Trump Administration wants to auction leases for offshore wind farms in the waters off New York and New Jersey, overlooking the fact that huge amounts of scallops are abundant in these water areas. The area of the Atlantic is home to some of the world’s richest scallop beds, and erecting turbines nearly as tall as the Chrysler Building could make mollusks much harder to harvest, Bloomberg reports.
The Trump Administration envisions a $70 billion US wind farm industry.
Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association noted
It’s an insane amount of ocean to occupy, and it will leave a trail of destruction.
Concerning the US wind farm projects, the government has already trimmed the size of the area. Slashing it more could raise development costs and threaten aggressive plans by New York and New Jersey to source electricity from offshore wind farms.
Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor, has already recommended the achievement of 9 gigawatts by 2035, powering up to 6 million homes; In the meantime, New Jersey has set a goal of 3.5 gigawatts by 2030.
Sunny Gupta, head of new market development at Orsted AS commented
The U.S. is the biggest offshore wind opportunity outside of Europe. We’re not here just to build projects, we’re on track to build an efficient regional supply chain. Don’t do it small.
Although the US in general seems to keep up with the European and Asian offshore wind growth, New York, New Jersey and other states are trying to catch up, envisioning turbines at sea as a way to bring clean power to crowded coastal regions.
Bloomberg highlights that the war coming from the fishing interests in protection of scallops is a major one.
Ed Anthes-Washburn, executive director at New Bedford Port Authority in Massachusetts reported
The New York Bight affects our fishermen more than the other leases. We took in $300 million last year and 80% of it was scallops. The bight is loaded.
In the meantime, federal officials are trying to discuss with fishermen, highlighting that wind farms can co-exist with the fishing activities.