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February 4, 2021 — The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would heed Vineyard Wind’s plea to resume review of its massive infrastructure project, jump starting the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind-farm after it appeared dead in the water only months earlier.

A press release from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency responsible for the project’s review, placed offshore wind firmly at the center of President Biden’s green infrastructure agenda on Wednesday.

“In support of the Biden administration’s goal to address climate change and promote offshore renewable energy production, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced . . . that it intends to resume the environmental review of Vineyard Wind’s proposed offshore wind project,” the release said.

The decision comes less than two months after Vineyard Wind — a joint energy consortium of Avangird Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Projects — pulled its construction plan and requested BOEM halt review.

A decision in the federal register noted that review had been terminated, signaling that the permitting likely would have to begin from scratch.

Federal review of the project — which calls for an 800-megawatt wind-farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard — had languished for more than two years.

Then last month after President Biden took office, Vineyard Wind rescinded its prior request to halt review, betting on more favorable treatment under the incoming Department of the Interior.

The political maneuvering now appears to have paid off.

In the release Wednesday, the new BOEM director Amanda Lefton said review would resume promptly and would include development of the long-awaited environmental impact statement — a necessary final step in the permitting process.

“Offshore wind has the potential to help our nation combat climate change, improve resilience through reliable power, and spur economic development to create good-paying jobs,” Ms. Lefton said. “BOEM is committed to conducting a robust and timely review of the proposed project.”

Ms. Lefton, a former first assistant secretary in the New York state office of Energy and the Environment under Gov. Andrew Cuomo who previously worked as an executive with The Nature Conservancy, was tapped by President Biden to head BOEM on Tuesday, one day prior to the announcement. The appointment did not need U.S. Senate confirmation.

A spokesman for Vineyard Wind hailed the decision in an emailed statement to the Gazette.

“We look forward to working with the agency as we launch an industry that will create thousands of good paying jobs while also taking meaningful steps to reduce the impacts of climate change,” the statement said in part.

Not all stakeholders were as excited about the move. The project has faced considerable local backlash from independent fishermen who have raised concerns about its impact on prime fishing grounds south of the Island.

A spokesman for the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a fishermen’s advocacy group, questioned the review process and called for reopening public comment.

“RODA reaffirms our concerns about the flawed process for offshore wind leasing and development in U.S. waters, and hopes BOEM will capitalize on this opportunity to improve public engagement,” a statement from the group said. “Given the complexity of the leasing process, the fact that the public was informed that the review had been terminated, and renewable power goals have increased since the initiation of the review, the re-initiation merits additional opportunities for public comment.”

Vineyard Wind hopes to reach financial close by the second half of 2021, and be online by 2023, a spokesman said.

Other offshore wind projects, including the neighboring Mayflower Wind development, are set to follow closely on Vineyard Wind’s heels, as a once-niche offshore wind industry continues to proliferate.

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January 29, 2021 — On this brilliant winter day, you could stand on the rocks at Pemaquid Point with a clear view of Monhegan Island in the distance, and feel the wind coming off the water. There is often wind over the ocean, and that’s why there is such interest in developing offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine.

Offshore wind power is a signature goal of the Mills administration and is seen as one of the ways to fight climate change by generating electricity without carbon emissions.

“Offshore wind is a really significant opportunity for the state of Maine, for our energy future and economy,” Dan Burgess, Director of the Governor’s Energy Office, said.

But the image of huge, floating wind turbines has many in Maine’s fishing industry very worried. Among them is lobsterman Gerry Cushman of Port Clyde, a leader in both the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.

“And our message to the Governor is we hope you get behind the fishermen and help us fight this. We have no option but to fight this. We have to fight this not just for now but for our kids.”

It is a sharp contrast between those who see opportunity and those who feel threatened, and the Mills dministration is trying to navigate those turbulent waters.

A coalition of fishing groups called the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance said they also support clean energy development to fight climate change but have deep concerns about offshore wind. The groups did say it will keep talking with the Governor’s office about the plan.

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January 25, 2021 — As commercial fishermen express concern about the impact of proposed offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Maine, Gov. Janet Mills on Friday tried to calm the waters.

Mills said in a letter to fishermen she will ask the Legislature to create a 10-year moratorium on new wind projects within 3 miles of shoreline, a state-managed band of ocean that supports most of Maine’s lobster fishing as well as much coastal tourism.

But she promised little to allay fears about how a planned array of floating wind turbines might affect fishing and the marine environment farther offshore.

The Governor’s Energy Office is leading the development of up to 12 turbines that would float 20 to 40 miles off Maine’s southern coast and be used for research. In partnership with the University of Maine and two renewable energy companies, the New England Aqua Ventus array would cover up to 16 square miles of ocean grounds leased from the federal government.

While a specific site hasn’t been chosen, the array would likely connect to the state’s power grid at either the Wyman Station generating plant in Yarmouth or the former Maine Yankee plant in Wiscasset, according to a news release Monday.

Meanwhile, a coalition of fishermen recently urged the governor to make “an inclusive planning process” a priority in any offshore wind development. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, and a number of Maine-based fishermen are members of the members of the coalition, dubbed Responsible Offshore Development Alliance and headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Fishermen also spoke out in opposition to the plan during a series of December webinars hosted by the Governor’s Energy Office and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The sessions were designed to gather input from the fishing community about siting and the array’s potential impact on the industry.

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January 19, 2021 — In the selection of Gina Raimondo as the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the offshore wind industry would get a champion in Washington.

What influence she could bring to bear for the emerging energy sector remains to be seen, but if confirmed to her new position in the Biden cabinet, Raimondo would oversee federal fisheries regulators who have raised some of the concerns about potential negative impacts of erecting what could be many hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean waters off southern New England.

It’s those concerns that have played a major role in delaying the approval process for the first set of large wind farms proposed in the nation.

More: Biden picks Raimondo as commerce secretary

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an arm of the Department of the Interior, has permitting authority over the multibillion-dollar projects, which are all planned for the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But both federal fisheries management and coastal zone management are under the aegis of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Department of Commerce.

More: RI’s wind-farm plan poised to advance in ’21

“Other than BOEM, NOAA is probably the most important permitting agency for offshore wind,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Maryland-based U.S. Wind who, as the former head of Deepwater Wind, has led the development of the industry in the United States.

The expectation to get things moving for the industry will be high. President-elect Joseph R. Biden has targeted a carbon-free power sector by 2035. For the New England and mid-Atlantic states, offshore wind offers the most promising renewable energy option of scale.

In Raimondo’s six years as Rhode Island governor, the Ocean State has not only become home to the first offshore wind farm in the country — an array of five turbines off Block Island completed in 2016 — but the state also signed up for a second project that would be more than 10 times bigger when built, and then, this past fall, requested proposals for yet another.

If Raimondo’s plans come to fruition, offshore wind would be able to power every home in Rhode Island and meet nearly two-thirds of the state’s total electric needs.

“She’s done a lot to kickstart the industry in Rhode Island,” said David Hardy, CEO of North American operations for Orsted, the largest offshore wind developer in the world. “We hope that she’ll bring that leadership style to Washington.”

Those in the fishing industry are also hopeful. The Block Island Wind Farm was built only after a rigorous planning process that aimed to minimize conflicts with fishermen and other ocean users. Commercial fishermen want to make sure that any development going forward fully accounts for their needs.

“I think it’s fantastic to have someone that does have experience with offshore wind and knows the extent of the conflicts,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a group representing fishing interests in the development of offshore wind. “She understands coastal communities and their concerns. I think there is a real opportunity here.”

Due in varying degrees to the success of the Block Island Wind Farm, the relatively shallow waters and strong winds off southern New England, and the proximity to population centers with big electric demands, a swath of ocean stretching southeast from a point between Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island has become ground zero for the offshore wind business in the United States.

After Providence-based startup Deepwater Wind tested the waters with its 30-megawatt project near Block Island, corporate titans from Europe, where the global industry started three decades ago, came in with bigger proposals. Danish company Orsted bought Deepwater and with utility Eversource is now pursuing, among other plans, the 400-megawatt Revolution Wind proposal that the Raimondo administration selected in 2018 to supply power to Rhode Island.

But it was another company, Vineyard Wind — which is backed by Danish and Spanish interests — that submitted the first application to the federal government for a project of real size, an 800-megawatt wind farm that would supply power to Massachusetts.

It was also the Vineyard Wind project that set off the ongoing dispute with the fishing industry. Fishermen complained that the proposed spacing of the project’s turbines was too tight and would make it dangerous to navigate through the wind farm. They also criticized the orientation of the rows of turbines saying that it would make it difficult to trawl or set fixed gear within the project.

Fishermen in Rhode Island, home to one of the largest fishing ports in New England, were among the first to air grievances, saying that they would effectively lose access to grounds rich in squid, Jonah crab and lobster.

Their concerns were soon taken up by fisheries managers. In comments submitted to BOEM on the environmental review for Vineyard Wind, Michael Pentony, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries, questioned whether the full impacts of offshore wind on the fishing industry were being factored into the permitting process. In his March 2019 letter, he pointed in particular to the specter of fishermen being displaced from fishing grounds.

“…sometimes fisheries occur where they do because of the confluence of biooceanographic conditions that make fishing possible (e.g., depth, temperature, and habitat type leading to an aggregation of sufficient density to fish effectively),” he wrote. “In such cases, moving is simply not an option because the fish would not be there.”

That August, BOEM shocked the industry when it ordered a supplemental environmental review for Vineyard Wind, on the basis that a new assessment was needed to look at the cumulative impact on the environment and fishing of all the wind farms being proposed.

A final decision on the project was expected that summer. Instead, Vineyard Wind would have to wait. So too would all the other developers in line behind it.

Vineyard Wind came before Rhode Island coastal regulators in 2018 requesting certification that their project was consistent with state policies. It’s one of many state and local approvals the project needs on top of a federal sign-off.

After months of often rancorous negotiations with fishing representatives, Vineyard Wind offered to create two funds totaling $16.7 million to compensate fishermen for lost access. The state Coastal Resources Management Council awarded certification for the project in February 2019.

The Raimondo administration was deeply involved in the talks, not only through fishing experts with the state Department of Environmental Management but also through members of the governor’s own staff.

There was suspicion among fishermen that the governor — a believer in the broader economic benefits and jobs-creation impacts of offshore wind — was favoring Vineyard Wind in the discussions and rumors that her office was working out an alternative pact with the developer. A spokesman for the governor said at the time that her staff was talking to Vineyard Wind only about a separate economic development package.

At one meeting before the project won approval, Chris Brown, a Point Judith fisherman who was then president of the Seafood Harvesters of America, described his perceived role of the governor in the talks as a “usurpation.”

This week, when asked to comment on Raimondo’s selection as Commerce Secretary, Lanny Dellinger, chairman of the fishing board that advises the Rhode Island coastal council, offered a written statement:

“If Governor Raimondo becomes Commerce Secretary, the Fishermen’s Advisory Board is hopeful that she will be mindful of the impacts from offshore wind projects on the Rhode Island fishing industry. The fishing industry really bears the burden of these projects, including major impacts identified by BOEM such as navigation safety, quotas, gear conflicts, and displacement of fishing effort. NOAA can work cooperatively with the state and fishing industry to protect both the fishers and the resource. We look to the Commerce Secretary to be fair, and to be protective of both.”

Grover Fugate, the executive director of the coastal council during the Vineyard Wind talks, said that Raimondo would have an advantage taking over Commerce in that she’s familiar with fishing issues and the conflicts with offshore wind.

“One of the key responsibilities she has is the fisheries issue,” said Fugate who retired last year and is now a consultant on coastal issues. “Maybe it will be a new day and a new approach and hopefully it is. But she’s going to have to find her way.”

It’s been nearly three years since the dispute erupted between fishermen and Vineyard Wind. The company and other developers have agreed to spacing of one nautical mile between their turbines, but fishermen are still advocating for transit lanes through the wind farms that would be four nautical miles wide.

The draft supplemental environmental review for Vineyard Wind was released last summer and it described the possibility of “major” effects on fisheries from offshore wind. A decision on the company’s application was expected by Dec. 18, but as the deadline neared BOEM pushed off a final ruling until sometime before Jan. 15. On Dec. 1, Vineyard Wind announced that it was temporarily withdrawing its application.

The stated reason was to conduct a technical evaluation of using larger turbines than those originally planned, but Hawkins, of the fishing group working on offshore wind issues, believes that worries about the fisheries issues and a potentially negative decision from Trump’s Interior Department came into play.

Vineyard Wind, in response, referred back to a previous statement, saying the project continues to progress and that the permitting process can “promptly restart.”

When things start moving again for the developers, Hawkins wants to see more coordination with fishermen — something along the lines of what Rhode Island did years ago before the first turbines went up off Block Island.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a supporter of offshore wind and a champion of the ocean environment who has been vocal about his belief in balancing the interests of fishermen, called for something similar.

“I hope a Secretary Raimondo will have a role in applying the Rhode Island model to the offshore wind permitting process nationwide,” the Rhode Island Democrat said in an email.

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