Trump May Be Looking the Other Way on Empire Wind, But the Dolphins and Those Who Support Them Are Not

Guest Post from David Wojick via CFact.

Empire Wind is a big New York offshore wind project that is ready to start construction. The Trump administration stopped it about a month ago but has now unstopped it, supposedly after the President made an informal deal with Governor Hochul to lift New York’s ban on new gas pipelines from Pennsylvania.

Empire is about to start driving the enormous steel monopiles that hold the turbine towers, but a new wrinkle has hit the fan, setting the stage for a massive confrontation. A group protesting the project has filed a federal lawsuit challenging its approval. Unlike prior lawsuits, this one makes a new argument in addition to some of the usual ones. It challenges the NOAA Fisheries’ authorized harassment of large numbers of a threatened dolphin.

The issue is the authorization limits in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which the lawsuit claims are being exceeded by a huge margin. On paper this looks like a strong case, so there is a real possibility the court will stop the project.

Adding a bit of drama, Empire Wind has hired one of the world’s biggest crane-wielding ship/boat/things to hold and drive the monster monopiles, which driving is the source of the objected to harassment. It is what is called a “semi-submersible,” meaning it sinks partway to get the stability for its huge crane to lift and hold stuff over the water without turning over.

The official name of this beast is the semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) Thialf, and you can read about it here. Before going to work it settles 48 feet into the water. It then has an incredible lifting capacity of 14,000 tons.

Note that there are already two other offshore wind pile driving projects going on, which raises the issue of cumulative impact, especially on the highly migratory and desperately endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. One is Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, which is not all that far away. The other is Dominion’s huge project off Virginia, one of the world’s biggest wind facilities.

The lawsuit lead is Save Long Beach Island, Inc. (Save LBI), joined by Save the East Coast, Protect Our Coast Long Island-New York, and the Miss Belmar whale watching company. You can read about the suit here.

The basic issue is pretty simple. Under MMPA, NOAA authorizes the harassment by pile driving of a specified number of critters of each protected species, from whales to seals. This is called an Incidental Take Authorization, where incidental means it is not the purpose of the project. It is certainly not incidental to the harassed animals, which may number in the tens of thousands.

For an offshore wind construction project, the authorization is for a five-year period, with annual authorizations. The MMPA says these authorizations are limited to a “small” fraction of the species population. NOAA interprets small to mean up to 30%, which is questionable in itself.

According to Save LBI, the Empire Wind authorization for one species of dolphin is 30% a year and a total about like the entire population. This they say violates the MMPA “small take” standard and that is the central issue before the court. Sounds right to me.

I have to wonder about the giant Dominion project where harassment of over 20,000 each of several dolphin species is authorized. Surely this is not small.

This case is of great interest to me, as I have been writing and ranting about excessive whale harassment authorization for quite a while now; see here.

Two years ago I flagged NOAA Fisheries for cumulatively authorizing harassments of the North Atlantic Right Whale that exceeded 200% of the population here. That cumulative number is now much higher.

So, this is the dramatic Empire Wind showdown. A small dolphin in court versus the world’s second-largest crane vessel at sea, dueling over giant pile driving. Stay tuned to CFACT as this drama unfolds.

Dr. David Wojick is an independent policy analyst and senior advisor to CFACT. As a civil engineer with a Ph.D. in logic and analytic philosophy of science, he brings a unique perspective to complex policy issues. He specializes in science and technology-intensive issues, especially in energy and the environment.

#OffshoreWind #EmpireWind #NewYork #CFact #Wojick #WindTurbines #Dolphins #Lawsuit

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