Rhode Island and Massachusetts Wind Energy Area (BOEM)

“This is history in the making as we mark yet another major milestone in the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy.  Today we are moving closer to tapping into the enormous potential offered by offshore wind to create jobs, increase our sustainability, and strengthen our nation’s competitiveness in this new energy frontier.”

- Secretary Sally Jewell, Department of the Interior

This announcement follows months of evaluation by BOEM, as well as the vision, leadership, and commitment of the state governments in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, to identify low-conflict areas for offshore wind energy projects and review potential impacts of development activities on marine life in the designated Wind Energy Area.  Looking ahead, National Wildlife Federation will closely examine the project proposals that come forward to ensure that wildlife protections are included as this process unfolds.

The Interior Department and BOEM took great initiative today, and now we need to ensure that this momentum inspires the necessary follow-through from Congressional and state leaders to make offshore wind a reality.

“As hurricane season begins with superstorm Sandy fresh in the minds of Atlantic Coast residents, the need to cut climate-disrupting carbon pollution is more urgent than ever. Offshore wind power is a golden opportunity to clean our skies and power our future with clean, locally-produced energy – all that’s needed is the political willpower to make it happen.  As the Department of the Interior moves forward with the nation’s first offshore wind lease auction, significant leadership from state governments as well as Congress is urgently needed to ensure we harness this massive clean energy resource sitting right off our shores.”

- Catherine Bowes, Senior Manager, Climate & Energy, National Wildlife Federation

Recent progress in New England gives more cause to celebrate, and suggest that the pieces of this puzzle are starting to come together.

New findings reveal puffins may be on the front lines of climate change (flickr/Billtacular)

Another first came last week, thanks to the leadership and innovation of the University of Maine.  The University’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center  launched a prototype of a floating wind turbine into the waters off the coast of Castine, Maine.  The first of its kind globally, this floating platform turbine is also the first offshore wind turbine to connect to the United States grid.  The Department of Energy acknowledged the significance of this small-scale inaugural project.  Director of the Energy Department’s Wind and Water Power Technologies Office, Jose Zayas, commented that “the Castine offshore wind project represents a critical investment to ensure America leads in this fast-growing global industry.”

The U.S. certainly remains far from claiming leadership on offshore wind, but getting a model turbine in the water offers a tangible symbol to the global community that we are getting serious.  Establishing the infrastructure to deploy more projects, and auctioning areas of the ocean, help strengthen the message that we do not intend to let this opportunity pass us by.

What’s next?

Middelgrunden offshore wind farm, Denmark (flickr/Kim Hansen)

State leaders along the coast also need to step up and ensure offshore wind power is part of our energy future. Now is the time for bold commitments to bring offshore wind energy on-line.

Today’s news from BOEM is just the latest sign of progress in America’s pursuit of this massive clean energy frontier.  Let’s make sure that we build on these successes, and gather them into a collected stride toward the clean energy future that is in everyone’s best interest.  Let’s send our thanks to Secretary Jewell, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and  the New Bedford leadership, Governor Lincoln Chafee,and the University of Maine, but most importantly, let’s make sure Congress and our state leaders know we expect the same from them.

Send a message to BOEM, thanking them for this step in the right direction and urging them to keep up the momentum on offshore wind energy!

Offshore wind farm in Copenhagen (Photo: PEBondestad – Flickr)

Ocean biodiversity is at risk from ocean acidification, rising water temperatures and sea-level rise caused by carbon pollution and climate change. The offshore wind power generation needed to reduce the carbon pollution threatening the ocean and beyond is finally upon us.

With the long-awaited arrival of this massive source of clean energy comes the obligation to do it correctly for wildlife. That’s why we’re thrilled today to have reached a landmark agreement with major offshore wind industry leaders and marine conservation organizations to protect the critically-endangered North Atlantic right whale—helping to ensure wind power can both stem the impacts of climate change and minimize its own impacts on marine wildlife.

Right Whales in Jeopardy

Scientists estimate that less than 500 North Atlantic right whales are currently roaming our Atlantic shorelines.

Right whale mother and calf (Photo: NOAA NMFS)

Right whales are sensitive to underwater noises, and there is concern that the early survey activities of offshore wind developers could disturb migrating whales and divert them off their typical course into areas where they may be more vulnerable to predation from sharks and orcas or collision with ocean vessels. With so few individuals left, scientists have suggested that the loss of even one or two female right whales poses a threat to the population as a whole.

Win-win for Whales & Offshore Wind Energy

We need rapid, responsible wind energy development in the Atlantic that avoids these types of unacceptable impacts. The exciting news is that the leaders in the U.S. offshore wind industry agree.

With colleagues at the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, New England Aquarium, and companies like Deepwater Wind, I spent the last few months navigating both the science on the right whale and the needs of a new industry. The agreement we reached in this first-of-its-kind collaboration balances the needs of industry, the conservation community and the right whale.

The agreement provides additional protections for the North Atlantic right whale, primarily by reducing or avoiding sound impacts from exploratory activities that developers use to determine where to build wind farms, such as the construction of temporary towers that measure weather conditions and underwater surveys that assess the geology just beneath the ocean floor.

The developers implementing these voluntary measures will have the greatest certainty of avoiding unacceptable impacts, and that in turn will remove barriers to the type of efficient, responsible permitting and development process NWF and ocean advocates can support.

Looking Forward

Our sights now turn to New England, an important location for right whale and wind energy, where similar measures could be developed. This is an ongoing venture, so we’ll strive to build support for these measures from more stakeholder and industry voices, and see them ultimately implemented.

I’m proud to work for an organization that seeks innovative collaboration as a tool to achieve conservation victories, and I’m hopeful that today’s agreement is the just the crest of the wave to bring responsible offshore wind power ashore—pun intended.

Help protect wildlife today by supporting offshore wind projects—take action now!

Wind turbines off Blyth, UK (Flickr’s Zabdiel

The coalition sent a letter to President Obama today with more than 200 signers, including the National Wildlife Federation, Environment America, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans. It calls for continued federal leadership to move away from fossil fuels and applauds administration efforts over the last year, specifically the Interior Department’s “Smart from the Start” initiative. The program has designated appropriate areas for wind development in federal waters off the coast of six Atlantic states—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.

What is the coalition specifically asking the Obama administration to do?

• Support federal financial investments to spur offshore wind development;
• Set a bold goal for offshore wind in the Atlantic;
• Ensure that offshore wind projects are sited, constructed and operated responsibly;
• Provide DOI and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management with sufficient staff and resources, and
• Prioritize coordination to secure a market for offshore wind power.

Some people have a misperception that you have to choose between offshore wind energy and thriving wildlife populations. Much of that is due to a misinformation campaign funded in large part by William Koch, one of the billionaire polluting Koch brothers who’s fighting clean energy just because he doesn’t want to see it off his Cape Cod estate. The truth is that America urgently needs to clean up our electricity grid if we are to protect wildlife from the dangers of climate change. Experiences in Europe show us that offshore wind energy can be ramped up rapidly, economically, and an in a way that protects our wildlife and natural resources.

The federal government is making wildlife protection a top priority as it moves forward with offshore wind energy siting, leasing and development. From today’s Washington Post report on the planned auction to Atlantic Ocean offshore wind farm developers:

Before opening offshore plots to wind farms — the total area is more than 1.5 million acres — the government is spending millions to study the distribution and behavior of such federally protected migratory species as red knots, roseate terns and piping plovers, as well as of diving birds, which forage on the continental shelf.

“Conservationists of all political stripes are united behind offshore wind as a winner for America’s wildlife, public health and economy,” says Catherine Bowes, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for new energy solutions. “Clean energy solutions are critical to protecting our wildlife, fish and natural resources for future generations of outdoor enthusiasts.”

Take Action

Tell the Obama administration you support properly sited and developed offshore wind energy to protect wildlife. Please take a moment to email the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management urging them to bring clean wind energy to states along the Atlantic coast.

Good luck finding one of these in the Gulf of Mexico (photo: US Fish & Wildlife)

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was a critic of the agency long before the Gulf debacle and didn’t waste this opportunity to pile on: “It’s better late than never,” Issa said at a press conference, “but it shouldn’t have taken the worst ecological disaster in history for GAO to place this program onto the high risk list.”

He’s right, of course: the agency looked the other way while BP and other companies spat on the rulebook.  National Wildlife Federation sent a letter thanking Congressman Issa for his comments and his push for greater oversight.  We also noted that reform cuts both ways and pointed out that BOEM has been under attack by oil companies and lawmakers who have accused the agency of slowing down drilling in the Gulf.

Rep. Darrell Issa (photo: Gage Skidmore)

The government issued its first new deepwater permit yesterday, saying the company, Noble Energy, proved it can contain a blowout if one occurs.  But don’t assume that things are under control—for all of their protests, Big Oil knows that drilling is an inherently dangerous business that has resulted in hundreds of deaths, explosions, spills and accidents over the last decade.

Rep. Issa isn’t an environmentalist (and he’d probably thank us for saying so) but we hope he takes on a constructive role in the reform process.  Because when it’s all said and done, this is about protecting things all Americans care about: the safety of our workers, healthy ecosystems, and the fish and wildlife that form the backbone of the Gulf economy. If we want to make sure BOEM doesn’t wind up on next year’s Risk List, we have to keep pushing for meaningful change—and even though the federal government has begun to step up its oversight, we still have a long way to go.

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You can read NWF’s letter to Rep. Issa here.  Learn more about our efforts to restore the Gulf at www.nwf.org/oilspill.