Tag Archives: Mayflower Wind

Massachusetts fishermen question impact offshore wind farms will have on their industry

The federal government has established seven wind lease areas for developments, and Vineyard Wind is already under construction, set to be producing energy by late next year or early 2024. And development won’t stop there, said state Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin, with Commonwealth Wind and Mayflower Wind joining Vineyard Wind south of Martha’s Vineyard.  “We really don’t have a choice,” Roy said. But Edward Barrett, president of the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership, who’s been in the industry for more than 45 years, said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a federal government agency that determines the wind leases, has “a deaf ear” to the concerns of fishermen.  “What impact will that have? Well, no one’s really figured that one out and if it has a negative impact,” Barrett said, “then I’m the one who’s gonna have to pay for that through reductions in my catch allocations.” >click to read< 09:14

Massachusetts offshore wind project “no longer viable”

A major offshore wind project in the Massachusetts pipeline “is no longer viable and would not be able to move forward” under the terms of contracts filed in May. Both developers behind the state’s next two offshore wind projects are asking state regulators to pause review of the contracts for one month amid price increases, supply shortages and interest rate hikes. There’s an obvious bit of irony in seeing the same state and federal government actors who have pushed “green energy” down everyone’s throats sitting on this particular sideline. Those same people whose policies helped drive this collapse in the supply chain and the labor market, along with the spike in the prices of pretty much everything, are now watching as one of their signature “clean energy” achievements fall victim to the conditions they created. >click to read< 08:48

Sold Out! Biden, Mitchell, and the Dems Jeopardize the New Bedford/New England Fishing Industry

The New Bedford fishing industry, which has kept New Bedford out of the poor house for years, opposes the windmills. Environmentalists say the windmills will mess with the migration patterns of whales and other inhabitants of the deep. They oppose wind farms, too. Vineyard Wind was stopped in its tracks by the Trump White House, but Biden fast-tracked it earlier this year along with a windmill farm in the New York Bight, a rich fishing ground frequented by the New Bedford fleet. The Mayflower Wind project could win federal approval soon as well. Remember, the Obama-Biden Administration banned fishing in an area just off the New England coast. Trump overturned that foolishness. Wonder where the news media is on all of this? >click to read< ,, Are journalists failing today’s public? – Most reporters appear to be amateurs with no formal training in the field. >click to read< 07:51

“Hundreds if not thousands of jobs,,, New Bedford about to become hub for offshore wind

The state has announced lease agreements with Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind at the facility from 2023 to 2027, and are worth more than $32.5 million. “These are the two first projects that Massachusetts is involved in and they’re going to be staged their construction project from New Bedford,” New Bedford Port Authority Director Edward Anthes-Washburn said. The two 800 megawatt offshore wind projects will be over 15 miles off the East Coast, but the turbines and equipment needed to build them will be set up at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, video, >click to read< 10:50

Mitchell: Delays to wind projects have hurt New Bedford’s ‘first mover’ status – In this article, New Bedford Mayor Mitchell is concerned the port has missed the wind farm port development opportunity of being the lead development port of all ports! Mitchell said Friday that in some ways the delays to Vineyard Wind’s project have diminished the city’s “first mover” status in the offshore wind industry, which he called unfortunate. >click to read< 15:25

The fishing industry is expendable,,,

Bob Guzzo Talks Quotas, Offshore Wind, Coronavirus, and Fishing out of Stonington, Connecticut

“We’re giving up traditional fishing grounds that we’ve had for hundreds of years, that have fed the country, that are now going to light a light bulb and it’s not going to be worthwhile,” Guzzo said of the proposed wind farms located in federal waters. The location of the wind farms also destroys longtime fisheries, said Guzzo. “They’re taking away places that we’ve fished for this country over hundreds of years and we’re losing that ground,” he said.,, Quotas and Coronavirus, “I got tired of throwing fish overboard, I could never stand it. I started too long ago and never had to do this. The way they make you fish today is a crime,” >click to read< 08:01

For offshore wind, expect more delays, review won’t be done until December

The Vineyard Wind project was put on hold indefinitely in August 2019 when the federal government decided to supplement its environmental impact review with a study of the cumulative impact of the many wind farms being proposed along the eastern seaboard. The impact of wind farms on fishermen is a focus of that supplemental review. >click to read< 14:19

Offshore wind farm proposals causing concerns for fishing industry

Sen. Susan Sosnowski (D – Dist. 37, South Kingstown, New Shoreham) was pleased to hear about the changes made to two offshore wind farm proposal last week, calling the revisions “positive development.” The developers of this project, Mayflower Wind and Vineyard Winds, are hoping to place an 84-turbine array off Martha’s Vineyard and another 15 turbines in the Rhode Island Sound. According to Sosnowski, she still has some remaining concerns. Same here, Senator! Where are the cease and desist orders? >click to read< 11:04

Radar interference ‘hype,’ Furuno sees no issue with offshore wind turbines and marine radar.

Furuno, a global leader in marine radar systems, does not consider offshore wind turbines an interference threat to maritime radar navigation, according to its U.S. and European representatives. Furuno radar domes are a common sight atop Massachusetts motor yachts and commercial fishing vessels.,, Capt. Dave Aripotch, a trawler captain out of Montauk, Long Island, shared a photograph he and his wife, Bonnie Brady, head of Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said shows a marine radar screen taken in the vicinity of the Block Island Wind Farm that allegedly depicts interference or scattering. >click to read< 12:29

Joe Gilbert: Wind turbine spacing plan inadequate for fishing safety

From the perspective of Connecticut’s commercial fishermen who provide over $53 million to our state’s economy, nearly 1,000 jobs and food on the table of countless consumers, I wanted to respond to the Nov. 19 Day article, “New England Wind Turbine Plan Proposed to Allay Concerns.,,, “This uniform layout is consistent with the requests of the region’s fisheries industry and other maritime users,”,,, It is unclear to me and other fishermen what industry requests these developers are responding to. >click to read< 11:10

This Blows! Fishing industry raps proposed wind energy grid

“The proposed layout specifies that turbines will be spaced 1 nautical mile (nm) apart, arranged in east-west rows and north-south columns, with the rows and columns continuous across all New England lease areas.” But the claim that the newly proposed layout would satisfy the requests of the fishing industry did not entirely hold up once the developers’ plan was released publicly Tuesday morning. An organization that advocates on behalf of the scallop industry said its members were not consulted,,, >click to read< 19:41

N.E. Offshore Wind Leaseholders Submit Uniform Layout Proposal to the U.S. Coast Guard

The five New England offshore wind leaseholders – Equinor, Mayflower Wind, Ørsted/Eversource, and Vineyard Wind- announced a uniform turbine layout proposal submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard with 1 nautical mile (nm) spacing between wind turbines. The companies issued the following joint statement: “In response to feedback from key stakeholders, we have proposed to adopt a uniform turbine layout across our adjacent New England lease areas. >click to read< Please >click here< for the report prepared by W.F. Baird & Associates Ltd. and an accompanying letter from the five New England offshore wind leaseholders. 07:49