Report maps potential environmental impacts of offshore wind energy

A NOAA Fisheries report assesses the potential impact of offshore wind energy development on East Coast fish populations. NOAA image.

A four-year study of planned wind energy areas off the East Coast found that building and operating offshore wind energy arrays could affect some of the region’s most commercially valuable fish species.

The report by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was written to help the federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management to evaluate development plans for eight offshore wind energy leases issued by the agency.

Those areas, extending from the largest proposals to date...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/report-maps-potential-environmental-impacts-of-offshore-wind-energy/

BOEM requires transit corridors for offshore wind energy areas

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management says it will require vessel transit corridors (shown in light blue) through offshore wind energy leases off New England. BOEM image.

The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management is requiring offshore wind energy developers to set aside vessel transit corridors, amid intense discussions with the commercial fishing industry.

In a notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the agency announced it would offer an additional 390,000 acres south of Massachusetts for lease on Dec. 13. That would extend large areas already leased from Block Island, R.I., to south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The BOEM notice includes a new...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/boem-requires-transit-corridors-for-offshore-wind-energy-areas/

Court upholds BOEM lease for New York offshore wind energy

A nautical chart showing the proposed New York wind energy area. BOEM image.

Seafood industry groups were dealt a setback Sept. 30 when a federal court judge in Washington, D.C., refused to grant a ruling in their challenge of a federal lease for an 80,000-acre offshore wind energy project near New York.

The Fisheries Survival Fund and its allies sought a summary judgement from U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., to overturn the federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management’s grant of a $42.5 million lease to Norway-based Equinor, formerly Statoil,...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/court-upholds-boem-lease-for-new-york-offshore-wind-energy/

BOEM looking at traffic lanes, buffers for offshore wind power

A chart showing potential wind energy energy areas in the New York Bight (grid blocks) overlaid with vessel tracks from AIS data. MARCO image.

Concerns raised by the maritime and commercial fishing industries now have federal officials considering wider buffer areas, and spacing as far as two nautical miles between proposed offshore wind power turbines.

At meetings in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey, representatives of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the burden of proof is on offshore wind energy development companies to show their plans for turbine arrays will be compatible with other ocean industries.

“Right...

https://www.workboat.com/news/offshore/boem-looking-at-traffic-lanes-buffers-for-offshore-wind-power/