Tag Archives: Offshore Windfarms
Fishing industry challenges from windfarms
Fishing in Dumfries and Galloway faces challenges because offshore windfarms are risking “squeezing out” the sector, according to the region’s MP. Dumfries and Galloway MP John Cooper raised the issue in Westminster last week, highlighting how floating offshore wind is just one of the sectors affecting the fishing industry. This is because you cannot fish between offshore turbines, and their seabed infrastructure is another impediment. During a Westminster Hall debate on fishing, he praised the vital contribution of fishing – mainly centred largely on scallops, lobster and crab worth millions – to coastal communities across Dumfries and Galloway. He said: “Fisherman are criticised as voracious plunderers – when really they are cautious custodians of the sea. “It took sterling work from my colleague Finlay Carson MSP to stave off the threat of the loss of livelihood for static gear fishermen along the Solway Coast. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:45
Fisherman’s Challenge to Windfarm Explorations Referred to EU Court
The High Court case is being brought by fisherman Ivan Toole, who says the windfarm developments will have a direct bearing on the Wicklow fishing fleet and will damage all marine life in the area. Mr Toole has asked for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of an EU direction about the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. His case has been taken against the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority. Judge Humphreys said he would stay the finalisation of Mr Toole’s case, while he referred a number of questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. more, >>click to read<< 09:33
Murphy Tagged $1 Billion of Ratepayer Subsidies to Bailout Failed Foreign Wind Energy Corporation
Senator Michael Testa recently addressed the withdrawal of Ørsted, a Danish wind energy company, from the Ocean Wind 1 & 2 offshore wind farm projects in New Jersey. Testa’s comments highlighted the complexities and controversies surrounding the state’s investment in green energy. Testa criticized the allocation of state funds, including a $1 billion investment in Ørsted’s projects, as a burden on taxpayers and ratepayers. He described the investment as “a drop in the ocean,” underscoring his view that the funds were insufficient to achieve the intended goals. Additionally, Testa expressed concern about the establishment of a $5 million wind institute, which he perceives as a “propaganda arm” of the wind industry. >>click to read<< 14:50
Energy industry uses whale activists to aid anti-wind farm strategy, experts say
One night in late March, J Timmons Roberts, a professor of environmental studies at Brown University, stepped in to a high school gymnasium in a small seaside town in Rhode Island. He was there to speak at a town hall aimed at allaying concerns about a local offshore windfarm. In the front row, he noticed a woman dressed as a whale, holding a sign that read “Save Me!” The woman in the front row was Mary Chalke, co-founder of the Save Right Whales Coalition (SRWC), a group of organizations across the east coast that oppose offshore wind projects, arguing they pose an existential risk to the endangered North American right whale. That night at the town hall, Roberts also spotted Elizabeth Knight, who founded Green Oceans earlier this year, another anti-wind organization in Rhode Island. Roberts said he felt compassion for Knight. “She thinks a train wreck is coming,” said Roberts. >click to read< 10:17
Scottish fishing group asks government to ‘radically rethink’ marine protected area plan
SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald said the Scottish Government’s blue economy plans “have been hijacked by the Greens and will push the fishing industry into the red.” “On top of the existing spatial squeeze caused by the dash to build huge offshore windfarms with little consideration for their impact on fisheries, the (Scottish) government wants to close a further 10% of our waters to fishing vessels – with no evidence whatsoever that doing so will achieve ministers’ vague conservation aims, nor any attempt to understand the effect of displacing the fishing fleet,” she said. >click to read< 09:42
Trawler operators fear they will lose out to offshore windfarms
Shudders went through the fishing industry just before Christmas with the announcement of Maritime Area Consents for seven offshore windfarms. Environment Minister Eamon Ryan trumpeted the allocation of the seven seabed leases as “a significant milestone on the pathway to decarbonising energy supply”. However, to the fishing industry, the first step of a process to get planning permission to build the windfarms brings their fears closer. Fishers are not just worried they will lose fishing waters, there are also concerns about how the construction and operation of windfarms might scare fish away from some traditional fishing grounds. “This is because areas targeted for windfarms are the main spawning and catching areas.” >click to read< 08:52
US citizens will suffer from a Hudson Canyon Marine Sanctuary
On June 8 th, the Biden Administration announced its newest attack on American small businessmen by declaring the Hudson Canyon region as a protected marine sanctuary. The Hudson canyon is the largest and deepest canyon on the US east coast, about the size of the Grand Canyon. It was created by the outflow of the Hudson River over the course of millions of years and because it is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the east coast, it is also one of the best fishing grounds. In a non-sensible announcement of Biden’s plan, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, joyously proclaimed that “A sanctuary near one of the most densely populated areas of the Northeast U.S. would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean and the canyon in new and different ways”. How many different fisheries are going to be affected by a Hudson Canyon Closure? Every one of them. By Jim Lovgren >click to read the article< 17:39
Offshore windfarms – some of the important actors
While I might have missed some of it, I haven’t seen much discussion of “who’s on first” vis-à-vis offshore windfarm development. Considering this, and considering that their development and the development of other controversial (at least to “historical” users of our nearshore and offshore waters) has the potential to severely impact or perhaps destroy, destroy the domestic commercial fishing industry starting in the mid-Atlantic/New England, I thought it might be instructive to examine some of the corporations who are interested in/committed to this INDUSTRIALIZATION of the ocean areas waters that have fed so many of our citizens and provided onshore and offshore employment for fishing communities since pre-revolutionary times. By Nils Stolpe /FishNet USA >click to read< 19:15
Maine DMR to talk with lobstermen about floating offshore wind baloney
The Maine Dept. of Marine Resources will be holding meetings to engage with Zone Councils D, E and F who have fishermen who fish in the area being reviewed for the potential of a floating offshore wind Research Array in federal waters. The DMR will explain its role in the process, provide an overview of the project and then focus discussion on the information available about fishing activity in the area, identify gaps in that data, and summarize feedback received through conversations with industry members.“We hope to solicit feedback from the lobster industry about our understanding of fishing activity and use in the area of interest,” >click to read< 10:50
BilloTheWisp – The Obscene Profitability of Wind Power
Due to the pandemic and the virtual shutdown of the national economy the day-ahead wholesale price of electricity has plummeted. But one group of producers has no worries. The subsidy payments received by generators classed as “renewable” dwarf these market prices. Here I’ll just deal with the most outrageous and costly i.e. windfarms. Today almost all wind-farms are subsidised by the now defunct Renewable Obligation scheme (RO). This was replaced in 2017 with Contracts for Difference(CfD) which is arguably even more costly and inflexible than its predecessor. ,, The companies running these wind-farms are over-joyed at their profitability. Truly when comes to acting as money making machines all other unsubsidized generation capacity pales by comparison. >click to read< >Wrecking the Seabed with Offshore Wind, Part1-5<19:56
Boris Johnson’s Looming Wind Disaster. Its coming here, and is being sold by huckster politicians
Boris Johnson’s government is shuffling towards a gigantic cliff edge which has nothing to do with Brexit. The looming disaster can be summed up in one word: renewables. The clue came in the form of the widespread power cuts that Britain experienced at the end of last week. Britain’s National Grid — and by extension the nation’s electricity supply — has been horribly compromised by the dash for renewable energy. >click to read< Meanwhile on Cape Cod, John Kerry, Gina McCarthy, and Dylan Fernandes hold forum as Kerry announces World War Zero. Tackling the issue of climate change – Lots of photo’s, and no John Kerry, Jane Lubchenco was no friend of the fishermen. It was another lie. Read the comments @MTV! >click to read< 15:18
An April Fools Day Prank and a Hack!
Yesterday was April 1st commonly known as April fools day, a day when people pull pranks for whatever reason suits them. Fisherynation published an April Fool prank claiming that President Donald Trump had announced a complete moratorium of the planning, development, and construction of Offshore Windfarms. If you just read the first paragraph of the article you believed that it was true. If you did read the whole article you would discover that it was a prank and you felt cheated, even mad that someone could pull the wool over your eyes like that, because if you are a fisherman this was your most fervent hope because only the president has the power to stop this outrageous boondoggle at this time. The article was by Boris Badenuff which should have tipped you off. [Rocky and Bullwinkle, Russian collusion?] ,,, The point of the prank,,, >click to read<07:36
