantic.

The first U.S.-flag WTIV is under construction for Virginia-based Dominion Energy, whose planners see it not just as a requirement for building their own 2.6-gigawatt offshore project but a long-term merchant vessel enterprise to serve other developers.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Maine fishing interests seek total ban on offshore wind energy

May 6, 2021 — More than 60 commercial fishermen and their supporters testified Tuesday in favor of a bill that would block any attempt to develop offshore wind projects anywhere along the Maine coast.

The bill would prohibit any state agency from permitting or approving any offshore wind energy project regardless of its location. It was introduced by Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, a commercial fisherman, and co-sponsored by eight other Republican lawmakers.

The testimony on L.D. 101 from lobstermen, their families and town officials from fishing communities drew a clear line in the sand: Any offshore wind development, they told told lawmakers on the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, would threaten the very survival of their iconic industry and way of life.

In his testimony, Faulkingham said offshore wind was the worst kind of green energy — calling it up to five times more expensive than market prices, a threat to sea birds and mammals that would eventually take up an area four times larger than Casco Bay and enrich foreign corporations with taxpayer money. Nuclear power and Canadian hydro are better options, he said.

“It is time to put a permanent halt to offshore wind development,” Faulkingham said, calling it “a science project.”

Asked by a fellow lawmaker if his opposition was a case of not-in-my-backyard, Faulkingham said no.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader

Maine lawmakers asked to decide fate of offshore wind power

May 5, 2021 — The complex questions and decisions about offshore wind power for Maine have now been dropped in the laps of the Legislature.

Lawmakers on Tuesday heard two competing bills. One would ban any projects and the other would slow down some of it but keep the one current project moving.

Gov. Janet Mills and environmental groups are strongly supporting offshore wind development as a tool to fight climate change, with more renewable energy. But Maine fishermen say its risking great harm to the lobster industry and other fisheries because of a range of possible environmental impacts, from vibrations disrupting fish and marine mammals to mooring chains damaging the ocean floor and harming marine life here.

There are few scientific studies to prove or disprove those impacts, and fishermen say the risk of moving ahead with those wind turbine projects is simply too great.

“What if it is as bad as we think it is?” asked Jim Wotton of Friendship in a recent interview. “Where will we be then? Is it worth taking a chance on the Gulf of Maine for this?”

Read the full story at News Center Maine

NEW YORK: Energy giant to hold forum with fishermen over cross-Sound cable route

May 5, 2021 — A European energy giant on Wednesday will hold a forum for concerned North Shore fishermen to outline the plan for a power cable route that will extend across the Long Island Sound.

The meeting, which is closed to the media, will address concerns by some fishermen that the route could complicate trap and trawl fishing in the Sound and elsewhere, Newsday has confirmed.

The route, as proposed by Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant, will extend more than 150 miles from windmills in the waters off Massachusetts to an electrical station in Astoria, Queens, traversing the entire Long Island Sound. It will cross over or under a dozen other power or communication cables that have operated in the waters for decades with few problems, Equinor said. Some longtime fishermen acknowledged this, saying the buried cable is unlikely to pose problems. The cables will be buried 4 to 6 feet deep for the entire route, Equinor has said.

Read the full story at Newsday

Joe Biden’s call for more offshore wind turbines faces stiff headwind from Maine fishermen

May 3, 2021 — Last week, President Joe Biden told federal regulators that to combat global warming, they should speed up the deployment of offshore wind-energy turbines, with the goal of supplying enough to power 10 million homes by the end of this decade.

Maine wind power advocates said that ratifies their argument that the state must get into the game now or get left behind. But the White House directive is also amplifying fears among fishermen that they’re the ones who will be left behind.

Most offshore wind energy projects around the world are sited in relatively shallow waters, where their foundations can easily be driven into the ocean floor. But that won’t work so well off Maine, where the coastal shelf drops abruptly and the strongest, most consistent winds blow over waters that are more than 200 feet deep.

“We could not fix the turbines to the seabed,” said University of Maine engineering professor Habib Dagher, who has worked for more than a decade to design a system that would suit deeper waters.

Inspiration came, Dagher said, after a trip to Europe, where turbine platforms fixed to the seabed are common.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NEW JERSEY: Board Hears Fishing Industry’s Fears of Wind Project’s Impact

May 3, 2021 — “So far, for the commercial fishing industry, (the offshore) wind (turbine project) does not seem compatible,” said Greg DiDomenico, of Lund’s Fisheries, in Lower Township.

“It does not seem we are going to be able to exist with (the project) in the current size and scale. The impact to the commercial fishing industry will be serious,” he continued.

DiDomenico was one of three industry representatives who voiced concerns for their livelihoods to the Cape May County Board of County Commissioners, at their April 27 caucus.

The others were Jeff Kaelin, of Lund’s Fisheries, and Scot Mackey, of the Garden State Seafood Association.

Their joint concern is for the Ocean Wind Project “farm” to be built by Orsted and Public Service Energy Group (PSEG).

Commissioner Director Gerald Thornton restated his opposition to the proposal that would impact fishing trawlers, due to the spacing of the turbines, and have a land impact by running cables, possibly from an Ocean City beach to the former B.L. England generating station, in Beesley’s Point.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

Power surge: With Vineyard Wind on approval track, 10 more reviews in the wings

May 3, 2021 — A building wave for offshore wind energy surged out of the Biden administration, with March 29 announcements that set a goal of building 30,000 megawatts of capacity and opening up to 800,000 more acres for leasing in the New York Bight.

Two weeks later, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management moderated the plan, withdrawing potential leasing areas off New York — acknowledging conflicts with commercial fishing, maritime traffic and tourism that will be rife in the East Coast’s most crowded waters.

But on a broad scale, it appears to be full speed ahead for BOEM. Even during the Trump administration’s fitful approach to offshore wind, the agency itself worked consistently to make leasing possible for wind power developers.

Today there are 17 active leases, comprising 1.7 million acres, says BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. Ten more environmental reviews could be started this year, and construction and operation plans for 16 projects could be in place by 2025, Lefton said during an April 14 online meeting of BOEM’s New York Bight task force.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Revolution Wind project moves forward with start to federal permitting review

April 30, 2021 — Plans to bring 400 megawatts of wind power to Rhode Island are advancing, with the federal agency in charge of issuing the project permits on Thursday announcing the start to its review process.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in a statement said it will begin its formal review and decision on the 100-turbine Revolution Wind project proposed for federal waters off the coast of Block Island. The process begins with a public comment period and review of the project for its impact on wildlife, fishing and boating industries and other economic and environmental factors before the agency issues a final decision.

International renewable energy developer Orsted A/S, which jointly proposed the project with the utility company Eversource Energy, previously announced its original 2023 completion date would likely be delayed due to uncertainty in the federal permitting process under the previous presidential administration.

With BOEM’s announcement Thursday, the company will “soon be in a position to better refine the project’s timeline,” Orsted spokeswoman Meaghan Wims said in an email on Thursday.

In a statement, the company called the federal agency notice  “the most significant permitting milestone to date.”

Read the full story at Providence Business News