Tag Archives: South Fork Wind Farm
A submerged concern: offshore wind cables
As offshore wind turbines undergo construction in waters south of the Vineyard, and with some already standing and delivering power, the debates on the Island regarding the industry continue. John Keene, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, told the Times that some in the fishing industry are nervous about how the electromagnetic field from the cables can affect marine life. Keene said the concern is that the fields emitted from cables could act like a fence, particularly for migratory species, and impact the behavior of marine species. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:14
Fishermen, activists protest offshore wind farms near Montauk, cite recent whale deaths
The winds of change are blowing. Conservative activists, environmentalists and New Jersey fishermen protested the construction of wind turbines off the East Coast on Monday, highlighting increasing whale deaths in the region that they say are tied to offshore renewable energy. The coalition, organized by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, sent out three boats to South Fork Wind Farm, roughly 20 miles from both Martha’s Vineyard and Montauk, NY, holding signs that read “STOP WINDMILLS SAVE WHALES” while shouting through a bullhorn at machinery operators to halt construction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2017 declared an “unusual mortality event” for humpback whales found dead on beaches from Maine to Florida. The agency has recorded 57 large whale strandings since December 1, 2022 on the Atlantic coast. Twelve occurred in New York; nine were discovered in New Jersey. Photos, >click to read< 09:04
R.I. fishermen threaten legal action over South Fork wind farm
A group of fishermen in Rhode Island is threatening to sue the state’s coastal agency, the federal government, and developer Ørsted over the under-development of the South Fork wind farm in federal waters off Rhode Island. The Fishermen’s Advisory Board and the individual fishers it represents said in a letter Wednesday that the deal to approve the South Fork wind farm did not adequately compensate them for their losses. Making matters worse, they say, a fishing vessel working on the project broadcast over a radio channel used for emergency and distress calls in April that nobody was allowed within a mile and a half of either side of recent work to construct the project’s cable. >click to read< 07:46
‘This is the war’: New Bedford at center of conflict between fishing, wind industries
New Bedford is the top commercial fishing port in the country, but it’s also emerging as an epicenter of conflict between the fishing industry and the growing wind industry. “This is the war, and we’re going to lose,” said Cassie Canastra, director of operations at Base Seafood, an electronic seafood auctioning company that her father and uncle founded in 1994. Canastra called it “defeating” to watch various wind farm projects expand into vital fishing grounds. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said he wants the city to be both the top fishing port and the No. 1 hub for wind energy nationwide, though he recognizes tensions between the two industries need to be addressed. Video, >click to read< 07:45
Ocean Industrialization: Fishing regulators fear wind turbines could threaten spawning area for Atlantic cod
It is the largest offshore HAPC designation in the region. Yet a main concern is cod spawning grounds in a smaller region within the designation, just east of Block Island. That area, known as Cox Ledge, overlaps with some 250 square miles currently leased to developers Ørsted and Eversource for their joint wind energy project: South Fork Wind. It is one of only two offshore wind projects that have completed the federal permitting process. “We are really going about the wind farm development very quickly,” said Kevin Stokesbury, a fisheries science professor at UMass Dartmouth, who studies cod in the Gulf of Maine. “It’s going to be quite a dramatic change to the ecosystem out there.” “We’ve all made sacrifices so cod can recover,” said Capt. Tim Rider, who fishes for groundfish and scallops. “Now they’re going to put a wind farm there,” he said of the cod spawning grounds. “How about they put it somewhere that might not be as intrusive.” >click to read< 11:05
New York: Wind farm’s fish monitors irk fishermen
East-End fishermen expressing outrage over a fish-monitoring program funded by a wind-farm conglomerate that may end up leaving more than 40 large concrete blocks on the ocean floor in vital fishing grounds. A research boat was working off the coast near Wainscott Thursday to collect data and install new monitoring devices that are smaller and longer lasting than those installed just over a year ago. However, no plans have been developed to remove the 500-pound anchors for the older devices,,, Fishermen say Orsted has ignored their pleas to leave monitors out of crucial fishing grounds and to remove the 500-pound blocks. >click to read< 11:36
Ratepayer Lawsuit! Review of South Fork Wind Farm project found power shortfalls during peak summer periods
LIPA in 2017 decided to move ahead with the South Fork Wind Farm project despite internal findings that its ability to produce energy during critical summer-peak times would be limited to around half the days it was needed, according to a confidential review done for LIPA. Last Thursday, the nonprofit Government Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Long Island ratepayers alleging that LIPA “ignored its own criteria for power production resources” in entering into a contract for the South Fork Wind Farm. In a statement, LIPA said its evaluation of the project, “took all technical considerations into account, including those described in the report, as well as the environmental benefits” of offshore wind. “As with all wind projects, it was determined that the totality of benefits outweighed the variable nature of wind power,”,,, >click to read< 13:40
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
A ‘backroom deal’? Fishermen’s group opposes new plan for South Fork Wind Farm
A board of fishermen that advises Rhode Island coastal regulators on offshore wind development has come out in opposition to state certification of the South Fork Wind Farm. A lawyer for the Fishermen’s Advisory Board,,, “It was a backroom deal that happened over the weekend without our participation,” said Marisa Desautel. She spoke Tuesday morning, hours before the coastal council was set to vote on a mitigation package that includes a reduction in the number of wind turbines from 15 to 12 and the creation of a $12-million fund, to be paid into over 30 years, that would compensate fishermen for lost access to fishing grounds in the project area in Rhode Island Sound. >click to read< 15:58
Euro invasion! “Ørsted is ready to mobilize.” – Town Trustees urge Ørsted to get fisheries studies underway immediately
Members of the East Hampton Town Trustees this week said that South Fork Wind Farm developer Ørsted needs to get fish population surveys started immediately, even though the actual proposal will not be finalized until later this spring, so as to be able to capture the full two seasons worth of data demanded by a fisheries study mandated in state approvals for the project. As one of the agreed-to conditions,,, Trustee John Aldred said that he and the Trustees attorneys, blah blah blah, blah blah blah,,, “I don’t want to be a defender of Ørsted, but,,, lol! >click to read< 13:11
Biden administration gives boost to offshore wind. Orstead fails to renew fisheries representative contract
The Biden administration’s announcement this week of a plan to resume an environmental review of a wind farm off the Massachusetts coast and accelerate green-energy development was welcomed by developers and proponents of projects for Long Island. Biden on Jan. 27 signed an executive order,,, Orsted officials declined to comment on the decision by the company not to renew the contract of Julie Evans, a Montauk fishing boat captain who had been a fisheries representative to the company for local fishing issues. She had worked with fishermen in 2020 on fishing-gear loss cases tied to Orsted survey work. One fishermen, Vinny Damm of Montauk, had his claim rejected. Orsted declined to comment on the matter. >click to read< 11:16
East Hampton Approves South Fork Wind Farm Cable Agreements
Agreements for the South Fork Wind Farm cable landing and burial project from Beach Lane in Wainscott to an East Hampton LIPA substation, and for $28.9 in benefits to be paid by the developers to the community, were approved by the East Hampton Town Board on Thursday.,, The wind farm, just over 30 miles east of Montauk Point, will have 15 turbines capable of producing 136 megawatts of electricity. The agreement also calls for South Fork Wind to hire a liaison to communicate with the East Hampton commercial fishing community “until the project ceases commercial operation,” and calls for a wind farm support facility and transfer vessel base in Montauk. >click to read< 14:47
Orsted and Eversource Wind Farm Plan Is Paused. What about those jobs promised by the mult-national wind farmers?!!
Orsted, the Danish energy company that acquired Deepwater Wind of Providence, R.I., in 2018 and then joined with the Connecticut energy company Eversource on the South Fork Wind Farm and other offshore wind projects, has set a timeline that would have the wind farm operational by December 2022. The federal government’s pause on it and on Vineyard Wind, a proposed wind farm jointly under development by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, have put their respective timelines in doubt. Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, Mass., issued a statement last week in which Lars Pedersen, its chief executive officer, said that its 2022 target date for completion “is no longer expected.” >click to read< 09:48
Scots offshore wind farm revolution has created just 6% of jobs forecast by ministers – At the time of the 2010 strategy, it was said that Scotland had the natural resources to become the “green energy powerhouse of Europe” and said: “It is critical that Scotland exploits the opportunities being made available by the offshore wind industry.” Sound like the crap todays carnival barking politicians are spewing today! >click to read< 09:50
East Hampton Candidates Debate Future
The candidates fielded questions on issues ranging from offshore wind and energy sustainability to coastal retreat due to climate change,,, On how the proposed South Fork Wind Farm will affect local fishermen, Mr. Gruber said the Danish firm Orsted, which now owns Deepwater Wind, the original company that got leases and power purchase agreements for the project, knows from its experience in Europe the importance of not locating wind farms in fishing grounds. “If there is displacement [of fishermen] it is compensated as a matter of law,” said Mr. Gruber, adding that the proposed wind farm, is on Cox’s Ledge, “one of the most fertile fishing grounds in the northeast.” >click to read< 11:42
Candidates Face Off for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board
The debate, sponsored by the East Hampton Group for Good Government, saw discussion of a familiar range of topics including the proposed offshore wind farm, affordable housing, the board’s plan to relocate the town’s shellfish hatchery from Montauk to a residential area in Springs, the near-constant traffic to and from East Hampton Airport in the summer months, and other environmental and quality-of-life issues. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said that “the whole point” of the wind farm “is to shave peak,” or offset electricity demand during peak periods, “and improve resiliency. It does neither.” >click to read< 13:47
An Inlet Seafood owner says lease is not a ‘partnership,’ – Orsted Wind Plans Montauk Operations Site
“We are pleased to be locating an operations and maintenance facility in Montauk to service our South Fork Wind Farm and bring additional jobs to the area,” Thomas Brostrom, chief executive officer of Orsted,,, In the same announcement, Bill Grimm, an owner of Inlet Seafood, is quoted saying that the agreement between Inlet Seafood and the developers outlined how fishermen and offshore wind developers “can work at the dock alongside each other.” Yesterday, however, Mr. Grimm denied that he had made that statement, which has been reported elsewhere. >click to read< 16:21
Wind farm developers reach agreement with Montauk dock owners
Developers Orsted and Eversource last week announced the agreement with Inlet Seafood on East Lake Drive in Montauk, an operation that’s partly owned by Dave Aripotch, one of the region’s most active commercial fishermen who has consistently criticized the offshore wind-energy projects as “wind-scams.”,,, “I’m not happy with it, but I’m not going to stop my partners from doing it,” said Aripotch, who is married to Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, who also has opposed offshore wind. >click to read< 20:29
Orsted To Partner With Commercial Fishing Dock In Montauk For On-Shore Operations Base
According to Orsted, the company will lease a portion of the Inlet Seafood property for its on-shore operations and maintenance facility and will dock the boats there that will be used to shuttle maintenance crews to and from the wind farm. Inlet Seafood is owned by a cooperative of six commercial fishermen. The group owns 6 acres of land on the eastern side of the mouth of the inlet into Montauk Harbor. Commercial fishermen have been the main opposition to the South Fork Wind Farm and to large-scale offshore wind development in general, but the agreement with some of the industry’s most prominent captains in Montauk would appear to have won at least some good will. >click to read< 22:28
Bend Over! – Critics Say Wind Farm Rates Constitute Price Gouging
There are a lot of ways to deflect the criticism, but really none to refute it: The South Fork Wind Farm will charge higher rates for the power it generates — three to five times more than its parent company, Ørsted/Deepwater, will charge in nearby markets. Despite complaints from all sides, freedom of information requests, and now a lawsuit, neither the Long Island Power Authority nor Ørsted have shed any light on the matter. East Hampton Town doesn’t even know the cost per kilowatt-hour ratepayers will be charged. In fact, though, every ratepayer in the PSEG/LIPA system will pay for the wind power generated, and the power will not be earmarked for East Hampton, as many at first believed, but for the entire grid. >click to read< 19:40
For Fishermen, Wind Farm Debate Contains A Dose Of Inevitability
Discussions of the wind farm among its most dead-set opponents, commercial fishermen, has turned decidedly in recent months, from stopping the project entirely to, instead, identifying ways to limit the negative impacts it wind farm could have—and that was even before the official public input phase of the construction and operations plan had begun. Fishermen from Rhode Island recently inked a compensation agreement with Vineyard Wind,,, The developers of the South Fork Wind Farm have yet to offer any sort of a similar package to fishermen locally, “The only place that doesn’t have any say in the project is New York,” said Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “You tell me—what’s wrong with this picture?” >click to read<17:54
Thiele Withdraws Support For South Fork Wind Farm
State Assemblyman Fred Thiele has announced he has withdrawn his support for Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind Farm. In a press release issued on January 24, Thiele said two events led to his about-face. The first was the announcement in May that Deepwater had been sold to Orsted, a Danish energy company and a major player in offshore wind. A second factor, Thiele said, was Orsted’s decision to expand the capacity of the wind farm from 90 megawatts to 130 megawatts by building larger turbines. >click to read<, thank you Gary, and thank you Fred Thiele.19:41
Commercial Fishermen, Sport fishers Divided on Plans for More Offshore Wind
Commercial fishermen say the wind-energy projects planned for southern New England, such as the South Fork Wind Farm, are the latest threats to their income after decades of quotas and regulations “I don’t like the idea of the ocean being taken away from me after I’ve thrown so many big-dollar fish back in the water for the last 30 years, praying I’d get it back in the end,” said Dave Aripotch, owner of a 75-foot trawl-fishing boat based in Montauk, N.Y. Dave Monti of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association said the submerged turbine foundations at the Block Island Wind Farm created artificial reefs, boosting fish populations and attracting charter boats like his. >click to read<10:07
Deepwater Wind to be purchased by Danish energy giant Orsted
The agreement, announced by both companies Monday morning, would create a combined company with offshore wind leases and projects across the Eastern United States. Orsted, formerly known as DONG Energy (Danish Oil and Natural Gas), has offshore wind lease rights off the coast of Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey. But at least one group saw cause for concern. “These are foreign oil and gas companies that are coming to the U.S. and taking our fisheries away from us without any mitigation or negotiations,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, an industry group. “It’s ridiculous. You want to talk about a job killer. This is the biggest threat to the U.S. commercial fishing on the Eastern Seaboard.”>click to read<17:22
South Fork Wind Farm : Plea to fund fishing survey has still not been granted
Several months after they asked East Hampton Town for $30,000 to collect data aimed at protecting fishing grounds and compensating commercial fishermen when they are unable to work, that request has still not been granted, the director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the liaison chosen by East Hampton Town’s fisheries advisory committee to communicate with Deepwater Wind complained to the town board on Tuesday. While the liaison, Julie Evans, and Bonnie Brady of the fishing association addressed the board, Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company planning to construct the 15-turbine South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles off Montauk, is in the midst of a projected four-month survey at the site and along the transmission cable’s route to shore. >click to read<09:04
First U.S. Offshore Wind Developer Acts on Fishing Gear
U.S. offshore wind developer Deepwater Wind has adopted a first-of-its-kind procedure designed to prevent impacts to commercial fishing gear from its activities. Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm is America’s first offshore wind farm, and the company is currently in active development on utility-scale wind farms to serve Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. The procedure was developed in close coordination with the commercial fishing industry and is based off extensive feedback from fishermen in ports up and down the Atlantic coast. Deepwater Wind believes that keeping fishermen informed is the key to preventing damage to fishing gear. >click to read<18:19
Reckoning Day for the South Fork Wind Farm is upon us.
Though it’s been the subject of numerous public hearings and board meetings for two years — not to mention endless conjecture and innuendo — Deepwater’s Wind’s offshore wind farm is still in its infancy. Deepwater’s proposal has become controversial and contentious. Some environmentalists question the cost of the project. Fishing groups fear the turbines and underwater cable will harm some fish species and disrupt fishing around the turbines. Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and a board member of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, has been an early and persistent opponent. >click to read<10:59
A Divided Community Speaks at Wind Farm Hearing
East Hampton residents crystalized their hopes and fears about Deepwater Wind’s proposed offshore wind farm 36 miles off the coast of Montauk in a three-hour-long public hearing at LTV’s Wainscott studio May 17. Their views highlighted a deepening divide within the community, with many saying the project is a necessary tool in combatting catastrophic climate change, while others worried that the price of the power from the project has not been disclosed, and many said that Rhode Island fishermen whose work was impacted by the company’s Block Island wind farm weren’t fully compensated for their losses, and were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements when they settled their case with the wind power company. >click to read<08:52
Bitter Denunciations at Marathon Meeting on Wind Farm
Opponents and advocates of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine, 90-megawatt installation planned approximately 30 miles east of Montauk, spoke for more than three hours at Tuesday’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Board, as commercial fishermen and their supporters railed at a project they fear would result in making fertile fishing grounds off limits.,,, “As a commercial fisherman, we are looking at the industrialization of our oceans,” said Dan Farnham Jr. of Montauk, referring to the hundreds or even thousands of turbines he expects to follow the South Fork Wind Farm. >click to read<20:19
East Hampton wants more info, research, money from Deepwater
Even as Deepwater Wind indicated it was behind on its schedule to file more than a dozen permit applications for its South Fork wind farm, East Hampton Town board members and residents Tuesday doubled down on their requests for information, research and money to study and mitigate potential impacts of the $1.62 billion project. Deepwater has offered a list of “community benefits” to the town valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. They include water quality improvement and fisheries research funds, as well as offering to bury power lines that are now on overhead lines. But the town and residents want more. >click to read<21:10
Its Deadline for Comments Day on South Fork Wind Farm Environmental Report
BOEM, which recently finished its draft environmental review of the South Fork Wind Farm, gave the public a chance to weigh in on the document at three virtual public hearings in mid-February, and is accepting further written public comment through midnight tonight… Meghan Lapp of Seafreeze Ltd. in Narragansett, Rhode Island, “Our vessels will have to fish in the area, which will be impossible if this goes through as planned,” she said, adding that the DEIS “does not contain any cumulative impact analysis” of how the offshore wind industry will affect the fishing industry. Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, based in Montauk, agreed with Ms. Lapp, adding,,, >click to read< 12:05
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