Tag Archives: offshore wind farms
Corporate Welfare: Lawmakers pass controversial bill to give tax break to offshore wind developer
Lawmakers narrowly advanced fast-tracked legislation Friday that would give a Danish company a multimillion-dollar tax break for its offshore wind project, despite objections from Republicans who slammed it as “corporate welfare.” The bill would allow Ørsted, the company approved to build a 1,100-megawatt project 15 miles off the Atlantic City coastline, to keep federal tax credits that otherwise would return to ratepayers. The value of the credit would be $2.40 per year per ratepayer, by Ørsted’s estimate, but the company’s total potential savings is unclear. Critics questioned why legislators should give “a corporate bailout to a foreign company on the backs of New Jersey ratepayers,” as Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn (R-Monmouth) put it. >click to read< 09:25
Commercial fisherman in NJ speaks out about wind turbine plan
Brick Wenzel is a commercial fisherman at the Jersey Shore. He joined me on my “Common Ground with Bill Spadea” podcast and on the broadcast this week. Brick is speaking out against the governor’s wind turbine plan, joining a chorus of opposition hoping to end the project once and for all. As I mentioned, when he appeared on the podcast he came bearing gifts! The fresh squid right off of one of his boats was a welcome treasure! As you know, Jodi got it on ice and we cooked it up the next night. Brick explained that one of the missions he’s on, in addition to commercial fishing and battling the wind project, is to provide protein to the folks who are truly food insecure. His organization is able to gather fish that has very little to no market value and deliver them to food banks across the state. Watch the podcast, key to 30:07 >click to read< 09:31
Biden admin under fire for offshore wind impacts on military operations
Earlier this week, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., industry stakeholders and experts met with officials from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a top federal watchdog agency, to discuss their concerns about offshore wind development. According to Smith, who represents a district along the Atlantic coast home to a naval weapons depot and where offshore wind projects have been proposed, more than an hour of the three-hour meeting was devoted to military impacts. The GAO recently agreed to investigate the wide-ranging effects of offshore wind development after Smith, fellow New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and several other lawmakers called for a probe. The investigation will look, in part, into wind turbines’ impact on military operations and radar. >click to read< 07:55
Offshore wind proponents, critics square off at Atlantic Shores hearing
Both proponents and critics of New Jersey offshore wind power generation faced off on Monday during a hearing for a project, that if approved, would construct up to 200 wind turbines less than 9 miles off the Jersey Shore. Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a project by the power companies Shell and EDF Renewables North America, promises to power about 700,000 homes in New Jersey through the construction of up to 200 ocean wind turbines. Supporters of the project say Atlantic Shores and other offshore wind projects are needed to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are contributing to ocean warming, acidification, coastal flooding and stronger storms. But opponents of the project say it amounts to industrialization of the Atlantic Ocean and will irreparably harm a delicate coastal ecosystem. They argue Atlantic Shores will eliminate crucial scallop and oyster beds to commercial fishing and ruin the ocean view on which local tourism depends. Video, >click to read< 15:06
Will Morro Bay wind farms be the demise of Port San Luis?
I heard about the proposed Morro Bay Offshore Wind Farm awhile back but didn’t really think too much about it. But now I understand there is a plan to industrialize Port San Luis to be used as a base to assemble, operate, and maintain the 1,000 feet wind turbines for the wind farm and for the Vandenberg Space Force base to barge in rockets and components that are too large to travel by land. I am not sure this is such a good idea. I began to do some research on wind farms. This developed into hours and hours of digging through material. What I have learned is quite alarming. >click to read< 08:06
Oil Company con game exposed; the old switcheroo by Jim Lovgren
Oil companies developed techniques to not only locate oil and gas reserves thousands of feet below the ocean bottom, but to drill and recover them. Unfortunately, the tools used to locate oil reserves under the ocean floor, primarily seismic air gun arrays, have left a trail of dead sea creatures in its wake. Just like the US Navy, who for years denied the growing body of evidence linking military sonar usage to localized marine mammal strandings, the oil industry has denied any link of seismic research to the marine mammal strandings that invariably occur near their operations. Along comes Biden’s green new deal, and the east coast is now swamped with offshore research vessels using both sonar and seismic devises to map the sea floor and thousands of feet underneath it, for wind development. The same vessels in many cases that would have been involved with the 2012 proposed marine mammal massacre in search of oil reserves. These vessels are not only surveying the area in the lease site, but for many miles away from them, in many cases overlapping into other lease sites, or just mapping bottom that will never be available. Why? >click to read< 11:11
Offshore Windfarms Threaten to Pull Out of Uneconomical Contracts
A string of offshore wind projects meant to power Britain are in jeopardy after the global race to net zero sent costs soaring, casting doubt over the industry’s future as a cheap source of energy. A surge in supply chain costs has pushed up the price of wind turbines, while increases in global interest rates have raised refinancing costs substantially. It has made several projects unviable just a year after they won government subsidy contracts – leading to fears from industry insiders that Britain’s future is in jeopardy as the “Saudi Arabia of wind”. Schemes developed by Danish company Ørsted and Swedish player Vattenfall are among other projects understood to be at risk, as the industry seeks more government help to ensure projects remain viable. >click to read< 09:30
Offshore Wind Electrical Substations; The Secret, Silent Killers by Jim Lovgren
The marine mammal strandings that are taking place almost everyday along the US east coast are the most visible consequence of the Biden administration’s reckless disregard of all environmental safeguards that had been carefully crafted since the environmental movement started in the 1960’s. Embarrassingly, the cowards at the National Marine Fishery Service have stood by and watched as research vessels have been performing geologic surveys with high powered Sonar, and Seismic devises before they had their incidental take permits issued. They have also authorized over 100,000 level B takes of marine mammals, and that’s just for a few projects, as they fully expect the offshore wind factories to cause the extinction of the critically endangered Northern Right Whale. Just ask Sean Hayes, from the NMFS protected species department, whose observations were ignored by BOEM, hence an ESA violation. >click to read< 11:34
Government Watchdog Agrees to Probe Effects of Offshore Wind Turbines
Following a request from a group of Republican congressmen, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent watchdog, has agreed to conduct an investigation into the environmental effects of offshore wind turbines, which the Biden administration has increasingly supported. The effort was spearheaded by Representative Chris Smith (R., N.J.), who sent a letter to the GAO’s comptroller requesting information about the effects in the North Atlantic Planning Area, which extends from Maine to New Jersey. Of particular interest is whether wind turbines will cause economic and marine-life problems affecting commercial fishing. >click to read< 07:38
NC joins pact to cover offshore wind farm related fisheries losses
North Carolina has joined nearly a dozen other East Coast states to create a financial compensation program that would cover economic losses within the fisheries industry caused by Atlantic offshore wind development. The Fisheries Mitigation Project aims to establish a regional administrator to oversee the process of reviewing claims and making payouts collected through a fund paid for by wind developers to commercial and for-hire recreational fisheries industries to mitigate financial loss associated with offshore wind farms. The goal first and foremost of the states is to ensure wind energy areas and the cable systems that will run from wind farms to land are developed in way that would result in minimal impacts to the fisheries industry. >click to read< 10:22
Pipe Dream: The wind and solar power myth has finally been exposed
Many governments in the Western world have committed to “net zero” emissions of carbon in the near future. The US and UK both say they will deliver by 2050. It’s widely believed that wind and solar power can achieve this. This belief has led the US and British governments, among others, to promote and heavily subsidize wind and solar. These plans have a single, fatal flaw: they are reliant on the pipe dream that there is some affordable way to store surplus electricity at scale. Wind and solar need to be backed up, close to 100 per cent, by some other means of power generation. If that backup is provided by open-cycle gas or worse, coal, net zero will never be achieved: nor anything very close to it. >click to read< 09:02
Who will benefit from Morro Bay wind energy job creation?
California plans to rely on offshore wind energy to achieve its renewable energy goals. The off-shore wind farms are projected to generate 2,000 to 5,000 megawatts of energy by 2030 and 25,000 megawatts by 2045. Cyrus Ramezani and Mahdi Rastad’s 86-page report details the economic impacts of the Morro Bay wind energy projects and identifies the types of jobs that will be created. Last year, the federal government auctioned off three offshore wind energy sites located between 20 and 30 miles off the coast near Morro Bay. The report does not discuss the number of jobs the county will lose in the fishing and hospitality industries. >click to read< 16:30
Contrary to mainstream belief, wind turbines are neither effective nor, in many cases, good for the environment
Claims of wind power being pro-environment often do not consider the damaging effects these projects can have on wildlife and ecosystems, thus hiding the “true cost” of such initiatives. Wind power projects can threaten birds that fly within their vicinity and trigger a decline in their population; it can harm marine life due to noise pollution and affect the growth of plants in the region where it is located. Driven by subsidies granted by the federal government, the growth of wind projects has triggered concerns about the cumulative impacts they have on the environment. There have been growing protests against wind power projects across the world. In the United States, people have opposed setting up wind turbines in Lake Erie due to concerns about the environmental impact of the project. In New Jersey, protestors have asked to pause the development of an offshore wind farm which they claim has led to dolphins and whales washing ashore. >click to read< 12:38
Maine fishing industry forum held in Waldoboro
On Wednesday, May 24, a crowd of over 100 concerned citizens attended a forum at the Coastal Christian Academy in Waldoboro on the challenges facing our lobster industry. Forum participants focused on the history of lobstering as a self-regulated, sustainable fishery, right whale protections, and the impact of offshore wind power. William “Billy Bob” Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, Maine House District 12 Representative, House Minority Leader and a fourth-generation lobsterman, was the first speaker. Dustin Delano, chief operating officer of the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association and former vice president of the Maine Lobster Association, was the second speaker. Jason Joyce, an eighth-generation lobsterman from Swan’s Island, was the final speaker. >click to read< 11:40
Wind Farm Opponents to Host Fundraiser For Legal Defense Fund
For nearly four years, opponents of a proposed offshore wind farm that they say could negatively affect marine life, tourism, the commercial fishing industry and wildlife have held protests and signed petitions calling for a halt to the project by Danish energy company, Orsted. Protect Our Coast NJ founder Suzanne Hornick, of Ocean City, said the time is now to stop offshore wind farm projects to protect the environment. “Protect Our Coast NJ is fighting to protect our coastal community and our ocean from the extreme industrialization currently planned for our shores,” Hornick said. “We know that the proposed projects which could see thousands of gigantic turbines and substations off our coast will destroy our community, quality of life, economy, ecosystem, food supply, national security, and more.” >click to read< 07:55
Wind Farm Protesters March in Ocean City
Opposition to the wind farm has been mounting following more than 30 whale deaths along the East Coast that critics have blamed on sonar mapping of the seabed that is needed for construction of the project. However, government agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection say the recent deaths of whales, dolphins and other marine creatures in New Jersey and other coastal states have nothing to do with the wind farm work. They say evidence shows that most of the whales were struck and killed by shipping traffic. Opponents reject those claims, though. During Saturday’s protest, speakers pointed the finger at the wind farm for the whale deaths and warned of other possible dire impacts that the project could have on the Jersey Shore’s environment, the tourism industry and commercial fishing operations. Photos, Video, >click to read< 07:55
Cape May County to fight Ørsted, Ocean Wind 1, 2
“At first, the County of Cape May was interested in trying to work with Ørsted to find a way forward, perhaps with some modifications to the project to reduce visual, environmental and economic impacts,” Commission Director Len Desiderio said in a release issued by the county. “We would like to see land-based offshore wind facilities and supply-chain infrastructure built here in New Jersey, since that would create good opportunities for trade workers and others. But we cannot sit quietly by as hundreds of windmills are installed off our beaches as state and federal government agencies ignore our legitimate and serious concerns. “As time went by, it became clear that Ørsted was not interested in finding any compromise,” Desiderio said. “It is clear to us now that the approach among this foreign corporation and their partners in the state and federal governments is to build these things as fast as they can despite the potential for devastating environmental and economic impacts. >click to read< 09:42
First Lawsuit Over Whales and Wind Dismissed
A federal district judge in Massachusetts has rejected an effort to stop an offshore wind project near Nantucket Island on the basis of danger to whales, apparently the first court test of similar claims being raised against wind turbine proposals along the U.S. eastern seaboard, including here in Virginia. On May 17, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted a motion for summary judgement to the federal agency that approved the Vineyard Wind One project. With a planned 84 turbines, the project is about half the size of Dominion Energy Virginia’s planned project off Virginia Beach. Both are just the first phases of larger planned buildouts. The same judge is hearing the other cases, with the two from fishing interests now combined. >click to read< 09:47
California: Can wind energy and fishing industry co-exist on the coast?
A statehouse hearing on offshore wind energy explored “The Future of Fisheries and Offshore Wind Energy in the Golden State” and fishing representatives said the scenario is unknown and they’re concerned. Fishermen are bracing for impacts to their livelihoods, as leases for five areas off the California coast, including two in Humboldt making up about half of $775 million plus in lease sales, have been federally-approved. Unavoidable impacts to fishing are expected so compensation for consequences like loss of fishing grounds will eventually be calculated. But fishing representatives said at this point the scale of the impacts can only be guessed and the leasing process hasn’t been inclusive enough. >click to read< 11:12
Saving The Whales. The Fight Against Offshore Wind Farms.
As nine European countries sign a declaration to turn the North Sea into a huge industrial wind farm zone, they have effectively committed to wiping out wildlife on a monstrous scale; a mass, indiscriminate, destruction of life forms that have survived for millennia. A shocking opinion? Yes, but also a real possibility – and one thing is very certain, this is nothing to do with ‘green’ energy, ‘net zero’ or climate change. This is everything to do with greed and folly, a lethal combination. Whale Deaths And Wind Farms – An Obvious Connection >click to read< 08:45
Role of Unionized Firms at Center of Maine’s Offshore Wind Debate
On Thursday the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing on a proposal to pave the way for the development of offshore wind infrastructure in the Gulf of Maine, including the construction of a coastal manufacturing facility that would build the offshore floating wind turbines Lawmakers also considered Thursday Rep. Tiffany Strout’s (R-Harrington) LD 1884, a bill that would block offshore wind developments. In recent years, the prospect of filling the Gulf of Maine with hundreds of wind turbines has taken on an air of inevitability, with environmental groups, industry groups, and well-paid lobbyists pouring millions of dollars into political pressure campaigns and ad campaigns designed to build support for the project. Unions, construction companies, investment companies, and lobbyists are all lining up to secure their share of what could be one of the largest taxpayer-funded projects in the history of the state. >click to read< 09:42
New London: Does Orsted/Eversource charter of NL fishing boats violate city lease?
Many fishermen resent the interference in the waters they regularly use and suggest still-unknown harm will be done to undersea environments and marine life. But I didn’t realize until recently that wind partners Orsted and Eversource actually have a fishing fleet strategy, chartering some fishing boats to “scout” for their wind turbine work in offshore fishing waters. One fisherman I met recently, Rob Morsch, claims the big utilities are driving a wedge between fishermen by “buying off” some of them with thousands of dollars in daily charter fees. Morsch raises the interesting point that the mooring of the boats being used for offshore wind, he calls them “windmill boats”, is a violation of the city’s intent, with its low-cost rent, to have a fishing fleet based there. >click to read< 08:10
Wind project scope ‘staggering’
It wasn’t “until the whales and the dolphins started washing up that people’s attention was able to focus” on the offshore wind farms, according to Cindy Zipf, and when people looked beyond the whales, they realized what is happening is “staggering.” “I don’t think ever in the history of mankind have we proposed to industrialize an ecosystem this fast and at this magnitude,” she said. Zipf is executive director of Clean Ocean Action, a coalition of groups dedicated to protecting the ocean. Zipf acknowledges the pace at which the plans are moving forward is making efforts to slow or stop them difficult. “It’s challenging considering how fast-tracked everything is and how limited the permitting process is. It’s kind of under the jurisdiction of two people to make it happen, President Biden and Gov. Murphy,” she said. “Hopefully as more is understood there will be some more caution but as it is right now the (state and federal) agencies are very enthusiastic.” >click to read< 16:29
Congressman Van Drew Joins Chairman Westerman on Natural Resources in Leading Letter to GAO Requesting Offshore Wind Study
“BOEM and offshore wind companies have engaged in a sloppy and rushed environmental review process—ignoring national security concerns, ignoring concerns from our fishermen, and ignoring impacts on our ocean life—all in the name of ‘climate change,'” said Congressman Van Drew. “We must continue to demand transparency throughout this process. Without diligent oversight, we risk not only our natural resources and local economies, but the livelihoods of the constituents we serve as well. I thank Chairman Westerman for his support in uncovering the real impacts these offshore wind turbines will have on our coast, including the economic impact on pertinent industries and the effects on sensitive environments.” >click to read< 10:31
Natural Resources Defense Council Announces STATE OF EMERGENCY for Atlantic Whales By Jim Lovgren
The National Resources Defense Council [NRDC] in a press release has declared a state of emergency for Atlantic Whales. Here are some excerpts from a piece written by Francine Kershaw, NRDC’s leading east coast Marine mammal expert. “Something is happening off our Atlantic coast. Unprecedented numbers of great Whales are washing up dead on our shores.” Over the last few decades, the NRDC has successfully challenged the US Military in regard to sonar effects on marine organisms, while also challenging seismic activity related to oil exploration. Both of these issues have national security implications that require a more robust examination of the possible causes of the legal actions taken, and why they were taken. What’s NRDC’s excuse for ignoring the growing amount of dead Whale carcasses that keep washing up on east coast beaches, while the same research vessels that would have been doing the seismic and sonar research for the oil companies are doing it for the wind factories? >click to read< 17:58
Old lumber port preps for new life as California offshore wind hub
Eureka’s halcyon days as the “timber capital” of California are long gone, but the deepwater port city 270 miles north of San Francisco may see its fortunes turn as the hub of the state’s first foray in offshore wind energy. Eureka sits across two of the five swaths of Pacific Ocean along the California coast that the federal government auctioned off to offshore wind developers this past December for a total of $757 million. The three other leases are on the Central Coast across from Morro Bay. Humboldt Bay, the second-largest bay in California after the San Francisco Bay, is ideally suited to become the final assembly port for the massive turbines. >click to read< 15:43
Where have all the dead whales gone? By Nils Stolpe, FishNet-USA
Beginning in December of last year and extending through most of the first quarter of 2023, New Jersey and New York beaches were inundated with abnormally high numbers of dead or dying whales and smaller marine mammals. These majestic creatures-though not so majestic when being pushed about willy-nilly by tides, wind, waves and various types of earth moving machines-have never expired in such large numbers in such publicly accessible locations in local residents’ memories. Perhaps coincidently, intensive hydroacoustic surveys to determine the suitability of potential sites for the construction of thousands of gigantic windmills and their supporting infrastructure (supposedly to help us all survive what is being sold as an imminent energy/climate crisis) were being committed offshore of the beaches where all of these marine mammal deaths and strandings have been concentrated. To us inveterate observers of that hunk of Atlantic Ocean real estate known as the New York Bight, and the critters that temporarily or permanently live there, and of the actions of the public agencies charged with-and entitled to tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year to do so-administering the Endangered Species and the Marine Mammal Protection Acts, that surely hints at, at best, ineptitude at that’s ineptitude at a fairly advanced level. >click to read the article< 16:14
Planned Tenfold North Sea Windfarm Expansion by 2050
The fishing industry is alarmed by drastic plans to massively increase windfarm capacity in the North Sea. Fishing industry leaders already fighting to retain fishing grounds for their members are deeply alarmed by the plans to increase of offshore wind power by ten times current levels by 2050, to develop ‘energy islands’ of interconnected sites and carbon capture projects. Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), said the development would be on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting of the international fishermen’s movement, the Northern Fishing Alliance (NFA), which represents fishermen from six countries fishing in the North Sea. >click to read< 12:38
Wind farms creating ‘death zone’ at sea says ex-Greenpeace boss
Drilling foundations for offshore wind turbines and sound pulses used to prepare for the 900-foot towers may be creating a “death zone” for whales, a former Greenpeace chief claims. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and its ex-president in Canada, believes the acoustic systems used by vessels surveying the ocean floor harm the marine mammals’ sense of hearing, risking their crucial ability to navigate, and leading to more dead whales washing up onshore. At least 36 “large” whales have washed up along the East Coast since Dec. 1, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. photos, >click to read< 07:51
N.J. GOP seeks wind projects halt to see if whales benefit
Four state senators hosted a online hearing about offshore wind energy generation and whale deaths, three weeks after the most recent East Coast whale death was reported and despite the assurances of most scientists and conservationists that there is no correlation. The two-hour hearing came a week after Democrats, who control the Legislature and the governorship, held a similar hearing and many of New Jersey’s major environmental groups said the greatest danger to whales is climate change, not offshore wind generation. “I’ve been labeled a climate change denier and a tin-foil hat wearer,” said Jim Hutchinson, managing editor of The Fisherman,,, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., who represents part of the Jersey Shore and who led last week’s Democratic-led forum, said pausing offshore wind projects wouldn’t prevent whale deaths. >click to read< 08:05
