Saving Seafood

At Dominion wind hearings, continued disputes over ratepayer protections

May 20, 2022 — After two and a half days of testimony in Richmond, consumer protection advocates continue to disagree with Dominion Energy over whether regulators should require further safeguards for ratepayers as the utility seeks approval for its plans to build a massive wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach.

“There is no blank check for this project,” said Joseph Reid, an attorney from McGuireWoods who represented Dominion in the case before the State Corporation Commission, on Tuesday.

But Senior Assistant Attorney General Meade Browder told the SCC that the office’s Division of Consumer Counsel remains concerned that customers face significant risks from the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

“Our position is that approval should come with meaningful protections that mitigate the risk to ratepayers, who are currently set up to bear the financial risk if the CVOW project proves to be more costly to construct and operate than is projected or if the performance of the project does not meet the level projected by the company,” he said.

If built, CVOW will be the largest wind farm in the United States, producing 2.6 gigawatts of power — more than what is generated by the state’s nuclear units and its largest gas plant combined — from 176 turbines sunk into the Atlantic Ocean 27 miles off Virginia Beach.

The project is both a key component of Dominion’s plans to decarbonize its fleet by midcentury in line with the Virginia Clean Economy Act and, with an estimated price tag of $9.65 billion, the most expensive endeavor the utility has undertaken to date. If approved by regulators, the average residential customer, defined as someone who uses 1,000 kilowatts of power every month, would see their monthly bill initially rise by $1.45. SCC staff have estimated that figure could rise to $14.21 by the time the project enters operation in 2027.

Read the full story at the Virginia Mercury 

 

Maine leaders to meet with feds about future offshore wind projects

May 19, 2022 — Maine has a chance to take a big step forward in its plans for offshore wind turbine production, but some fishermen and lawmakers have been weary of proposals for years.

More than a dozen supporters held a rally on Portland’s Eastern Promenade Wednesday, pushing state leaders to secure research and, eventually, leases to place massive wind turbines in federal waters in the Gulf of Maine.

Speakers included Jason Shedlock, president of the Maine State Building & Construction Trades Council; Dana Connors, president of the state’s chamber of commerce; Jack Shapiro of the Natural Resources Council of Maine; and Sarah Haggerty, a biologist with Maine Audubon.

They gathered a day before the Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Task Force of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) planned to meet with representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. It will be the first such meeting since 2019.

Governor Janet Mills, D-Maine, has already pushed to restrict projects in Maine waters, signing a 2021 law forbidding new projects in state waters for 10 years. Maine assumes stewardship over the first three miles away from its coast and islands.

In the water beyond that, BOEM plans to lease wind projects, and Mills is on board.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

VIRGINIA: Dominion makes its case to SCC for $9.65 billion from customers to build wind farm

May 18, 2022 — Acknowledging the risk of cost overruns but saying it doesn’t anticipate any, Dominion Energy made its case Tuesday to state regulators for approval of $9.65 billion from its Virginia customers to build the country’s largest offshore wind farm.

Dominion representatives touted the project’s job creation and reduction in carbon emissions. They promised in a hearing before the Virginia State Corporation Commission to promptly notify the commission if costs are expected to exceed current estimates.

The attorney general’s office, the advocacy group Clean Virginia and others told commissioners they’re concerned about the potential for even higher costs on such a large construction project and in an economy with supply chain disruption and inflation.

No party in the case, in which the SCC is considering approval of the 176-turbine project and its costs, asked the commission to reject the request. A 2020 state law essentially directs the commission to approve the project if Dominion meets certain parameters, which the company said it had.

Dominion’s $9.65 billion capital cost estimate was down from a previous $9.8 billion estimate, which itself was up from an earlier estimate of $7.8 billion.

Read the full story at the Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

Duke Energy wins with $155M bid to run wind farm off South, North Carolina coasts

May 12, 2022 — Duke Energy is one of two provisional winners to win a bid to run an offshore wind farm in the Carolina Long Bay area, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Wednesday afternoon.

Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC, submitted a $155 million bid for 55,154 acres. TotalEnergies Renewables USA,LLC, submitted a $160 million winning bid for 54,937 acres.

The Carolina Long Bay area is off the shore of northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina.

Read the full story at WBTW

 

Conservation groups call for federal review of offshore wind impact on Gulf of Maine ecosystems

May 4, 2022 — A wide coalition of New England conservation groups is calling on federal regulators for a rigorous review of the potential effects of offshore wind-farms on Gulf of Maine ecosystems and fisheries. And they want that effort made before specific wind sites are proposed – which the feds did not do when planning wind-lease areas in southern New England.

Some 18 groups from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine signed on to the effort, ranging from the New England Aquarium to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, as well as national organizations like the Audubon Society.

They are calling for a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” — a comprehensive up-front review of the all the Gulf’s ecosystems, before any consideration of where the best wind- lease sites might be.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

 

MAINE: New advisory group to study port development for offshore wind

March 30, 2022 — The Mills administration has expressed its official view of offshore wind as an “unprecedented economic and investment opportunity for Maine” and plans are underway to study options for possible uses of the renewable energy at the state’s commercial ports as part of Maine’s Offshore Wind Roadmap, a strategic planning process coordinated by the Governor’s Energy Office.

Now the latest step is underway for the industry’s development, with the creation of an Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group.

The Maine Department of Transportation last week announced it was establishing the group to advise the agency and other state officials regarding the potential development of wind port facilities.

The goal is to rapidly develop the offshore wind market, according to a news release.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

 

Scientist says right whale protections critical for offshore wind

March 30, 2022 — Plans for 17 or more offshore wind turbine arrays off the U.S. East Coast mean more imminent peril for the endangered North Atlantic right whale – unless regulators and wind power developers implement sweeping new protection for the animals, according to one expert on the species.

Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement already top the list of hazards for the right whale population, now estimated at less than 340 animals. Construction work and increasing vessel traffic around wind projects will add to the danger, says Mark Baumgartner, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute whose laboratory tracks and studies the whales.

“We’ve never found a right whale that died of old age,” said Baumgartner. “We find they die from industrial accidents.”

A presentation by Baumgartner is titled “The Fate of North Atlantic Right Whales in an Increasingly Industrialized Ocean.” In an online discussion hosted Monday by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service in New Jersey, Baumgartner gave a blunt assessment of the situation.

“Right now, it’s not good,” he said, “unless we change our industrial practices.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NMFS, BOEM issue offshore wind ‘mitigation strategy’ for fisheries studies

March 25, 2022 — Offshore wind energy projects now planned off the U.S. East Coast will have an impact on at least 13 NMFS fisheries surveys, and a new draft ‘mitigation strategy’ has been proposed by the agency together with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Limitations on towing gear near turbine arrays, conducting aerial surveys and other impacts from the new energy industrial development are inevitable, and the new document out for public comment will be the subject of online discussions hosted by the agencies March 29 and March 30.

The strategy shows how the development of vast offshore turbine arrays could have profound effects on the annual survey work critical for keeping U.S. fisheries healthy and sustainable.

“For offshore wind developments with approved Construction and Operations Plans (COPs), the opportunity to avoid impacts has passed for NOAA Fisheries surveys,” the draft strategy acknowledges. “In these cases, this Implementation Strategy focuses on mitigating the impact over time through changes and additions to NOAA Fisheries surveys.”

There’s still time to reduce the future impact from additional wind developments, by documenting “impacts in the environmental review process and considering the impacts in the definition and approval process of future wind energy lease areas and lease sales,” the document states. “If these impacts are not avoided or minimized, this strategy can be used to mitigate the impacts.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

New Jersey sets $3.3 million for offshore wind environment studies

March 18, 2022 — Amid growing concern about the environmental impact of offshore wind development, New Jersey’s environment and energy planners are putting up $3.3 million for studies on how building wind turbine arrays may affect wildlife and fisheries.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday announced funding for studies and said they will soon release shortly a request for proposals. The agencies will also join the Regional Wildlife Science Entity, formed last year with Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York to coordinate monitoring and research of wildlife and marine ecosystems.

Dubbed the Offshore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI), the New Jersey interagency effort has three areas of research, to be funded by wind developers Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC, and Ørsted’s Ocean Wind II project with each committing $10,000 per megawatt of planned project capacity – about $26 million in all for long-term research and ecological monitoring.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Oregon fishing advocates organize to pressure BOEM on offshore wind

February 28, 2022 — Solicitation by U.S. federal energy planners of wind-energy developer interest offshore of the U.S. state of Oregon has the state’s commercial fishing advocates organizing to push for major environmental analysis before any decision-making takes place.

“The effect of offshore wind development on fisheries, the habitat and the California Current is unknown. Placing giant turbines and anchors in a current system that is largely free-flowing and structure-free could cause irreparable harm to seabirds, marine mammals, fisheries management regimes and more,” Southern Oregon Ocean Resource Coalition Chair Susan Chambers said in a joint statement with other groups. “Robust environmental analyses need to be completed before areas are identified and leased, not after. Our productive California Current must be protected.”

Read the full story from SeafoodSource