Tag Archives: offshore wind farms
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines: Presser Wednesday to announce federal lawsuit to halt construction
The group indicated Tuesday that their suit will be based on efforts to protect the Northern Atlantic right whale. “The MA/RI wind lease areas cover one of the whale’s last strongholds, for migration, foraging and raising their young,” the group says on its website. “We are concerned with the adverse impacts from the increased construction vessel traffic, pile driving, and operational noise on the critically endangered NARW. NOAA fisheries determined the Vineyard Wind project, which is located in one of the last North Atlantic Right Whale foraging and nursery strongholds, and which will involve thousands of miles of vessel trips, will not jeopardize the species. This determination is not supported by the evidence.” >click to read< , and >here< 14:19
Sign The Petition: SAVE OUR OCEAN from the HUGE mistake of offshore windfarms in California!
California is preparing to make a grave mistake by allowing offshore windfarms to be built. The promise of green energy is the driving force behind this decision. The truth is, this is not green at all! The ocean is the last place we need to place windfarms. There are many more disadvantages than advantages to placing these floating wind turbines on the ocean. The environmental impact will be devastating to fish, birds, whales, other sea creatures, sport and commercial fisherman and families, and to the beautiful ocean itself. >Click to read<, Thank you for signing and help spread the word! By Michael Cohen
Offshore wind farms will have ‘major’ impacts on commercial fishing. Meanwhile, in New Bedford,,,
Development of the South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island would will have an overall “major” adverse impact on commercial fishing, according to a newly released federal study.,, Mark Philips, a commercial fishermen operating out of Greenport, cast doubt on the notion that climate change and fishing presented greater threats than the turbines themselves to his fishing activities.,, With wind farms planned from Maine to North Carolina, he sees his fishing options collapsing, even if, as the study points out, planners identified and excluded the most productive fishing grounds from the wind-energy areas. >click to read< – New Bedford fishermen, officials question New York offshore wind areas as auction nears >click to read< – 09:24
Please Congress, we need real energy solutions, not your offshore wind farm fantasy!
200 small nuclear reactors are presently powering 160 ships and submarines all around the world, and have been for decades. What’s on foot is a move to bring those reactors onshore and use them to shore up power grids being wrecked by the chaotic intermittency of wind and solar. STT promotes nuclear power because it works: safe, affordable, reliable and the perfect foil for those worried about human-generated carbon dioxide gas,,, One of the feeble ‘arguments’ against it, is that nuclear power plants are of such vast scale that they take longer to build than the pyramids of Giza, and cost twice as much. SMR technology takes the sting out of that case. And, as Walter Starck outlines below, SMRs provide the perfect opportunity to reintroduce our good friends logic and reason into the debate about what powers us now, and the future. >click to read< 12:37
Fleet of more than 50 fishing cutters protesting in Afsluitdijk against offshore wind farms
“We want to keep fishing,” says Anja Keuter, a spokeswoman for IJsselmeer fishermen in the Netherlands. Her husband is a fisherman and her three sons want to be one too. Today sailing on one of the cutters. “So many areas have been closed to fishing by wind farms that we won’t have any more space soon. Both in the North Sea and in the IJsselmeer.” In the part of the IJsselmeer where the protest takes place today, near Breezanddijk, fishing cutters are no longer welcome. The Fryslân wind farm can be seen from the dam. Recently there are 89 windmills in the water. >click to read< 12:42
Fishermen Protest Upcoming Bid for Wind Farms in New York Bight
With the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management preparing to open more lease areas on the Continental Shelf to wind farm developers by the end of the month, the fourth and last meeting between fishermen and BOEM officials took place Aug. 6 in New Bedford, Mass. with fishermen calling for a halt to leasing until more science on potential environmental impacts could be completed. The New York Bight is a triangle in the ocean between Montauk Point at the end of Long Island and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. A total of eight leases will be for sale there. The larger portion of the lease area is located 35 miles off New Jersey and can’t be seen from shore, but it does pose hazards for fishing ships transiting the area and impacts the quahog, surf clam, squid and scallop fisheries. >click to read< 12:02
Haaland, politicians visit Humboldt Bay to discuss offshore wind farms that will create jobs and stuff!
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory were joined by Huffman and California Energy Commissioner Karen Douglas. The foursome stood in front of the fisherman statue, with Humboldt Bay at their backs and a breeze blowing in from offshore. “Since the first days of this administration, President Biden has been committed to confronting climate change, creating thousands of good-paying union jobs and paving the way for the nation’s transition to a cleaner energy future,” Haaland said, adding that offshore offshore wind is a critical component of that agenda. >click to read<, and the press release, >click here to read< 13:18
A citizen writes: More discussion needed on offshore wind farm energy
Regarding the recent Press editorial, “State preempting local roadblocks to wind energy helps NJ, especially Ocean City”: The editorial is full of many of the misperceptions about the 100 planned (in the first phase),, seems to assume that everybody is for green energy, On a website, 10,980 people have signed a petition to stop this specific project. The Ocean City Council has done its homework. That is why they are pushing back on the state of New Jersey stripping them of their right to govern themselves in this matter. >click to read< by Ed Roland 19:07
Fishing Industry Urges Prime Minister To Support Industry After Brexit Fiasco
Scottish fisheries leaders have urged the Prime Minister to help them build back the industry after the bad Brexit deal, which left skippers battling for fishing opportunities while EU vessels continued to have full access to UK waters. At a business meeting in Fraserburgh, they asked Boris Johnson for action not words on improving prospects for the fleet in five years’ time when the arrangements are due to be revised. In the meantime, Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association, pressed Mr Johnson to order an independent review of the “flawed” science behind proposed quota cuts from ICES to key species such as cod for 2022. ‘As well as the lack of fishing opportunities, the industry is facing a spatial squeeze as offshore wind grows. >click to read< 10:33
Offshore Wind Farms: NJ forcefully tips its hand, as we read this stuff delivers a fraction of its total capacity!
Governor Phil Murphy has set a goal for 7500 megawatts of offshore wind-generated electricity by 2035. It is an ambitious goal. It is also a goal that leaves little time for the niceties of public engagement and dialogue. The state clearly showed that it has a plan, and it is going to implement it regardless of public acceptance. Two state actions this month make that abundantly clear. >click to read<, as we read today, Wind Turbines & Solar 
Panels Deliver Tiny Fraction of Their Total Capacity – There’s a yawning gulf between what wind turbines and solar panels are capable of delivering and what’s actually delivered. Sunset and calm weather will do it every time. wind and solar advocates always overstate the output of wind turbines and solar panels; and then, only in terms of pointless averages. The subterfuge is as much about omission as embellishment. >click to read< 10: 09
When interlopers bullshit ignorant politicians! – Offshore wind experts testify in Washington
At a virtual hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment, and Cyber hosted by U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Bourne, offshore wind experts gave testimony on the progress of the industry to date and what would benefit its ongoing development in America. Keating prefaced the hearing by describing offshore wind as a “burgeoning, clean, and job-creating energy industry.” Keating called the hearing an opportunity for learning and cooperation and noted America is positioned to establish offshore wind farms thanks to “monumental achievements” made by European pioneers, starting with a 1991 Danish farm, Europe’s first. >click to read< 08:52
Wind farms: Where are all of the ocean saviors?
The precautionary principle has deep roots finding expression in sayings such as ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ or ‘better safe than sorry’. The use of the precautionary principle in ecosystem management is especially important,,, Repeated failures of management highlighted by the collapse of northern cod off Canada, the California sardine fishery, and herring, sandeels, blue whiting and capelin stocks in the North Sea have demonstrated the need for this approach in order to help address scientific uncertainty. Yet when it comes to protecting huge swaths of ocean,,, Clog our near shore and offshore waters with hulking (approaching 1,000 feet tall today, who knows what’s in store for tomorrow?) structures supporting huge rotors with tips moving through the air at velocities approaching 200 miles per hour? So what? Festoon our sea beds with electrical cables carrying huge amounts of electricity, And what of undersea server farms,,, >click to read< 15:43 Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA. © 2021 Nils E. Stolpe, July 31
Whales, Warming and Offshore Wind Farms – Lobstering is under attack
As Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham described it, three seemingly combined forces are aligned and have put the bull’s-eye on the men and women in Maine whose lives depend on lobstering, whales, warming and wind power. The right whale protection consortium has heightened its efforts to alter nearly every aspect of Maine’s primary fishing industry by pushing the federal fisheries agencies to limit, reduce and even eliminate the fishing methods currently employed in the local waters and the Gulf of Maine,,, At best, the supposed science is leaning toward saving whales, with little regard for the men and women who are active conservationists every day while doing their jobs. The warming water folks, often the same groups and agencies that are involved with the right whale restrictions, also want to promote bureaucratic rules that will severely impact all forms of fishing. >click to read< 11:06
Equinor to trial safe fishing with floating offshore wind farm at Hywind Scotland. No Dragging, though.
Hywind Scotland’s operator Equinor and Scottish government agency Marine Scotland will work together to better understand how fishers can safely operate around and within floating offshore wind farms. In a survey scheduled for 2022, Marine Scotland will test three kinds of fishing gear: creels, fish traps and jigging lines at Hywind Scotland.,, California dreaming – Elsewhere in floating offshore wind, BOEM has decided to determine industry interest in developing offshore wind at two sites in a 1,033km2 area off central California,,, >click to read< 22:05
Biden Harris Admin scheme to buy off/ buy out, displace the fishing industry for offshore wind farms!
The Biden administration is considering ways to ensure the U.S. commercial fishing industry is paid for any losses it incurs from the planned expansion of offshore wind power in the Atlantic Ocean, according to state and federal officials involved in the matter. Discussions between state and federal officials, which participants described as being at a very early stage, are aimed at addressing the top threat to President Joe Biden’s efforts to grow offshore wind, a centerpiece of his clean energy agenda to fight climate change. Commercial fishing fleets have vehemently opposed offshore wind projects,,, >click to read< 09:55
Nothing Green Here! Offshore wind farm turbines could number 30,000 globally by 2030
The price of offshore wind turbines,,, Turbines are up to 70% steel, which is made from recycled or newly extracted iron, which is processed from ores. These ores are removed from rocks by blasting causing disruption to the natural environment, and often from sites with cultural significance to indigenous people. The mined ores are then transported by large trucks, crushed, refined, processed and shipped. Whether it’s emissions from machines processing and transporting the ores or air and water contaminants released during extraction, mining creates pollution. Converting the iron into steel also contributes to climate change. Globally, the iron and steel industry is responsible for 11% of CO₂ emissions. Steel plates are shipped and then rolled into curved sections, people and machines weld these to form long tubes, which are loaded onto vessels, transported to sea and assembled,,, processes which are largely powered by fossil fuels. >click to read< 16:05
Fake ‘Green’ Energy: So Much Spent On Wind & Solar For So Little Return
Wind and solar are not just costly they are entirely useless. Never in the field of energy generation has so much been spent, by so many, for so little return. Forget the colossal and endless subsidies, forget the community division, forget the environmental destruction and landfills full of toxic blades and panels and start with the fact that wind and solar are simply incapable of delivering electricity as and when we need it. On that score, we’ll hand over to John Hinderaker for a look at wind and solar power’s utterly pathetic performance in the USA. At AmericanExperiment.org, my colleague Isaac Orr deals a double-barreled blow to the fantasy of “green” energy. First, after all of the hype surrounding wind and solar energy, where did Americans actually get their energy in 2020? >click to read< 09:20
Stonington fishermen fight for their livelihoods: The fleet’s past, present and tenuous future
While they have weathered storms, the loss of 41 fleet members at sea, declining catches and restrictions on how much fish they can land, the aging group of mostly men who make up the Town Dock Fleet now face a set of new challenges that threatens their future and that of the state’s last surviving commercial fleet. These include the difficulty of luring young people into a grueling but potentially lucrative occupation and the leasing of vast areas of their fishing grounds to offshore wind energy companies that plan to erect hundreds of massive turbines. >click to read< 09:17
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
They’re not blown away by NJ’s offshore wind power plans!
Opposition is growing among citizens groups, and even some green energy-loving environmentalists are wary of the pace and scope of the plans. The most commonly voiced objections include the unknown effect hundreds or even thousands of wind turbines might have on the ocean, fears of higher electric bills as costs are passed on to consumers, and a sense that the entire undertaking is being rushed through with little understanding of what the consequences might be. Recreational and commercial fishermen have long felt left out of the planning for offshore wind, much of which will take place in prime fishing grounds. Similar concerns have been voiced by offshore wind opponents in Massachusetts, France and South Korea, among other places. >click to read< 09:50
The“30 X 30 Plan” – The Biden Administration’s Latest Eco Con Job
Via yet another decree (Executive Order 14008), President Biden has ordered government agencies to “permanently protect” at least 30 percent of all US lands and waters by 2030. This “30 X 30 Plan” appears to presume that any areas not designated as park, refuge, or wilderness are not “protected,” even though the vast majority of federal lands are already effectively off-limits to mining, drilling, timber harvesting, and even grazing, by virtue of policies heavily tilted toward preservation and against any development.,,, But matters get truly interesting when we examine Team Biden’s plans to eradicate the 80 percent of US energy that now comes from fossil fuels and replace it with pseudo-renewable wind, solar, and battery power. >click to read< 12:20
Huge Displacement: The United Kingdom is ‘sacrificing’ it’s fishing sector for offshore wind farms
The government has been accused of sacrificing the fishing industry for a second time since Brexit in order to burnish its green credentials with offshore wind farm’s.,, Boris Johnson, last year said the UK had an opportunity to become “the Saudi Arabia of wind”, as part of a goal to become carbon neutral by 2030. But in an echo of Brexit political divides, fishing officials said on Wednesday the government had failed to carry out impact assessments or recognise the huge “displacement” that wind turbines at sea were causing the fishing industry. “What we seem to have is a government that is in thrall to the conservation lobby, and you can see why – there are green votes that are there,” >click to read< 11:26
100s of offshore wind farm turbines greenlighted for New Jersey coast – Groucho Marx is all in!
Two wind farm projects were approved, and would provide enough power for 1.1 million homes,,, sure they will! The two projects are a 110-turbine wind farm by Atlantic Shores, which is owned by European power companies Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America, and a 82-turbine farm by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2. Atlantic Shores’ farm will be located about 10.5 miles off the coast of shore towns north of Atlantic City. Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 2 will be nearly 14 miles off Cape May. >click to read< – If Wind Farm Is Constructed You May Soon Forget It Is There – I’m going to have to buy Groucho Marx glasses, complete with a large nose, mustache and huge eyebrows, to dare show my face on LBI after writing this column. But stupid or brave, here I go. I support the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind proposal,,, Better wind than fossil fuels or nuclear. Natural gas pipelines can blow up; as for nuclear, I have only six words – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Do you remember when the Ocean County Health Department used to distribute potassium iodide pills in case of an incident at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station? Stupidity abounds. >click to read< Bill Gates says you’re all wrong! Game Changer: Bill Gates Backs Safe & Reliable Next Generation Nuclear Power Plants – >click to read<
‘Free’ Offshore Wind Farm Power Costs Six Times the National Average Cost of Power in USA
Americans are fast learning that the cost of wind power is staggering, and the cost of offshore wind power is astronomical. Joe Biden and his Squad are eager to plant thousands of these things up and down the Atlantic coast, claiming that offshore wind power is ‘free’ and getting cheaper all the time. It’s a myth, to be sure, as Willis Eschenbach carefully details below. Block Island Wind Farm – And what are the economics of the Block Island Wind Farm? (insanity!) How much is that energy worth? The nationwide average to the customer is around 13 cents/kWh,,, And how much is Rhode Island paying for this “inexpensive” wind energy? Hang on to your jaw so it doesn’t hit the floor … they’re paying 24.4 cents/kWh, six times the national average, and it’s going up by 3.5% per year … so in ten years it will be 34.4 cents/kWh. But wait, there’s more.,,, Oh, plus the surcharge to pay for the transmission cable,,, >click to read< 09:54
Fishermen drive trenching support vessel out of Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm
The International Offshore Wind Farm media is outraged! Too bad. Trenching support vessel Aethra was forced to leave the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm,,, The Aethra was deployed on the site when a large number of fishing boats surrounded the vessel. The fishermen then proceeded to breach the 500-metre safety zone around the Aethra, fire distress flares, and threaten to board the vessel and sabotage the propulsion and hurl insults at the captain of the Aethra via VHF, according to Préfecture maritime de l’Atlantique. >click to read< 11:01
Green Appeasement? To gain from those they would deceive? Fishermen and tax-paying workers will lose.
Is the SNP government trying to appease the Green Party by attempting to enhance their own environmental credentials and profit from selling or renting off the Scottish seabed to the highest bidding wind farm developer; who appear to depend on our taxes providing subsidies for their profits Oh, what a tangled web could they weave, to gain from those they would deceive? In order for the SNP government and the developers to gain, someone else must lose. The losers possibly being every tax-paying worker in the country, plus the fishermen who will lose the seabed they depend on for a living; where they work in some of the most inhospitable and dangerous working environments in the world, the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. >click to read< 07:33
Say No for the Ocean, Citizens! Impact of Offshore Wind on Commercial Fishing Industry Discussed
Scallop fisherman and Viking Village fleet owner Jim Gutowski laid out the scope in size of one offshore wind farm turbine as a backdrop to his talk on “The Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Our Commercial Fishing Industry”,,, Gutowski traveled to England and Scotland about five years ago to meet with commercial fishermen affected by wind turbines Asked by an audience member for details about any pros and cons of wind power that he heard there, Gutowski said, “From a fisherman’s standpoint I don’t think I heard too many pros. I heard tons of cons. I heard that ‘fish used to live here and now they don’t.’ I heard that ‘they told us we can fish inside of there and now we can’t.’ I heard ‘we can fish inside of them, but there’s no way we can do it.’ I saw Ramsgate in England, that was a bustling fishing port, and now it’s kind of a ghost town.” >click to read< 13:37
Raimondo picks Janet Coit, a source of trusted counsel, to lead the National Marine Fisheries Service
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Coit’s former boss in the Rhode Island State House, announced the selection of Coit to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries office.,, But the work of the fisheries service is getting even harder as it’s faced with stepping into a brewing fight over coastal waters between fishermen and the developers of offshore wind farms. Coit wouldn’t say much about the expectations for her new job in Washington as she waited for the official word to come down from the Commerce Department. But she was certain that offshore wind will be in the mix. “That’s going to be such a hot-button issue that I’m heading into,” she said. >click to read<16:46
New Jersey: Legislators Propose Bill To Limit Local Say Over Offshore Wind Farm Projects
The bill comes at a time when Ørsted’s proposed offshore wind project has been gaining opposition from several coastal communities concerned about the cables running underneath New Jersey beaches, including Ocean City and Long Beach Island. Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a southern New Jersey Democrat who sponsored the bill,,, “I can assure you, having been at ground zero of these discussions, we will allow nothing to happen that will disrupt Ocean City and the true gem that it is,” Burzichelli said at the state Assembly hearing during which the bill was advanced. >click to read< 08:45
Leave Our Ocean Alone – Pursue Energy Technologies on Land
Onshore alternatives exist that can make use of existing infrastructure and not impact our ocean resources. I urge readers to look into these alternatives. While moving the turbines farther offshore will reduce visibility impacts, it does not resolve the issues associated with industrializing the ocean’s resources. There will be environmental issues to be considered. The Atlantic Shores project proposed off Long Beach Island could include some 200 massive wind turbines, standing 850 feet above sea level and only 9 to 10 miles off our beach, presenting a “wall” of turbines obstructing our view to the horizon. The impact on the environment, including that on the endangered right whale,,, >click to read< by Jim Binder 08:22
