Saving Seafood

MAINE: Fishermen slow offshore wind farm development

July 26, 2021 — Actions by Maine fishermen directly affected the process of offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine with a bill signed into law on July 7 by Governor Janet Mills.

The measure was a response to plans that surfaced last year for a 16-square-mile, 12-turbine wind farm, called a “research array,” off the southern coast of Maine.

Proponents promised good jobs and cheap, green electricity. Fishermen weren’t so sure. They envisioned wind farms springing up throughout the Gulf of Maine, harming marine life and damaging coastal communities.

“We as fishermen work and take care of the water,” said Virginia Olsen, a Maine Lobstering Union director who lives in Stonington. “We feel these things will get dumped on the water and then someone will say, ‘Just leave them there, it’ll be a coral reef.’ But it will just be trash left for us.”

Fishermen scored a victory this legislative session with a measure that bans offshore wind turbines in state waters. Lawmakers also prevented the state from allowing wind farms in federal waters to link to the mainland.

But the new measure may only slow, not stop, the spread of wind farms. After three years, it permits wind farms in federal waters to link to the mainland if certain conditions are met.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

‘I can see the industry disappearing’: US fishermen sound alarm at plans for offshore wind

July 26, 2021 — For the past nine years, Tom Dameron has managed government relations for Surfside Foods, a New Jersey-based shellfish company. If you asked him five years ago what his biggest challenge was at work, the lifelong fisherman would have said negotiating annual harvest quotas for surf and quahog clams.

Today, he’d tell you it is surviving the arrival of the offshore wind industry, which is slated to install hundreds of turbines atop prime fishing grounds over the next decade.

While there isn’t a single wind turbine spinning off the coast of the Garden state yet, plans are under way for new offshore wind developments that hope to power more than a million homes with carbon-free energy over the next several years.

The wind farms are expected to create thousands of new jobs, but the price tag looks steep to Dameron, who fears those jobs and climate benefits will come at the expense of his industry. If wind lease areas are fully developed across the mid-Atlantic, Dameron said clam fishermen will lose access to highly productive areas of the ocean, which could send the multimillion-dollar industry into a “downward spiral”.

“I could see the clam industry in Atlantic City disappearing,” Dameron said.

Dameron’s fears are being echoed by fishermen across the country as they face the arrival of a big new energy business in waters many have fished for generations.

Offshore wind, which has long struggled to take off in the US due to high costs, regulatory uncertainty and fierce resistance from shoreside residents, is now surging forward under the Biden administration. In March, Joe Biden committed to building 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, enough to power 10m homes and avoid 78m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Read the full story at The Guardian

Fishermen Call on BOEM to Change New York Bight Wind Leases to Protect Valuable Scallop Fishery

July 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

On Tuesday, July 20, scallop fishermen and industry advocates called for changes to proposed offshore wind leases in the New York Bight. In an online call with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) officials, industry representatives highlighted the need for a buffer zone to protect the most valuable scallop area in the Mid-Atlantic and expressed concern over environmental and fisheries impacts of offshore wind development generally. Proposed lease areas need to be thoroughly re-evaluated to reduce impacts to scallops and scallop fishermen, who operate in the most valuable federally managed fishery.

The Port of New Bedford often comes to mind when thinking about the scallop industry, and rightfully so since it is America’s highest-value fishing port. But the fact is that coastal communities from Massachusetts to Virginia depend on scallops. According to the New England Fishery Management Council’s 2021 Scallop Fishery Management Plan update, Atlantic scallops comprise the majority of landed value in eight of the largest East Coast fishing ports, and over 40 percent in four others.

Data Courtesy of the NEFMC’s Scallop Framework Adjustment 33 (2010-2017)

Damage to the scallop industry will have far reaching consequences for working families in ports throughout the Atlantic coast. The harm will extend beyond fishermen and processing plant employees – many of whom are recent immigrants – to fuel docks, marine equipment suppliers, restaurants, and markets. Coastwide, scallops were worth well over half a billion dollars to coastal economies in 2019 and nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars when taking into account their processed value. And this does not include the additional economic value added by the remainder of the supply chain until the product ultimately reaches consumers in markets and restaurants.

One of the most consequential concerns expressed by fishermen on the call was the need for a buffer zone between the southeastern edge of the Hudson South Lease Area and the Hudson Canyon Access Area (HCAA). Stakeholders argued in favor of a five-mile buffer zone, which would help protect the HCAA from the negative environmental effects of offshore wind development. According to estimates in a published scientific paper lead-authored by the lead federal scallop scientist, the HCAA has added well over a billion dollars in revenues to coastal communities in the last two decades.

Offshore wind presents many potential environmental threats to marine ecosystems. The assembly of turbines displaces large amounts of sediment on the seafloor, creating scour and sediment plumes that can interfere with scallop growth and filter-feeding processes. The turbine arrays themselves can disrupt ocean currents and thus scallop larval flow and settlement. Wind farms create habitats for other filter feeding species like mussels, which compete for available phytoplankton, change the biological makeup of the surrounding area, and interfere with the sustainability of the resource. Young scallops also face increased predation from marine life known to proliferate in wind energy installations such as starfish and moon snails. Seismic activity involved in wind farm site assessment activities has also been shown to damage scallops.

During the meeting, representatives from both the scallop industry and the Port of New Bedford argued that BOEM has been more responsive to concerns of wind developers and other ocean user groups like the military and commercial shipping interests than to those of fishermen. They called for in-person meetings with fishermen to discuss impacts from the proposed wind lease areas. By conducting meetings strictly online, BOEM is excluding many fishermen who are not accustomed to and well-equipped for Zoom and other online platforms. Meaningful personal engagement is necessary to ensure equity and reduce negative impacts of offshore development in the New York Bight area.

While the Fisheries Survival Fund appreciates that new jobs in coastal communities and economic growth could accompany offshore wind development, the benefits should not come at the expense of those who have historically relied on the scallop fishery to provide for their families. The Fisheries Survival Fund hopes to engage in meaningful, honest discussion with both developers and BOEM to mitigate impacts, preserve access, and protect the livelihoods of fishermen throughout the East Coast.

N.J. Amps Up Wind Fight, Overriding Beach Towns Balking at Farms

July 23, 2021 — Offshore wind farm developers are finding one more thing in common with the fossil fuel industry: community backlash on both sides of the Atlantic.

Much like the resistance to fracking in parts of the U.S. and the U.K., oceanfront towns have fought against power lines running ashore from wind farms, even as the massive turbines themselves are mostly out of sight. In a dramatic move Thursday, New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that strips coastal communities of the right to block buried power lines for projects like Orsted A/S’s Ocean Wind 1 off the state’s coast.

The willingness to squash local opposition highlights one of the dilemmas faced by nations that are aggressively pushing to fight climate change: How to build big clean-power projects quickly when dealing with not-in-my-backyard sentiment. Denmark’s Orsted has repeatedly come across backlash against its wind farms, as have General Electric Co., France’s Alstom SA, Spain’s Iberdrola SA and Sweden’s Vattenfall AB.

“We’re not going to let NIMBYism shut this down,” said state Senator Stephen Sweeney, a sponsor of the legislation and New Jersey’s highest-ranking lawmaker. He added that some residents of Ocean City, a hotbed of opposition in the state, told him they could kill offshore wind. “Ocean City doesn’t get to make the decision for the entire state of New Jersey on a policy initiative. They just don’t.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Bernhardt: Trump tried to boost offshore wind, not kill it

July 22, 2021 — Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt defended the Trump administration’s lengthy review of America’s first offshore wind farm in an interview yesterday, saying the additional environmental analysis he ordered was intended to strengthen the project against legal challenges rather than kill it.

The Trump administration had initially planned to complete a review of Vineyard Wind in the summer of 2019. But Bernhardt surprised the project’s developers, who proposed a $2.8 billion wind farm near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., by expanding a government study of the project to consider other wind farms proposed along the East Coast.

The announcement cast a pall over the wind industry. It slowed planning work on other projects and raised questions about the viability of offshore wind in the United States. Many industry supporters suspected the move was a reflection of former President Trump’s disdain for wind power, which he regularly lambasted as an eyesore and a danger to birds. Trump erroneously claimed wind turbines could cause cancer.

But in a phone interview yesterday while vacationing at a North Carolina beach, Bernhardt said it was “fundamentally false” that the administration was playing politics with Vineyard Wind. Instead, he said his call for more analysis was driven by the growing number of wind projects proposed along the East Coast and by divisions among federal agencies over Vineyard Wind’s potential impact on commercial fishing and marine navigation.

“You can’t proceed with federal agencies warring with each other,” he said. “I was like, ‘Look, we don’t have our ducks in a row.’”

He added, “The last thing we wanted to do is put out a finalized program that wasn’t legally sustainable.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Lawsuit seeking to stop Vineyard Wind claims NOAA Fisheries opinion was faulty

July 22, 2021 — The Vineyard Wind project, an 800-megawatt offshore wind energy installation slated to be built off the coast of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, is now facing a federal lawsuit.

The suit is challenging the permit for the Vineyard Wind offshore energy. It was filed by a solar energy generation company, but the potential impact on the commercial fishing industry is a cornerstone of the suit’s argument against the project.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DELAWARE: A much bigger wind farm could be coming to the Delmarva coast

July 21, 2021 — The company developing a wind farm off the coast of southern Delaware and Maryland is hoping to start a second one. It could be several times the size of the first.

Ørsted’s 120-megawatt Skipjack wind farm under development off the Delmarva coast is not expected to come online for another 5 years. But the Danish renewable energy company has already submitted a bid to the Maryland Public Service Commission to build Skipjack Wind 2. At 760 megawatts, more than six times the size of Skipjack 1, the proposed Skipjack Wind 2 could power up to 250,000 homes on the peninsula.

The renewable energy credits from both projects would go to Maryland. But Ørsted’s Mid-Atlantic Market Manager Brady Walker said at a virtual open house Monday Delaware will still benefit—from things like a “supplier day” the company hosted in Bethany beach.

“That’s a great example of, whether it’s a small business or someone that wants to be employed or get otherwise involved in the industry, where you can come and meet our prime contractors and find out how you can bid for business and become part of the industry,” he said.

At this point, Skipjack 2 is just a proposal. Walker told members of the public that its size is not set in stone.

Read the full story at DPM

Solar co sues feds over offshore Vineyard Wind farm approval

July 20, 2021 — A solar energy company has sued the Department of the Interior over its approval of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm, alleging that the project off the coast of Massachusetts threatens the area’s fishing industry and imperiled marine life.

In a complaint filed Sunday in Boston federal court, Allco Renewable Energy Ltd accuses the DOI of overlooking risks that the Vineyard Wind project could pollute nearby waters and jeopardize endangered species should the turbines fail to withstand strong hurricanes.

Allco develops and invests in solar projects, making it a competitor to the planned wind farm in the renewable electricity market.

DOI spokesperson Giovanni Rocco declined to comment.

Read the full story at Reuters

NEW YORK: Mixed reviews for South Shore wind farm

July 19, 2021 — If Long Beach residents are concerned about a private company’s $3 billion proposal to build a 174-turbine wind farm 15 miles off the South Shore, few of them voiced it at a virtual hearing on the matter on July 8.

Only a handful of people commented at the second hearing held by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on a proposal by the Norway-based Equinor to build the Empire Wind project.

Equinor has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first of which was granted in 2019 to supply 816 megawatts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January for Long Island’s South Shore.

What is key for Long Beach is a part of the project that calls for two offshore substations to collect the power, which would be routed by cables to one or more of several potential sites in Brooklyn. A Long Beach cable would also be connected to an Equinor substation, and to the Long Island Power Authority grid by way of a substation in Island Park. That cable could run under the barrier island.

Long Beach would not be involved in the overall approval process, but would have a say in the underground cable’s location.

Read the full story at the Long Island Herald

They’re not blown away by New Jersey’s offshore wind power plans

July 19, 2021 — New Jersey is moving aggressively to become the leader in the fast-growing offshore wind energy industry on the East Coast, but not everyone is blown away by those ambitious plans.

While the state’s Democratic political leadership is solidly behind a rapid build-out of wind energy projects off the coast — it has set a goal of generating 100% of its energy from clean sources by 2050 — opposition is growing among citizens groups, and even some green energy-loving environmentalists are wary of the pace and scope of the plans.

The most commonly voiced objections include the unknown effect hundreds or even thousands of wind turbines might have on the ocean, fears of higher electric bills as costs are passed on to consumers, and a sense that the entire undertaking is being rushed through with little understanding of what the consequences might be.

Recreational and commercial fishermen have long felt left out of the planning for offshore wind, much of which will take place in prime fishing grounds.

Similar concerns have been voiced by offshore wind opponents in Massachusetts, France and South Korea, among other places.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post