Upon taking office, President Donald Trump issued a temporary withdrawal of all areas of the nation’s coasts for offshore wind leasing.
Dozens of community groups had formed in opposition to offshore wind development during the Biden-Harris administration, concerned about the impacts on marine wildlife, the view shed, and electricity rates, among other things. [emphasis, links added]
Though many activists were located in blue states and were not Trump supporters, they were hopeful the Trump administration would be more responsive to their concerns.
Amy DiSibio, board member for Nantucket-based ACK For Whales, told Just the News that not everyone grasped the executive order’s limitations. “It was pretty clear what it could and couldn’t do. And I think a lot of the public got all excited that it’s all over,” DiSibio said.
The limitations of Trump’s moratorium became apparent recently when construction began on Empire Wind.
The first phase will erect 54 turbines, each nearly 1,000 feet high, 30 miles off the south coast of Long Island, New York.
When both phases are complete, the project will have nearly 150 turbines spanning across 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean.
Quiet operation
The developer, Norway-based Equinor, didn’t hold any ribbon-cutting ceremonies with photo opportunities for politicians from New York and New Jersey holding shovels, nor was there even a press release announcing that construction on Empire Wind was beginning.
When Vineyard Wind off the coast of Nantucket began construction and when it began delivering power, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a press release, and the legacy media provided favorable coverage.
The public only became aware that the initial stages of Empire’s construction had started because of an email sent over a mariner group list on March 24, stating that rock installation was beginning on the Empire Wind 1 lease area.
Trump’s moratorium orders a review of “the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President.”
The order does not impact existing leases in the withdrawn areas, meaning that projects that have been permitted will not be paused.
Besides Empire, that includes Vineyard Wind off the coast of Nantucket and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia — both of which are still under construction.
Underwater noise
Writing in The New York Post, Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, explains that Equinor is dumping thousands of tons of rock, which protects the installation from ocean currents.
This will be followed, Brady explained, by the driving of 180-foot monopiles into the seabed floor.
“The tremendous underwater noise and vibration will harm all marine life, especially endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale,” Brady warns.
The commercial fishing industry is also among the opponents of offshore wind development.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is suing the Department of Interior on behalf of six commercial fishing companies that say their livelihoods will be decimated by Vineyard Wind.
Their lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2021, argues in 33 separate claims under various laws that the approval of the project violated federal law by ignoring multiple legal protections for impacted stakeholders, including conducting environmental assessments and allowing for timely public comment.
The district court deferred to the Biden administration’s interpretation of federal law in permitting the project, and the companies filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
The petition argues that following the ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the doctrine of “Chevron deference” and said the lower court shouldn’t have deferred to the federal agency’s interpretation of the law.
Protect Our Coast NJ, Green Oceans, and Save Right Whales — a few of the community organizations opposing offshore wind development — filed separate “friend of the court” briefs in support of the fishing companies.
Power from the wind project will come ashore at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, shown under construction above. Image via Empire Wind.
Read rest at Just The News
New York now run by leftists Scum Suckers and so will the voters keep electing these Bottom Feeders?