Energy Musings contains articles and analyses dealing with important issues and developments within the energy industry, including historical perspective, with potentially significant implications for executives planning their companies’ future.
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May 19, 2023
Who Will Save The Whales This Time?
BOEM has proposed changes to its offshore wind farm approval process to speed it up. We do not know what changes will be adopted, but likely whales will remain threatened. Moreover, the changes are designed to help improve the economics of projects by reducing the regulatory burden and cost for developers. Still, BOEM and NOAA officials refuse to acknowledge that underwater noise from offshore wind development likely contributes to whale deaths. A new NOAA report highlights how much is not known about underwater noise and marine mammals. READ MORE
Who Will Save The Whales This Time?
If the Biden administration has anything to say about it, offshore wind farms need to be built faster even at the risk of killing more endangered whales. The johnny-one-note policy of fighting climate change at all costs with renewable energy puts marine mammals at risk. Some 23 whales have died along the East Coast in the past five months as offshore wind activity has picked up. Slowing the activity or pausing it until we better understand how underwater noise from construction activity may disorient marine mammals would be a smart move.
Efforts are underway to revise the government’s rules for approving offshore wind farms making it easier for them to advance while ignoring the underwater noise and marine mammal issues. Equally questionable is accelerating approvals without requiring as much environmental data as early in the process as is now required.
After a one-month extension of the public comment period, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is considering the feedback it received about its Renewable Energy Modernization Rule proposal. BOEM wants to modify the approval process for new offshore wind developments “to reduce administrative burdens for both developers and the Department’s staff, reduce developer costs and uncertainty, and introduce greater regulatory flexibility in a rapidly changing industry to foster the supply of OCS renewable energy to meet increasing demand, while maintaining environmental safeguards.”
BOEM goes on to say that this is a “major modernization of the regulations,” which is based on lessons learned from the last 13 years. Modifying the process is estimated to save “the renewable energy industry $1 billion over 20 years,” certainly meaningful for an industry struggling to improve profitability while dealing with explosive inflationary pressures. Surprisingly, there is no mention of increased “safety or protection of commercial fisheries and species” when considering the potential conflict between fishermen and wind farm developers.
When you read the 85 pages of proposed modernization actions in the January 30, 2023, edition of the Federal Register, you find numerous changes proposed that would allow the approval process to proceed at a faster pace than under the existing process. BOEM’s proposal lists eight major components for revision. They include:
Eliminating unnecessary requirements for the deployment of meteorological (met) buoys.