Saving Seafood

Ørsted hires Coast Guard waterways chief

August 23, 2019 — The former Coast Guard waterways management chief for New England has joined offshore wind energy company Ørsted, as the emerging U.S. industry comes to grips with pushback from commercial fishermen and other interests.

Ed LeBlanc, a former Coast Guard officer and most recently chief of the Waterways Management Division for Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, will be manager of marine affairs for Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, the Denmark-based energy company’s American division.

In his last position of 16 years with the Coast Guard First District, LeBlanc was in the forefront of planning to how the newly arriving offshore wind industry could coexist with commercial fishing and maritime transportation traffic in the Northeast. An element of that will be safe vessel transit lanes through planned wind turbine arrays off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Troubling questions, concerns raised about off-shore wind farms

August 22, 2019 — Oceanographer Jon Hare listed the effects of offshore wind development on the marine environment.

There’s disturbance to the sea floor during installation of turbine platforms. Noise from pile-driving and other activities. Increases in boat traffic. Lighting of the project site. Dredging for electric cables.

The impacts can be far-reaching.

“Putting a pile into the sediment in essence is habitat alteration,” said Hare, a science and research director with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “You’re taking relatively smooth, unconsolidated sediments and converting it to hard structure, converting that habitat into something else.”

Although Hare didn’t name Vineyard Wind during a seminar on Wednesday, or talk about the company’s 84-turbine wind farm proposed in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, the potential impacts he detailed speak to some of the reasons why NOAA has raised concerns about the project, which has led to further scrutiny of the application by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Wind turbines and radar mix poorly

August 22, 2019 — As budding offshore wind development brings the U.S. to the brink of a new chapter in energy production, questions remain as to how radar interference caused by wind turbines will be diminished or eliminated.

Vineyard Wind’s 84-turbine wind farm, slated for an Atlantic lease area about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, effectively had the rug pulled out from underneath it August 9, when the Department of the Interior announced the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) would hold off signing a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and re-examine potential impacts posed by the project. Radar was not specifically cited as something the feds would take a second look at. However, weather and aeronautical radar are all well-documented as being adversely affected by wind turbines, and a handful of studies show marine radar is also hampered by wind turbines. Fishermen who spoke with The Times said they already work in an inherently dangerous industry, and offshore radar interference has the potential to exacerbate that danger.

Technological measures to lessen radar interference from turbines are being researched and slowly implemented in the U.S. and Europe. However, none appear to be folded into the construction plans for Vineyard Wind. In its Revised Navigation Risk Assessment, Vineyard Wind borrowed from a 2009 U.S. Coast Guard review for the never-realized Cape Wind project, and stated for its own project, “impacts to radar should not negatively impact a mariner’s ability to safely navigate in the [wind development area]; even so, Vineyard Wind will work with stakeholders to identify potential mitigation measures, as necessary.”

Read the full story at the MV Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind project gains bipartisan support from federal lawmakers

August 22, 2019 — A bipartisan call for federal officials to move quickly on permits for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project came Monday from the state’s congressional leaders along with colleagues from Louisiana.

“We believe it is possible for multiple industries to coexist in mixed use regions offshore,” the lawmakers said in their letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “We urge your departments to work together to find a solution that will address concerns raised by stakeholders, protects the environment, and allows the Vineyard Wind project to remain viable.”

The call from federal officials echoes the intent of a rally held Thursday at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, where conservationists joined with other Vineyard Wind supporters — such as union members, business people and faith groups — in a call for a break in the logjam.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Politicians Call for Action on Offshore Wind Project

August 21, 2019 — Massachusetts congressional leaders are asking federal officials to move quickly on permits for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project.

Vineyard Wind has signed contracts to sell 800 megawatts of power a year to three Massachusetts electric utilities. The company planned to begin construction later this year off the Massachusetts coast.

A final environmental impact statement and a record of decision on the company’s plan was expected Friday.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Connecticut Seeks Up To 2 GW Of Offshore Wind

August 21, 2019 — Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has released a request for proposals (RFP) seeking up to 2 GW of offshore wind energy.

The RFP is required under Public Act 19-71, An Act Concerning the Procurement of Energy Derived from Offshore Wind, signed by Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., in June. DEEP sought comments from stakeholders on a draft of the RFP in July.

As part of the RFP process, DEEP commissioner Katie Dykes convened a Commission on Environmental Standards to provide input on best practices for avoiding, minimizing and mitigating any impacts to wildlife, natural resources, ecosystems and traditional or existing water-dependent uses, such as commercial fishing. The commission held a series of meetings over the course of two months and released a report on Aug. 7 that provided recommendations to DEEP.

Read the full story at North American Wind Power

US Regulators Gear Up For Offshore Wind Project Oversight

August 20, 2019 — For the first time in more than a decade the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has revised its guidelines for assessing the effects of offshore wind projects on commercial shipping, an indication that such projects are gaining momentum as a renewable energy option.

The new guidance, made public earlier this month, identifies navigational safety information the agency will consider when reviewing permit applications to build and operate an Offshore Renewable Energy Installation, including wind farms. It updates and replaces guidelines originally issued in 2007.

The USCG advises the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the U.S. Department of Interior, on offshore leases, and can recommend that project developers conduct a Navigation Safety Risk Assessment, which includes an evaluation of marine traffic information based on vessel movement data.

Read the full story at The Morning Star

US lawmakers urge speedy Vineyard decision

August 20, 2019 — A bipartisan group of senators are calling on US federal government to finalise the supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) and mitigate delay to the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in US waters.

Massachusetts senators Edward Markey (Democrat) and Elizabeth Warren (Democrat), Louisiana senators Bill Cassidy (Republican) and John Kennedy (Republican), along with representatives Richard Neal, William Keating and Joseph Kennedy (Massachusetts), as well as Steve Scalise (Louisiana), have sent a letter to the Department of Interior and the Department of Commerce.

The letter is in response to the decision by Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – the designated lead agency on offshore wind – will need to implement a supplemental EIS, before issuing a final EIS, which could significantly delay the 800MW Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, off the coast of Massachusetts.

Read the full story at ReNews

Vineyard Wind project faces permitting, construction delays

August 19, 2019 — Connecticut Public Radio reported over the weekend that a final decision to approve the Vineyard Wind Project may not occur until the end 2020, adding a layer of doubt about when the offshore wind power project would actually start.

Last month, National Fishermen reported Vineyard Wind could miss its planned construction start of later this year due to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s delay in reviewing the 800-megawatt wind farm off the Massachusetts coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Vineyard Wind says it will carry on amid new review

August 16, 2019 — Offshore energy develop Vineyard Wind backpedaled this week from its earlier warnings, saying it intends to carry forward with plans for building 84 turbines in New England waters, even as a revised environmental review raises more questions about its future.

“Company shareholders have affirmed a commitment to deliver a proposed 800-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, albeit with a delayed project schedule,” Vineyard Wind announced in statement days after the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would undertake a sweeping reassessment of environmental impacts.

That assurance stood in contrast to the earlier reaction from Vineyard Wind, when company officials learned BOEM would not be finalizing an environmental impact statement as they had hoped for by mid-July.

Read the full story at National Fisherman