Saving Seafood

Feds sued over offshore wind farm leases near Jersey shore resort

January 12, 2022 — A group of New Jersey residents have sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to seek the reversal of its March decision to pursue the development of an area of ocean 30 miles off the coast of New Jersey for wind turbines.

The agency is widely expected to announce a lease sale for the area, called the New York Bight, as soon as this week.

Community group Save Long Beach Island accused BOEM in Washington, D.C., federal court Monday of failing to prepare an in-depth report on potential environmental impacts of selecting 800,000 acres of the New York Bight to lease to developers that would install wind turbines.

BOEM’s March 26 decision advanced Biden’s plans to double the capacity of fledging U.S. offshore wind capacity by 2030 and decarbonize the power sector by 2035.

The failure to prepare an environmental impact statement before selecting five areas of the New York Bight “effectively forecloses any opportunity for the public to comment” on the site’s selection, the complaint says.

Read the full story at Reuters

US commercial fishing groups fighting offshore wind development push

January 3, 2022 — The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has so prioritized offshore wind energy development that it is bypassing real environmental review and failing to consider alternative sites that won’t harm the commercial fishing industry, according to a lawsuit brought by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Filed 15 December, 2021, in federal court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of six fishing businesses in the U.S. states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, the action challenges BOEM and other federal agencies on their review of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project off southern New England, which received approval in May 2021 but has since been challenged in several other lawsuits.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Ocean environmental studies to be paid for in New Jersey by offshore wind developers

December 28, 2021 — New Jersey’s offshore wind developers will help fund research on marine life, paying $10,000 per megawatt of capacity to help New Jersey scientists better understand the impacts of wind farms on the Atlantic Ocean’s ecosystem.

The state’s Research Monitoring Initiative will direct a total of $26 million from the power companies toward the study of wind turbines’ impacts on ocean wildlife and commercial fisheries, according to state officials.

“There’s a lot of data that still needs to be better understood, both during the planning phases, but then also during construction and operation,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette told a group of reporters during a virtual meeting.

The money will be distributed to research institutions across New Jersey with cooperation from the Regional Wildlife Science Entity and the Regional Offshore Science Alliance, two independent organizations focused on learning more about offshore wind impacts on the environment.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

 

Massachusetts doubles offshore wind in power pipeline

December 20, 2021 — The amount of offshore wind power in the Massachusetts pipeline is poised to roughly double with the selection Friday of projects from both Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind to cumulatively generate 1,600 megawatts of cleaner power for the Bay State by the end of this decade.

A group of utility executives working with assistance from the Baker administration was seeking 1,600 MW more of offshore wind power but got just two bids that each maxed out at 1,200 MW and came only from the two developers already under contract to deliver offshore wind power to Massachusetts. So instead of picking just one 1,200 MW project, the group selected Vineyard Wind’s roughly 1,200 MW Commonwealth Wind proposal and supplemented it with a 400 MW project offered by Mayflower Wind.

Both developers are already working on roughly 800 MW projects for Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind I, the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the nation, is in the very early stages of construction and is due to come online by the end of 2023. Mayflower Wind’s initial 804 MW project just began its federal review process and is expected to be up and running in 2025.

“These projects will double the size of our current offshore wind procurements, they will deliver significant economic benefits to a number of coastal communities across the commonwealth, they include important provisions for diversity, equity and inclusion as well as benefits to environmental justice communities, and they invest significantly in the state while balancing protections with environmental resources including fisheries,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides told the News Service on Friday.

Read the full story at WGBH

 

Interior clears key hurdle for wind farms off New York and New Jersey

December 20, 2021 — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it has determined wind farms offshore New Jersey and New York would not pose a major disruption to the local environment, clearing a key hurdle for lease sales in the region.

In a statement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it has issued a finding of no significant impact for leasing nearly 800,000 acres in the New York Bight. The bight encompasses an area between Cape May in New Jersey and Montauk Point in Long Island.

“The completion of this Environmental Assessment is an important step forward in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of increasing renewable energy development on federal lands and waters,” BOEM Director Amanda Lefton said in a statement. “BOEM is focused on ensuring that any development in the New York Bight is done responsibly and in a way that avoids or minimizes impacts to the ocean and other ocean users in the region.”

Read the full story at The Hill

 

U.S. fishing industry teams up with oil lobby to fight offshore wind

December 17, 2021 — Members of the U.S. commercial fishing industry are teaming up with an oil industry-backed lobbying group to fight offshore wind energy development on the East Coast, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with people involved.

The unusual alliance reflects the breadth of opposition President Joe Biden faces as his administration pushes to expand offshore wind power and other clean energy sources dramatically to combat climate change.

The fishing industry believes offshore wind farms will interfere with vessel navigation and hurt crucial stocks like squid and scallops, while some in the oil industry see renewable energy projects as unwanted competition to fossil fuels.

Several fishing businesses, including a seafood dealer in Rhode Island and fishing groups in New York and Massachusetts, sued the administration this week in federal court in Washington, D.C. to block its approval of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project off the Massachusetts coast.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Rhode Island-based Seafreeze Shoreside Inc, a seafood dealer and plaintiff in the lawsuit, told Reuters she had approached TPPF several months ago to see if it would be willing to represent the group.

She expressed no concern about the group’s ties to the oil and gas industry, saying: “If your entire economic future was at stake, and somebody offered to help you, would you care?”

Read the full story from Reuters

Biden admin clears way for N.Y. offshore wind leases

December 17, 2021 — The Biden administration has found that huge arrays of offshore wind turbines off the coast of New York and New Jersey won’t cause significant impacts to the local environment, clearing the way for highly anticipated lease sales.

Issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today, the finding moves the New York Bight closer to being auctioned off to offshore wind developers — a sale that would be the first under President Biden.

Over 7 gigawatts of electricity could be produced in the New York Bight, enough for about 2.6 million homes, according to Interior. That’s close to one-fourth of the offshore wind power that Biden wants to develop across the country by 2030, making it a priority area for the administration.

The wind power would also feed into dense, fossil-fuel-reliant cities located in two states that are hungry for carbon-free electricity to meet their own net-zero goals.

In its finding, BOEM said that selling off as many as 10 commercial and research leases to wind developers in the New York Bight would result in “no significant impacts” to the environment, at least during the phase where developers carry out preconstruction surveys and testing in the lease areas.

Read the full story at E&E News

New England council calls for offshore wind mitigation fund

December 10, 2021 — The New England Fishery Management Council updated its offshore wind energy policy, endorsing calls for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to establish “a compensatory mitigation fund for damages that occur to the marine environment and fish habitat,” and losses to fishing vessels as turbine arrays are built.

The council’s Dec. 7 deliberation came with a new presentation from BOEM on the agency’s push to review and approve up to 16 wind energy projects off the East Coast by late 2025.

BOEM opened a preliminary public comment process through Jan. 7 to prepare a “guidance” plan for fisheries mitigation measures, with a draft document planned in spring 2022 and a final proposal in the summer.

A summary released by the council on the first day of its Dec. 7-9 meetings noted the tight time frame.

“On a more time-sensitive note, the Council was briefed on BOEM’s request for information ‘to obtain input from the public, especially the fishing community, on avoiding, minimizing and, if needed, compensating for impacts from offshore wind energy projects to commercial and recreational fisheries.’”

During an Dec. 6 online Zoom meeting convened by BOEM, fishing industry advocates said the agency needs to take more time and in-person workshop meetings with fishermen to fully understand the likely effects of shutting them out of wind turbine arrays during construction — and how they may not be able to fish those areas in the future.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Why does the NH Energy Department want more information on offshore wind’s impacts?

December 6, 2021 — Offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine could impact New Hampshire’s economy, environment and energy system, and the state’s new Department of Energy has released a request for proposals to find a consultant to help the state assess what those impacts could be.

Offshore wind development has produced controversy in other places. But the East Coast will likely see a major development of the renewable energy source in the coming years.

Though New Hampshire is likely years away from offshore wind deployment, Granite Staters have shown interest in its potential to create jobs and address the state’s impacts on climate change.

The Department of Energy, along with the state’s Department of Environmental Services, hosted an information session Dec. 2 on the RFP to select the consultant, drawing 25 attendees, according to NHDES. The chosen consultant will then produce an impact report. Funding for the report comes from the American Rescue Plan Act.

State Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, chair of the Commission to Study Offshore Wind and Port Development, said the report could provide information on how the development of offshore wind might impact New Hampshire’s economy, ports, fisheries and environment.

Read the full story at NH Business Review

How will offshore wind farms affect Gulf of Mexico fishing? Federal regulators want to know

December 6, 2021 — With the development of offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico likely within a few years, federal regulators are beginning to assess how wind farms will affect commercial and recreational fisheries.

On Dec. 15, agencies that regulate offshore energy and fisheries will hold a workshop for the Gulf’s fishers. The input they gather will help guide the planning and permitting of wind farm lease areas, and potentially lead to mitigation for fishers affected by turbines, transmission lines and related infrastructure.

East Coast fishers are concerned that an expected boom in wind farm construction off the coasts of New England, New York and Virginia will crowd them out and make fishing more dangerous. The country’s first offshore wind farm, a five-turbine project built in Rhode Island in 2016, was small enough that it didn’t get in the way of fishing boats, but its transmission lines to the shore have snagged many fishing nets.

Read the full story at NOLA.com