Saving Seafood

Vineyard wind project officially taken off the table for now

December 17, 2020 — As far as the Trump administration is concerned, Vineyard Wind is no longer in line to be the first utility-scale offshore wind development in the United State.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officially declared Vineyard Wind’s federal permitting process “terminated” with a posting published in the federal register Wednesday.

Precisely what that means is unclear for the fate of a project that is supposed to deliver renewable energy to Massachusetts and had been in line to be the first major offshore wind farm in America.

On Dec. 1, Vineyard Wind announced that it had temporarily withdrawn its construction and operations plan from further review by BOEM, referring to it as a “pause [in] the ongoing process” that would not delay the planned start of clean power generation in 2023. But based on BOEM’s posting Wednesday, the federal government is treating the withdrawal as the end of the road, at least for now, for Vineyard Wind.

Read the full story at WWLP

CHRIS MCCARTHY: Is Vineyard Wind Dead or Just Playing Dead?

December 17, 2020 — The New Bedford fishing industry is celebrating the announcement that Vineyard Wind has withdrawn from the federal permitting process and the process has ended.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a part of the Department of the Interior, issued a statement on Tuesday, December 15, that finalizes the end of the permitting process to build an 800-megawatt wind energy turbine off of the coast of Massachusetts.

Because Vineyard Wind withdrew from the process on December 1, 2020, the permitting process “is no longer necessary and the process is hereby terminated.”

Termination of the process “is effective immediately” and that exact verbiage is used in the letter to the government by Vineyard Wind and by the government in its announcement.

Read the full story at WBSM

BOEM Gives Seafood Industry a Breather: Vineyard Wind Process Terminated

December 17, 2020 — The offshore wind energy hurricane just hit the doldrums: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management just terminated a key process for the Vineyard Wind project off the East Coast. But the move has implications beyond just the one project.

In a Federal Register notice set to publish Wednesday, BOEM says the preparation of an environmental impact statement is no longer necessary and the process is terminated.

Read the full story at Seafood News

After Trump administration moves to pull plug, Vineyard Wind looks to Biden

December 16, 2020 — Vineyard Wind’s request for “a temporary pause” in the federal review of its 800-megawatt offshore wind energy project triggered an announcement from the Department of Interior that it must restart its entire permit application process.

In a flurry of activity by the outgoing Trump administration, the head of the Interior Department’s legal staff, solicitor Daniel H. Jorjani on Tuesday issued new guidance stressing that if Interior Secretary David Bernhardt “determines that either fishing or vessel transit constitute ‘reasonable uses…of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas and the territorial sea,’ the Secretary has a duty to prevent interference with that use.”

The 16-page memo asserts the secretary of Interior should determine “what is unreasonable” interference from offshore wind turbines “based on the perspective of the fishing user.” It’s a victory for commercial fishing advocates including the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance and Fisheries Survival Fund, who went directly to Bernhardt in July with complaints their concerns are not adequately addressed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy.

The agency had been poised to issue a record of decision Jan. 15 that would allow Vineyard Wind to proceed toward construction – a timeline that now could stretch out another 18 months, unless a Biden administration very supportive of wind energy steps in.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Vineyard Wind project stalls, Maine begins information meetings on its own wind project

December 15, 2020 — The Vineyard Wind project, a proposed 800-megawatt offshore wind energy installation, has been stalled as the company – Vineyard Wind LLC – withdrew its construction and operations plan from review by the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM), on 1 December, effectively halting the project’s progress.

The withdrawal, announced in a letter to be published in the Federal Register on 16 December, is a win for the region’s fishing industry, which has objected to the project in addition to other proposed projects in the New England area. Fishermen have been worried about the proposed wind projects for years, and two groups representing fisheries in the region – the Fisheries Survival Fund and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) – have made layout suggestions, requested revisions to an earlier Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and have pushed for a pause on development amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Climate Conference Buoyed by President-Elect Biden

December 8, 2020 — Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and the speakers at his annual climate-change conference expressed optimism about dealing with the crisis now that leadership in Washington, D.C., is about to change.

Senator Whitehouse said a new Biden-appointed head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will make early interventions to resolve disagreements between energy developers and the fishing industry to get permits approved.

“Right from the very get-go, even before the filing,” Whitehouse said, “it should be a requirement of the filing to bring a statement of what work you’ve done with the fishing community, what their concerns have been.”

Hinting at the unchecked influence of utilities and hedge funds, Whitehouse noted that offshore developers need to show more restraint.

“Developers shouldn’t just get to go out there, cut a private deal with their funders, their investors, and then put their stamp down in the public ocean as if they owned it,” he said.

Read the full story at EcoRI

New Tool Available to Explore Effects of Offshore Wind on Fisheries

December 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Factors to Consider

In a busy ocean, finding the right spot for offshore wind farms isn’t easy. There are a lot of factors to consider besides the windiest spots.

  • What marine life is in the proposed areas?
  • Is the area a productive scallop ground or other important fishing spot?
  • Do endangered whales or sea turtles rely on this area for food or migration?
  • Will fishermen and other vessel traffic be able to navigate safely?

Currently, there are more than 16 offshore wind energy areas in various stages of planning and development from Maine through North Carolina. These projects may install more than 2,100 turbines from 2021–2029.

New Online Tools

To help better understand the impacts offshore wind development will have on Atlantic coast fisheries, we developed some new tools and analyses.

Some of the information you can find for the currently proposed offshore wind energy areas includes:

  • Amount of individual species landed
  • Landings revenue
  • Gear types used
  • Number of vessels fishing
  • Number of fishing trips
  • Communities affected

To gather this information, we combined vessel logbooks, dealer reports, and observer data to come up with fishing footprints. We then compared them to the proposed offshore wind energy project areas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is the federal agency responsible for reviewing and permitting offshore energy projects. It has used this information in its analysis of the Vineyard Wind Project.

Anyone can download the data and generate summary reports using our query tool.

We will further develop these tools based on public input and ongoing efforts to integrate other data sources.Both the summary reports and underlying data will be continuously updated as we obtain this additional information. We are currently working on integrating party/charter vessel logbook data and data from vessels that fish for highly migratory species and for species managed in the South Atlantic. Learn more about the work we’re doing to monitor and analyze the potential fishery impacts from offshore wind development.

Questions?

Fisheries Data: Benjamin Galuardi, Regional Office, (978) 281-9187

Offshore Wind and Fisheries: Doug Christel, Regional Office, (978) 281-9141

RODA Workshop Brings Together Wind Energy Stakeholders for Science Workshop

December 3, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

In October, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) brought together fishermen, state and federal agency representatives, wind energy developers, and others to participate in a three-day workshop: Synthesis of the Science: Fisheries and Offshore Wind Development. The workshop kicked off the collaborative project, which provides a forum for research and knowledge sharing between the fishing industry, offshore wind industry, federal and state agencies, and the public.

RODA received funding from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for the project, which consists of two integrated components, a virtual workshop and a published report. These components have the overarching purpose of enhancing regional and national understanding of existing science and data gaps related to offshore wind energy interactions with fish and fisheries.

Together, RODA, NMFS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) partnered on this project. Through a collaborative process co-designed by fishermen, wind developers, and state, academic, and federal partners, this effort advances the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance’s (ROSA) regional science efforts by describing the current state of science, existing research and monitoring programs, and data gaps, and soliciting input regarding priority research questions.

Over 560 participants attended the virtual workshop from all around the world. Speakers from across the US, UK and Europe presented the state of play for the disciplines that had been identified by the planning team, including physical and benthic habitat, oceanography processes, biological and ecological interactions, socio-economics, impacts to fisheries monitoring and data collection, management and cumulative impacts. To gather expertise and input from participants, breakout sessions provided an opportunity for small group discussions on specific issue areas.

“With the speed in which offshore wind projects are moving and the depth of science that is required to safely operate within wind energy areas and to preserve our valuable ecosystems, the Synthesis of Science workshop will prove to be invaluable as we move forward,” said Guy Simmons, Sea Watch International’s Senior VP of marketing, product development, fisheries science & government relations. “The virtual workshop and the whitepaper to follow will give us a road map of what we know, what we do not know and what we must know. We commend the great effort put forth by the organizing committee, and appreciate the National Marine Fisheries Service for seeing the need and providing funding, along with BOEM, for the event.”

Agency leadership, including Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for NMFS, and Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of BOEM, gave remarks in support of the effort and encouraged the continued collaborative effort between the offshore wind and fishing industries. Agency chief science advisors and the director from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) – Dr. Rodney Cluck (BOEM), Dr. Cisco Werner (NMFS), and Dr. Jon Hare (NEFSC) – also provided keynote remarks and even tested attendees’ fisheries trivia knowledge to start the meeting.

The success of the Synthesis of the Science project hinges upon identifying and prioritizing impacts to fisheries and the fishing industry when considering implications of offshore wind development. This is the most comprehensive effort to date to convene fisheries scientists and industry experts on the topic of offshore wind energy, and the widespread interest and active participation in the projects indicates the need for continued engagement.

“I had the good fortune to attend the Synthesis of the Science workshop and found it extremely informative,” Richard Ogg, owner of the F/V Karen Jeanne, based out of Bodgea Bay, California. “I could interact during the breakout sessions, ask questions, and leave with a clearer understanding of offshore wind generation.”

Contributing authors to the synthesis report are working with the planning team to synthesize the input provided during the workshop and fill in specifics from existing and ongoing research. Outcomes from the workshop and report will be used by the ROSA advisory council and research advisors to help determine the organization’s path
forward.

Recordings of the plenary presentations and other materials are available on the RODA website.

Vineyard Wind pause may kick project decision to Biden admin

December 2, 2020 — On the heels of another federal permitting delay, Vineyard Wind announced Tuesday that it is temporarily withdrawing its construction and operations plan from further review by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management but the company says its pause won’t delay the planned start of clean power generation.

The announcement came in conjunction with news that the 800-megawatt offshore wind project plans to use GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X wind turbine generators when it begins construction, which it called “industry leading” and “the most powerful in operation to date.”

Project developers told BOEM on Tuesday that they plan to launch their own “final technical review associated with the inclusion of the Haliade-X into the final project design” and have asked for a pause in the federal review, which had been expected to be completed this month before recently being pushed to January.

“While the decision to pause the ongoing process was difficult, taking this step now avoids potentially more federal delays and we are convinced it will provide the shortest overall timeline for delivering the project as planned,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. “We intend to restart the BOEM process from where we left off as soon as we complete the final review.”

Read the full story at WWLP

Feds Push Vineyard Wind Decision Into 2021

December 1, 2020 — The Vineyard Wind project has been delayed again.

The project, which is poised to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the country, is already more than a year behind schedule and now will have to wait about a month longer. A federal decision on final permitting for the project had been expected by Dec. 18, 2020, but the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management updated its timeline in recent weeks and now expects a final decision by Jan. 15, 2021.

“BOEM received more than 13,000 comments on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind,” a spokesman for the agency told the News Service in an email. “BOEM continues to work with cooperating agencies in the review of these comments. An updated schedule is posted on BOEM’s website.”

A final federal decision on the 800-megawatt offshore wind farm had initially been expected by Aug. 16, 2019 but BOEM sent shockwaves through the offshore wind industry in August 2019 when it announced a plan to withhold the final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind while it studies the wider impacts of an offshore wind sector that is hoping to ramp up in Northeast and mid-Atlantic waters also used by the fishing industry.

Read the full story at WBUR