New York Archives - Saving Seafood

Interior won’t release evidence for blocked NY wind farm

April 23, 2025 — The Interior Department says it stopped work on a New York offshore wind farm because the project’s permit was based on “bad & flawed science.”

It has yet to produce that science.

Interior has offered little explanation for its decision last week to halt work on Empire Wind. Its public statements have been limited to a pair of social media posts by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who initially announced the decision on X last week and followed up with a post Monday saying the move was based on findings from NOAA.

Read the full story at E&E News

Trump escalates his feud with offshore wind

April 21, 2025 — Donald Trump took his disdain for offshore wind to a new level this week.

The president moved to halt a wind farm off New York’s coast that was already under construction — a step analysts say sets a dangerous precedent for all energy projects, not just renewable ones, writes Benjamin Storrow.

“No one with any kind of an energy project can rely on the permits that have been issued if this administration, for whatever reason — legally or illegally, rightly or wrongly — decides that they want to call into question permits that have already been issued,” Allan Marks with Columbia University told Ben.

“That should scare any investor in any energy project.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum delivered the administration’s rationale in a social media post on X. The 810-megawatt Empire Wind project is being halted, he wrote, to review information “that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”

Read the full story at Politico

Trump administration moves to shut down Empire Wind

April 17, 2025 — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction activity on Equinor’s Empire Wind project off New York.

“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote in a memorandum Wednesday, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

Citing President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order calling for a broad review of all offshore wind power projects in federal waters, Burgum wrote that the construction halt will remain pending review to “address these serious deficiencies.”

Planned as an array of 54 turbines between shipping approaches to New York Harbor, the 810-megawatt project recently started with subsea rock installation on the turbine sites, and pile-driving for foundation installation expected in May.

Project opponents have furiously lobbied the administration to take dramatic action against the project, one of five East Coast wind installations where developers with approvals under the Biden administration have pressed forward despite hostility from Trump.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project

April 17, 2025 — The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-permitted project. He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval.

The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in President Donald Trump’s first term. BOEM approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and construction began that year.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Trump Admin Halts New York Offshore Wind Project, Orders Review of All Existing Biden-Era Wind Permits

April 16, 2025 — The Trump administration is halting construction of a massive offshore wind project being built in federal waters off the coast of New York and ordering a sprawling review of existing offshore wind permits, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday to order foreign energy developer Equinor to cease all construction activities on its Empire Wind project, according to a memorandum obtained by the Free Beacon. Burgum said the Biden administration green-lit permits for the project and ultimately approved it without conducting proper analysis.

“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote. He said the halt on Empire Wind will be in effect indefinitely until further review is completed to “address these serious deficiencies.”

Burgum additionally ordered Interior Department staff to continue a review of federal wind permitting practices related to both existing and pending permits and approvals.

Read the full article at The Washington Free Beacon

Massive turbine power being built off NY coast despite Trump ban on offshore wind projects

April 11, 2025 — A massive wind power project off the coast of New York blew past President Trump’s executive order to block or pause all new wind energy leasing in federal waterways — which opponents claim will destroy aquatic life and the commercial fishing industry.

Norway-based Equinor, which already had all the necessary lease and permit approvals from the feds before Trump’s January 20 executive order went into effect, confirmed that it has started construction at the site — laying rock as the foundation for the giant 54 wind turbines — 15 miles off the coast of Long Beach.

Equinor will deliver the power by connecting to Con Edison’s electric grid via a cable link from the ocean floor to the substation at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park.

The “Empire Wind 1″ project — which will power 500,000 homes — has the strong backing from both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, in part to help meet the goals of the ambitious state climate change law mandating 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040 and the phasing out of fossil fuels by 2050.

Read the full article at the New York Post

Danger at sea — NY’s offshore wind power will kill whales, ground ships and more

April 11, 2025 — New York’s offshore waters are on the brink of a man-made disaster, one that threatens marine life, coastal economies and even national security.

The Empire Wind offshore wind project this week began construction in the New York Bight, a critical marine ecosystem and one of the busiest maritime zones on the East Coast.

The damage may be irreversible — and New Yorkers will be footing the bill.

This week, Empire started dumping thousands of tons of rock into the ocean to prepare for constructing huge monopiles, the foundations upon which its giant wind turbines will sit.

The rocks — 3.2 billion pounds of them, in just this first phase of a planned two-part installation — will destroy habitat, burying vital sand shoals that serve as spawning and nursery grounds for fish species like fluke, squid and scallops.

Entire fisheries and fishing communities from Massachusetts to North Carolina will be harmed.

Next month, Empire will start pile-driving the massive 180-foot monopoles into the seafloor.

The tremendous underwater noise and vibration will harm all marine life, especially endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale.

Read the full article at the New York Post

NEW YORK: New York’s wind farms on Long Island face uncertainty after President Trump halts lease sales, permits

April 8, 2025 — Smith Point’s Park Beach is where offshore wind energy will soon come ashore. Crews there are laying cables for New York’s second wind farm with 84 turbines 30 miles off Montauk.

“We have this untapped renewable resource, the wind… this is going to power millions of homes… with almost zero fossil fuel use,” Melissa Parrot, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island said. “The planet is at stake. We see the glaciers melting… you see the storms, you see the floods… and the number one way to curb climate change is to stop our CO2 output, which is fossil fuel use.”

Hope has turned to uncertainty. On his first day in office, President Trump halted ocean wind lease sales and permits, ordering a full review. His strategy prioritizes oil, gas and coal to lower prices, he said.

“We have more energy than anybody and we are going to be unleashing it,” Mr. Trump said.

On the other end of of Long Island and on the flip side of the debate, Christina Kramer of Protect Our Coast – LINY applauds Mr. Trump’s decision. She turned against offshore wind when a transmission line was proposed on her Long Beach block. Her group argues wind energy is unreliable, costly and environmentally harmful.

Read the full article at CBS News

NEW YORK: Dire Straits: Montauk Inlet Emergency Dredging to Restore Safe Passage for NY’s Top Fishing Port

February 20, 2025 — So much sand built up in Montauk Inlet that commercial fishing boats bumped the bottom, ran aground, some large trawlers were forced to dock in Rhode Island, and surfers rode waves crashing over the shoals.

It was dire straits for the largest commercial fishing port in New York State until a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge ship that arrived over Valentines Day weekend began the emergency project to make the inlet safely passable again. The arrival came two weeks after the agency secured funding for the project and surveyed the inlet to verify reports that shoaling made for dangerously shallow waters in parts of the inlet, especially at low tide.

“It’s been a really treacherous situation,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, told Dan’s Papers. “The month of January was pretty much a loss to the packhouses. The inlet was three feet in places.”

Read the full article at Dans Papers

NEW YORK: New York approves power line for Equinor offshore wind farm

February 14, 2025 — New York’s utility regulator on Thursday granted a unit of Norwegian energy firm Equinor permission to build and operate transmission facilities for the company’s Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm under construction off the state coast.

The transmission line for the project runs about 17.5 miles (28.2 kilometers) from the boundary of New York State waters to a point of interconnection in Brooklyn, the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) said in a release.

Read the full article at Reuters