Marine Renewable Energy

 

The Coming Offshore Wind Jobs Boom. According to Axios, “The consultancy Rystad Energy sees lots of job growth coming in the offshore wind power sector this decade. The big picture: They see global installed offshore wind capacity reaching 110 gigawatts by 2025 and 250 GW by 2030, and ‘this prolific growth will require a lot of skilled employees.’ How it works: Their tally captures a range of positions, ranging from turbine manufacturing to maintenance at offshore facilities to workers at plants supplying steel and electronics. What we’re watching: Growth in the U.S. sector, which has been very slow to get off the ground and has no large-scale projects operating yet. They see the U.S. reaching 15 GW of installed capacity by 2030, which is lots of growth but still puts the U.S. very far behind Europe’s more mature market. ‘Europe, which dominates the offshore wind installed capacity globally, could expect to see demand for jobs more than triple by 2030, from 110,000 jobs in 2020 to around 350,000,’ Rystad notes.” [Axios, 2/22/21 (=)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

Judge Cuts Strict Gill Net Regs. According to E&E News, “A federal judge yesterday sank regulations designed to protect Pacific Ocean marine wildlife from commercial fishermen’s drift gill nets. In a twist, NOAA Fisheries had sought to retract its own regulations, which were ordered to be imposed by a 2018 court ruling. The marine conservation group Oceana then sailed in to defend the NOAA Fisheries requirements. ‘Remarkably, the government agrees with the fishermen that the rule is invalid and should be vacated,’ U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote, noting that officials acknowledge that it ‘imposes significant short-term economic effects with only minor conservation benefits.’ The court in this case, McFadden added, ‘casts its line in favor of the fishermen.’ McFadden is a Trump appointee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The rule in question set limits on the ‘bycatch’ of bottlenose dolphins, several species of whales and sea turtles in gill nets designed for swordfish. A drift gill net is a wall of nylon netting that hangs in the water with the aid of weights and buoys. The net’s mesh allows a fish to insert its head but not its body, thus catching the fish by its gills. These nets also capture bycatch, which are species inadvertently caught and then discarded.” [E&E News, 2/19/21 (=)]

 

Arctic Climate

 

First Arctic Navigation In February Sends A Worrying Climate Signal. According to Bloomberg, “A tanker sailed through Arctic sea ice in February for the first time, the latest sign of how quickly the pace of climate change is accelerating in the Earth’s northernmost regions. The Christophe de Margerie was accompanied by the nuclear-powered 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker as it sailed back to Russia this month after carrying liquified natural gas to China through the Northern Sea Route in January. Both trips broke navigation records. ‘I am confident that the Northern Sea Route is competitive, that changes in the ice situation and the improvement of marine technologies create new conditions for its development,’ said Yury Trutnev, Russia’s deputy prime minister and a member of the supervisory board at Rosatom, the state-owned nuclear corporation that manages the route. The experimental voyage happened after a year of extraordinarily warm conditions in the Arctic that have sent shockwaves across the world, from the snowstorm that blanketed Spain in January to the blast of cold air that swept through Canada in mid-February, moving deep into the South as far as Texas.” [Bloomberg, 2/22/21 (=)]

 

ANWR Seismic Testing Hits Snag. According to E&E News, “Seismic testing for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hit a roadblock last week after an Alaska Native corporation didn’t conduct flyovers to search for polar bear dens that could have been disturbed, the Interior Department said Saturday. The Fish and Wildlife Service voided a permit request from the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp. for permission to harass the protected bears with the heavy machinery and man camps associated with seismic surveying after the deadline to conduct the flights was missed. It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for developers hoping to gauge the oil and gas potential of the famous refuge on Alaska’s North Slope, where former President Trump had attempted to kick-start drilling and the Biden administration has promised to restore long-term protections. KIC had committed to three aerial surveys to locate bear dens but needed a green light from FWS to fly over the area by mid-February in order to avoid harm to wildlife. At the same time, FWS faced a statutory deadline yesterday to issue or deny the harassment authorization. With the flight deadline missed and the statutory deadline looming, the agency nullified the application. ‘The company was advised [Saturday] that their request is no longer actionable, and the Service does not intend to issue or deny the authorization,’ said Melissa Schwartz, an Interior spokesperson, in an email.” [E&E News, 2/22/21 (=)]

 

ANWR Latest. According to Politico, “Seismic testing in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hit a new roadblock this weekend when the Interior Department announced the company that sought to conduct the seismic testing missed a key deadline. Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation’s request to conduct seismic activity was contingent on the completion of three polar bear den detection surveys of the project area by Feb. 13 — a deadline Interior said the company missed. ‘This week, Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation confirmed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials that three aerial den detection surveys, required as part of their request for an Incidental Harassment Authorization of polar bears, were not conducted by the Feb. 13, 2021, deadline,’ said Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz in a statement. ‘The company was advised today that their request is no longer actionable, and the Service does not intend to issue or deny the authorization.’” [Politico, 2/22/21 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Has Value Far Beyond $25 An Acre In Oil Leases. Tell Congress. According to an op-ed by Deborah L. Williams in Los Angeles Times, “The pure, utter wildness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will overwhelm you. When I was there one June, I watched thousands of caribou migrating purposefully to their birthing grounds on the refuge’s coastal plain. The Porcupine caribou herd had once again traversed 400 miles to reach this incomparable place — remote, pristine, rich with resources for the mothers and their calves. On Jan. 20, President Biden signed an executive order that placed a temporary moratorium on all activities associated with the auction of refuge oil and gas leases. It was the first of several steps that need to be taken to reverse a terrible mistake involving this publicly owned, irreplaceable national treasure. For more than 60 years, starting with President Eisenhower, Americans have worked to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America’s Serengeti. Repeatedly, efforts by the Alaska congressional delegation to open its coastal plain to oil and gas exploration and extraction have been successfully stopped. In 2017, however, during the rush to find money to help pay for, among other things, tax breaks for the wealthy, the Senate voted, by a slim 52-vote majority, to require two oil and gas lease auctions in the refuge. The silver-tongued argument went this way: Holding two lease sales would generate more than $1.8 billion over 10 years. On Jan. 6 the Trump administration conducted the first of the two prescribed auctions (the second is not yet scheduled). The sale did not, in fact, result in $1.8 billion in bids. It didn’t realize $900 million or even $100 million. The first sale generated just $12 million. No major oil company submitted a bid.” [Los Angeles Times, 2/22/21 (+)]

 

 

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