wind power Archives - Saving Seafood

Dead whales and tough economics bedevil Biden’s massive wind energy push

January 26, 2023 — The school-bus-size humpback whale that washed ashore on a narrow beach in Brigantine, N.J., this month weighed in at 12 tons and took a heavy emotional toll on coastal towns helplessly witnessing a spate of such deaths.

The humpback was one of nine large whales to get stranded over six weeks on or near beaches in the Northeast, not far from where developers of hundreds of offshore wind turbines are engaged in a flurry of preconstruction activity. The deaths have prompted pushback against the projects even though government scientists say they are unrelated.

It’s the latest in a string of threats to a fledgling offshore wind industry that climate advocates say is central to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Surging costs from inflation and labor shortages have developers saying their projects may not be profitable. A raft of lawsuits and pending federal restrictions to protect sensitive wildlife could further add to costs. The uncertainty has clouded bright expectations for massive growth in U.S. offshore wind, which the Biden administration and several state governments have bet big on in their climate plans.

Read the full article at The Washington Post

BOEM Releases Draft Environmental Statements for Next Two Wind Farms

December 15, 2022 — Progress continues to be made on the development of several of the first large-scale offshore wind projects in the United States. On December 16, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will publish the draft Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) for two projects, Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Wind and Sunrise Wind being jointly developed by Ørsted and Eversource, as one of the final steps in the permitting process.

The release of the two EIS statements begins a 60-day comment period. BOEM will use the findings to inform its decision on whether to approve the Construction and Operating Plan (COP) submitted by each of the developers. BOEM will also determine which mitigation measures it would require at each of the sites. As part of the process, BOEM will be conducting virtual public meetings to hear comments on the plans.

“This important federal permitting milestone puts Sunrise Wind one significant step closer to advancing New York’s ambitious climate goals. As we review the draft findings we want to thank the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for its comprehensive and diligent review,” Sunrise said in a statement in response to the news of the release of its EIS.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Rate Counsel suggests NJ slow down the pace of offshore wind development

December 15, 2022 — Offshore wind farms in New Jersey should consider scaling back how much new offshore wind capacity is approved next year because economic and financial uncertainties could lead to higher prices, according to the Division of Rate Counsel.

Rate Counsel Director Brian Lipman suggested slowing down the pace of offshore wind development as higher interest rates, supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures are causing some developers to seek to renegotiate the contracts they have been awarded to build wind farms.

“This is of great concern,’’ Lipman told the staff of the state Board of Public Utilities Tuesday during a stakeholder meeting. The board was meeting to discuss making a third solicitation for offshore wind projects early next year. Lipman suggested that the board’s staff develop guidelines to prevent after-the-fact increases to contracts awarded to developers.

Ørsted, the developer of New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm about 15 miles off Atlantic City, has acknowledged it is not earning what it expected on its U.S. projects. If the company seeks to renegotiate its contract, it must file a petition with the BPU, Lipman said.

Read the full story at NJ Spotlight News

Northeast states want regional fund to pay fishermen for offshore wind damage

December 15, 2022 — Amid an absence of a federal framework or authority, nine Northeast states have set out to develop a regional fund to compensate the fishing industry for impacts and economic losses caused by offshore wind development. After more than a year of discussion, they are now seeking feedback from both the wind and fishing industries.

Fishermen worry about gear loss and damage, loss of historic fishing grounds, negative impacts to fish habitats, increased insurance costs, and longer trips (and thus increased fuel expenses) as a result of wind development. They want the farms to avoid fishing grounds entirely, but when that’s not possible, regulations first call for minimization and mitigation. Compensation comes in when the conflicts cannot be avoided or minimized.

Due to a lack of a federal, standardized system, compensation up to this point has been decided on a project-by-project and state-by-state basis, including for Vineyard Wind south of Martha’s Vineyard, which allocated about $21 million for Massachusetts fishermen over the lifespan of the project.

“This has resulted in inconsistencies in estimating impacts to fisheries and the agreed-upon funds used to compensate for such impacts,” wrote the nine states to Amanda Lefton, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), in a November of 2021 letter, adding the current approach may create inequities for the fishing and wind industries.

To address this, the states have been working to establish a “fund administrator” — which they say they assume will be funded by wind developers — that would, in a consistent way, collect funds, review claims and dispense funds to fishermen across the region for economic losses caused by offshore wind projects.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Light

Virginia urges caution to avoid wind power conflicts with fishing, shipping industries

July 6, 2022 — Virginia state officials cautioned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that its proposed opening of 4 million acres off the Mid-Atlantic coast for wind energy development must include early steps to avoid conflicts with commercial fishing and navigation to the state’s ports.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s top cabinet officials sent a June 27 letter to BOEM stating support for wind power, but urging that planning “balance the competing interests of all stakeholders.”

The letter notes a potential for “millions of dollars of negative impact to Virginia’s commercial fishing industries.”

“While supportive of the growth of the offshore wind industry and the opportunities for the commonwealth to provide critical support to the offshore wind industry supply chain and become a key hub for future development, we must ensure any future leasing areas do not detrimentally impact or restrict maritime commerce or commercial navigation,” the letter states.

Virginia is heavily invested in offshore wind with a goal of making the Norfolk and Hampton Roads ports a major hub for the U.S. wind industry. Under former Democratic governor Ralph Northam the state committed to offshore wind in its future energy planning.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: Youngkin administration warns feds new wind areas could hurt commercial fisheries

July 1, 2022 — Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration told federal officials that large areas of ocean off Virginia being considered as potential offshore wind sites could cause “millions of dollars of negative impact to Virginia’s commercial fishing industries.”

The letter was signed by Acting Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick, Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller, Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Craig Crenshaw and Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater.

The administration’s comments came in response to a BOEM proposal for a 4 million acre Central Atlantic call area where the federal government could auction off lease areas to offshore wind developers. The public comment period on the draft call area closed Tuesday.

The Central Atlantic proposal is far larger than the expansion initially envisioned by former Gov. Ralph Northam. In a November 2020 letter to then-Acting Director Walter Cruickshank, Northam formally requested that the federal agency auction off “two additional 100,000-acre wind lease areas off the coast of Virginia.” The state also sent the federal government two potential scenarios for additional lease areas near the existing ones held by Dominion Energy and the state’s energy agency. One of the proposals was identified as having “the least conflict possible with shipping, fishing or marine mammals,” and the other had “minimal conflicts with military operations and shipping” but some conflicts with fisheries.

Read the full story at the Virginia Mercury

New York wind developers, environmental groups sign agreement on right whales

June 28, 2022 — Offshore wind developers Ørsted and Eversource say they have struck an agreement with environmental groups to improve protection of endangered north Atlantic right whales during construction and operation of the South Fork Wind project.

The companies say they will adopt monitoring measures to make sure right whales are not nearby during construction activity, and use mitigation steps to reduce underwater noise during pile driving.

They will also evaluate other new monitoring technologies, including thermal cameras, acoustic sensors, and data integration software. Developers say the findings from South Fork will be used in future projects.

A 10-knot vessel speed limit will be in place for all boats working on the project, “unless an effective adaptive speed management plan is in place,” according to the developers.

Such 10-knot limits are commonly sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service when its monitoring detects right whale movements off the East Coast, triggering announcements of special management areas to reduce the danger of ship strikes. Accidental encounters in the shipping lanes are a major cause of death for right whales, now estimated to number only around 340 animals.

NMFS whale monitoring has shown substantial overlap between right whale movements and offshore wind development areas off southern New England.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BOEM Seeks Public Comment on Draft Fisheries Mitigation Strategy

June 23, 2022 — As part of its efforts to ensure that offshore renewable energy development occurs in a thoughtful manner that minimizes conflicts with other ocean users, today the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the availability of draft guidance on mitigating potential impacts of offshore wind development on commercial and recreational fishing and is inviting public review and comment on the draft.

This draft mitigation document is the next step in the development of guidance for offshore wind companies that was begun in the winter of 2021 through a Request for Information from the fishing industry, government agencies, non-government organizations, and the general public, in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Today’s announcement initiates a 60-day public review and comment period on the draft guidance, which will end at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern) on August 22, 2022.

“Fishing communities and fisheries stakeholders are critical to our offshore energy development process, and we’re looking forward to discussions on this draft guidance,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “We’re seeking open and honest conversations focused on finding solutions to potential challenges as we work to provide clean, safe domestic energy for American taxpayers while at the same time providing good-paying jobs and building a U.S. supply chain to support this effort.”

The draft guidance provides detailed processes and methodologies to the offshore wind industry and lessees to mitigate impacts to fisheries in the areas of project siting, design, navigation, access, safety, and financial compensation. This guidance will help ensure consistent use of data and methodologies across projects and states and assist lessees and BOEM in the preparation and review of construction and operations plans.

To facilitate comments, BOEM will hold a series of public meetings to discuss the contents of the draft guidance and hear from commercial and recreational fishers and other interested parties firsthand.

Meetings will be held on the following dates and times:

July 11, 9 to 11 a.m. EDT: East Coast Meeting
July 15, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT: West Coast Meeting
July 18, 9 to 11 a.m. CDT: Gulf Coast Meeting
July 21, 9 to 11 a.m. EDT: Developers Meeting

Registration for the meetings and additional information will be shared on BOEM’s website in the coming days.

While these meetings are focused on obtaining input from the fishing industry and recreational fishers, they are open to the public and anyone can provide comments via regulations.gov.

BOEM will review and consider comments on the draft guidance as it develops final guidance over the summer of 2022.

“We want feedback on the entirety of mitigation framework, from facility design considerations to recommendations on compensatory mitigation, particularly from the people and organizations that this guidance is meant to aid,” said BOEM Marine Biologist Brian Hooker.

For more information about the draft guidance, how to register for the fisheries mitigation workshops, and how to submit comments, visit BOEM’s website.

Read the release from BOEM

Offshore wind farms expected to reduce clam fishery revenue, study finds

June 23, 2022 — An important East Coast shellfish industry is projected to suffer revenue losses as offshore wind energy develops along the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts, according to two Rutgers studies.

The studies, which appear in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, examined how offshore wind farms planned for the eastern United States could disrupt fishing of the Atlantic surfclam, a major economic driver from Virginia to Massachusetts that generates more than $30 million in direct annual revenue. Total fleet revenue declines measured by the studies ranged from 3 percent to 15 percent, depending on the scale of offshore wind development and response of the fishing fleet.

In New Jersey, losses could be as high as 25 percent for fishing vessels based in Atlantic City.

“Understanding the impacts of fishery exclusion and fishing effort displacement from development of offshore wind energy is critical to the sustainability of the Atlantic surfclam fishing industry,” said co-author Daphne Munroe, an associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

“Tools that can predict and manage these complex and interconnected challenges are essential for developing and evaluating strategies that allow for multiple users of the offshore environment.”

Read the full story at Phys.org

Proposed N.J. wind farm could have major impact on area fisheries, draft report says

June 20, 2022 — A proposed wind farm off the Jersey Shore could significantly affect local fisheries and boat traffic but generally have little impact on tourism and marine life while helping to move away from oil and gas, according to the draft environmental impact statement released Friday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The impact statement is the next step toward winning federal approval for Ocean Wind, a wind farm to be built by the Danish energy company Ørsted and PSEG.

The draft statement addressed concerns by officials in some New Jersey beach towns that the turbines would spoil the ocean views and discourage tourists from returning.

It said the impact of the wind farm would be moderate on tourism due to noise from construction and the new structures, but that the wind turbines could attract tourists eager to see them.

The impact on cultural artifacts could be significant as “the introduction of intrusive visual elements” could “alter character-defining ocean views of historic properties onshore” and work on the ocean floor could disturb shipwrecks or submerged archaeological sites, the statement said.

And the significant impacts on fisheries could be attributed to ongoing regulations, climate change and the disruptions to operations by the construction and installation of the turbines, the report said. Some fishing vessels would decide to avoid the area altogether.

Read the full story at NJ.com