Saving Seafood

Bernhardt eager for offshore wind ‘that works’

July 21, 2020 — Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt flew into Boston on Tuesday where he defended putting Vineyard Wind, the nation’s first large-scale wind farm, on hold for more than a year and promised a key permitting decision on the project in December that will work for both wind developers and fishing interests.

Bernhardt, whose boss, President Trump, has shown little interest in offshore wind, said he is eager to launch the offshore wind industry. “I am very eager to do it, but I am eager to do it in a way that works,” he said. “Let me give you an example. In the West we do wind. You know where we don’t put a windmill? In the middle of a highway. You can drive all the roads in the west and you’re not going to drive into a windmill.”

His comment appeared to be a reference to concerns of fishing groups that wind turbines would block access to fishing grounds and hamper navigation.

“We don’t whack people with an unnecessary burden if we can avoid it and do things sustainably,” he said. “I need a development program that is done in a way that’s sustainable for everybody.”

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

Fishing industry leaders flag offshore wind concerns to Trump interior secretary

July 21, 2020 — Today, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt met with representatives of the commercial fishing industry to discuss their concerns with offshore wind at a roundtable organized by Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities. The roundtable included representatives from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina:

Members of New England’s commercial fishing industry who feel they’ve been cast aside in the rush toward offshore wind took their concerns straight to the top of the Trump administration Tuesday in a Seaport sit-down with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

“The fishing industry is not anti-wind. But the fishing industry’s not been part of this process from the beginning,” said Lund’s Fisheries Chairman Jeff Reichle. “Let’s do it the right way.”

Industry representatives voiced a raft of concerns with offshore wind, including the safety of commercial and recreational boaters navigating the waters, issues towing fishing nets through the farms and the potential for disrupting marine life.

Bernhardt said he’s not looking to “whack people with an unnecessary burden if we can avoid it” but noted he’s “very eager” to pursue offshore wind “in a way that works.”

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Interior Department to streamline offshore wind permitting, nix unsolicited leasing

July 7, 2020 — States along the East Coast have issued ambitious goals for offshore wind, and industry stakeholders, including prospective developers, have urged BOEM for more federal leasing opportunities.

BOEM identified “deregulatory opportunities” on offshore wind developments, that will add more flexibility to geophysical and geothechnical survey submission requirements, streamlining approval of meteorological buoys, revising project verification procedures, and providing “greater clarity regarding safety requirements.” The Trump administration is pushing deregulation and streamlined permitting as a general approach for energy and other projects.

“This latest process announcement from BOEM offers some long-term hope for improvement, but the time is now; the federal government can’t wait or delay using its existing tools to spur economic investment,” Noah Shaw, partner at Hodgson Russ and former general counsel at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), told Utility Dive.

Read the full story at Utility Dive

Interior: Offshore wind to have major ‘adverse’ effects

June 10, 2020 — Offshore wind farms could have a major “adverse” impact on commercial fisheries, according to a long-awaited analysis from the Interior Department released yesterday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s draft supplemental environmental review for Vineyard Wind — the first anticipated large-scale wind project in the United States — arrives nearly a year after a final decision on the project was expected.

BOEM delayed a final environmental analysis at the eleventh hour last summer and announced the launch of the supplemental review, arguing that the rapid expansion of offshore wind proposals and coastal state wind procurement policies necessitated a broader examination of wind’s foreseeable impacts (E&E News PM, Aug. 9, 2019).

The supplemental study, which is to be published in the Federal Register at an unspecified time, looks beyond Vineyard Wind — which is planned off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. — and outlines a host of effects that the burgeoning offshore wind sector in the Northeast could have on other industries, the environment and marine life.

It notes, for example, major cumulative impacts to commercial and recreational fishing, scientific research, and in some cases environmental justice across a suite of development scenarios. Additionally, moderate cumulative impacts are expected to marine mammals and minor cumulative impacts to air quality.

Read the full story at E&E News

Rep. Amata Highlights Fishing Access As Food Security Issue To Secretary Bernhardt

April 10, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Congresswomen Aumua Amata (R-American Samoa):

Wednesday, Congresswoman Aumua Amata was able to bring up the need to reopen fishing access as a matter of national food security during a call with Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.

Congresswoman Amata brought up directly two aspects of American Samoa’s fishing industry during the discussion: Reopening access to waters, and the currently unavailable observers for fishing vessels, requesting that the observer on board requirement be waived.

“I conveyed to Secretary Bernhardt that we appreciate Interior’s swift grant of $1 million for COVID-19 protective gear for the Pacific Territories through the Office of Insular Affairs, where Assistant Secretary Doug Domenech and OIA Director Nik Pula are doing a great job,” said Aumua Amata. “My message to the Secretary is that the COVID crisis highlights the fact that food security equals national security. Now is the time to reopen commercial fishing in the American waters in the Marine Monuments as the Interior Department has recommended.”

Read the full release here

Retired Oil Rigs off the California Coast Could Find New Lives as Artificial Reefs

May 17, 2019 — Offshore oil and gas drilling has been a contentious issue in California for 50 years, ever since a rig ruptured and spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off Santa Barbara in 1969. Today it’s spurring a new debate: whether to completely dismantle 27 oil and gas platforms scattered along the southern California coast as they end their working lives, or convert the underwater sections into permanent artificial reefs for marine life.

We know that here and elsewhere, many thousands of fishes and millions of invertebrates use offshore rigs as marine habitat. Working with state fisheries agencies, energy companies have converted decommissioned oil and gas platforms into manmade reefs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brunei and Malaysia.

Californians prize their spectacular coastline, and there are disagreements over the rigs-to-reefs concept. Some conservation groups assert that abandoned oil rigs could release toxic chemicals into the water and create underwater hazards. In contrast, supporters say the submerged sections have become productive reefs that should be left in place.

We are a former research scientist for the U.S. Department of the Interior and a scholar focusing on the fishes of the Pacific coast. In a recent study, we reviewed the history of rigs-to-reefs conversions and decades of published scientific research monitoring the effects of these projects. Based on this record, we conclude that reefing the habitat under decommissioned oil and gas platforms is a viable option for California. It also could serve as a model for decommissioning some of the 7,500 other offshore platforms operating around the world.

Read the full story at EcoWatch