Marine Renewable Energy

 

Massachusetts Sees More Competition To Bulk Up Offshore Wind Infrastructure. According to Energy News Network, “Massachusetts faces growing competition from other states trying to take advantage of the anticipated surge in offshore wind development by building onshore infrastructure to support the burgeoning industry. Vineyard Wind, which would be the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind development, is expected to receive a major federal approval within weeks, kicking off the growth of a long-simmering industry in the region. Anticipating this project in the waters off of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, the state has made major investments in developing facilities to support the industry. Recently, however, other states across the Northeast have announced their own ambitious plans for port infrastructure and economic development, and some in Massachusetts are feeling the pressure to confirm the state’s position as a leader. ‘The opinion is relatively widely held that we could’ve been doing more in the last few years to maintain and increase our lead,’ said Eric Hines, director of the Tufts University offshore wind engineering graduate program. ‘There’s a collective sense of urgency right now to really get serious about investing for the future on the land side.’ Massachusetts has been at the forefront of the offshore wind conversation since 2001, when businessman Jim Gordon proposed Cape Wind, a 468-megawatt wind farm that would have been located in the waters south of Cape Cod. Facing harsh opposition from powerful opponents, that plan was eventually defeated.” [Energy News Network, 5/6/21 (=)]

 

Editorial: Biden Admin’s Jones Act Affirmation Brings Wave Of Relief. According to Marine Log, “Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg made his position clear at his confirmation hearing, telling long time Jones Act champion Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) ‘Yes, I share your support for the Jones Act. It is so important to a maritime industry that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and the shipbuilding industry here in the United States.’ President Biden specifically endorsed the importance of the Jones Act when signing a ‘Buy American’ executive order, saying the executive action ‘reiterates my strong support for the Jones Act and American vessels, and our ports, especially those important for America’s clean energy future and the development of offshore renewable energy.’ Offshore renewables, notably offshore wind, promise to provide a big boost for Jones Act operations, with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021 clarifying that confirming that all American laws, including the Jones Act, apply to renewable energy development on America’s Outer Continental Shelf. The NDAA also clarifies the terms and procedures that apply in those circumstances under which an emergency administrative Jones Act waiver can be issued. In particular, a national defense waiver must be tied to a legitimate national defense need, non-defense waivers will be time-limited, and all waivers will now be subject to public reporting requirements by any foreign vessel using the waiver to operate in American domestic market. The American Maritime Partnership has described the NDAA as the most consequential maritime legislation enacted in years.” [Marine Log, 5/5/21 (+)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

Fish Protection Legislation Aims To Help Maintain Robust Federal Fisheries. According to Treasure Coast Palm, “Ask an angler about his or her favorite catch, and get ready to settle in for a spell as they spin a yarn of a fish tale. But often, that memorable catch of a trophy tarpon, lunker bass, freight train snook, wily sailfish or smoker king mackerel began with a small, insignificant start — a lively, tiny bait fish. Now, legislation has been introduced to help conserve threadfin herring (greenies), scaled sardines (pilchards), bigeye scad (goggle-eye) and menhaden (pogies), among others. If passed, it would make sure these important fish eaten by larger fish, seabirds and in some cases humans are preserved for future generations. The Magnuson-Stevens Act, first ratified in 1976 and named after founding lawmakers, Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.), became the first legislation to organize the federal process of managing the nation’s fisheries. It’s primary functions were to: Preventing overfishing. Rebuilding overfished stocks. Increasing long-term economic and social benefits. Ensuring a safe and sustainable supply of seafood. Protect fisheries in U.S. waters from foreign fishing fleets.” [Treasure Coast Palm, 5/4/21 (=)]

 

Antarctic Climate

 

Wild Card In High-Stakes Climate Poker: Antarctic Ice Loss. According to E&E News, “The world’s biggest ice sheet is also one of the biggest wild cards when it comes to future climate change. That’s the takeaway from a pair of studies out this week in the journal Nature, which outline the uncertainties still surrounding Antarctica’s response to rising temperatures. It’s a key question for scientists and policymakers alike. Antarctica contains more ice than any other single location on the planet, meaning it has vast potential to raise the world’s sea levels as it melts. Currently, scientists estimate that Antarctica is losing about 250 billion metric tons of ice each year. Those losses are speeding up over time, recent research has warned — one study found they’ve tripled since the 1990s, with much of the acceleration occurring in the last decade. But exactly how much more ice Antarctica will lose in the coming decades — and how quickly — is a contentious question among climate scientists. One of this week’s new studies, led by Tamsin Edwards at King’s College London along with 80 experts around the world, found Antarctic losses might not accelerate all that much between now and the end of the century, even as the climate warms. The study relies on a suite of models investigating hypothetical climate change scenarios, including higher and lower levels of future warming. Most of the models didn’t show a strong difference in ice loss between the different climate change scenarios. Instead, these models suggest that increased snowfall — a potential side effect of a warmer atmosphere — may offset much of the ice sheet’s future melting.” [E&E News, 5/6/21 (=)]

 

Melting Antarctic Could Push Seas To 'Catastrophic' Levels At 3C Warming. According to Reuters, “Antarctic melting could cause a ‘dramatic’ rise in sea levels if countries fail to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), posing a serious threat to low-lying and coastal regions, researchers said on Wednesday. If the upper temperature goal set in the Paris Agreement is exceeded, the melting Antarctic ice sheet could cause annual average sea-level rise of 0.07 inches (0.18 cm) globally in 2060 and beyond, said the study published in the journal Nature. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 190 countries agreed to hold global average temperature rise to ‘well below’ 2C above pre-industrial times and strive for a limit of 1.5C. Warming of 3C - a scenario that is more consistent with current policies - would push sea levels up by a ‘catastrophic’ 0.2 inches per year globally after 2060, the study added. Researchers used a model based on satellite observations, climate data and machine learning to predict the region’s ice loss under different global policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions.” [Reuters, 5/5/21 (=)]

 

Global Heating Pace Risks ‘Unstoppable’ Sea Level Rise As Antarctic Ice Sheet Melts. According to The Guardian, “The current pace of global heating risks unleashing ‘rapid and unstoppable’ sea level rise from the melting of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, a new research paper has warned. Unless planet-heating emissions are swiftly reduced to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world faces a situation where there is an ‘abrupt jump’ in the pace of Antarctic ice loss around 2060, the study states, fueling sea level rise and placing coastal cities in greater peril. ‘If the world warms up at a rate dictated by current policies we will see the Antarctic system start to get away from us around 2060,’ said Robert DeConto, an expert in polar climate change at the University of Massachusetts and lead author of the study. ‘Once you put enough heat into the climate system, you are going to lose those ice shelves, and once that is set in motion you can’t reverse it.’ DeConto added: ‘The oceans would have to cool back down before the ice sheet could heal, which would take a very long time. On a societal timescale it would essentially be a permanent change.’ This tipping point for Antarctica could be triggered by a global temperature rise of 3C (5.4F) above the preindustrial era, which many researchers say is feasible by 2100 under governments’ current policies. The new research, published in Nature, finds that ice loss from Antarctica would be ‘irreversible on multi-century timescales’ should this happen, helping raise the world’s oceans by 17cm to 21cm (6.69in to 8.27in) by the end of the century.” [The Guardian, 5/5/21 (+)]

 

Sea-Level Rise

 

Emissions Cuts Could Drop The Impact Of Melting Ice On Oceans By Half. According to The New York Times, “Scientists on Wednesday reported another reason the world should sharply rein in global warming: doing so would likely cut in half the current projected amount of sea level rise from the melting of ice this century. In a study that averaged results of hundreds of computer simulations from research teams around the world, the scientists said that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could reduce sea level rise from melting glaciers and the vast Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from about 10 inches to about five by 2100. That level of warming, equivalent to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, is the stricter of two targets set by the 2015 Paris agreement to combat climate change. But the world has already warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius since 1900, and is not on course to meet the 1.5 degree target, or even the higher Paris goal of 2 degrees Celsius. In a second study published in the same journal, Nature, a separate group of scientists looking only at Antarctica found that overshooting those targets and reaching 3 degrees Celsius of warming — which the world is roughly on track to do, given current pledges to cut emissions — could trigger an abrupt increase in the rate of melting around 2060, and drive a rate at the end of the century that would be 10 times faster than today. Together, the two studies are the latest best forecasts related to one of the most concerning impacts of climate change: rising oceans that will cause more flooding, force costly overhauls to coastal infrastructure and potentially create millions of climate refugees.” [The New York Times, 5/5/21 (+)]

 

Ron DeSantis Pushes Coastal 'Resilience' While Doing Little To Tackle Climate Change. According to NPR, “Brick by brick, the stucco shell of a new flood-resilient public works building is taking shape blocks from the beach, the most visible sign yet of a small community’s enormous task staving off the rising sea. ‘This is actually the highest point in the city,’ Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker said, adding that right next door to the new public works building will be a new fire station. It’s a close-knit community established by rocket scientists south of Kennedy Space Center, on a low-slung barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian River Lagoon. By 2040, community leaders expect significant impacts associated with climate change. Already flooding is a problem, and beach-front homes perch precariously atop a sand dune left exposed after a series of storms and hurricanes washed away a sea wall. The needs are great, and in Gov. Ron DeSantis, Barker sees a potential ally. ‘At least he talks about climate change as actually being real, so that’s good,’ she said. ‘And he’s putting money toward it so that’s encouraging.’” [NPR, 5/5/21 (=)]

 

Ocean Health & Management

 

Social Media Sparks Research Opportunities For Spilled Cargo. According to E&E News, “Plastic ink cartridges spilled by a container ship in 2014 are still washing up on beaches across the globe, and scientists have turned to social media to track them. The spill, which occurred in the north Atlantic Ocean around 930 miles east of New York, spread as far as the Azores that same year. Since 2014, about 1,500 more cartridges have been reported on social media along the coastlines of the United Kingdom and Ireland and as far south as Cape Verde in Africa and the northern edge of the Arctic Circle, according to the study, published online last month in Environmental Pollution. The study not only outlines the fate of that container ship of ink cartridges but also offers an outline for researchers tracking cargo spills and how items travel across oceans and disintegrate. Researchers were able to track the missing printer cartridges using beachcombing Facebook pages and groups, with a following of over 60,000 people, as well as Twitter and Instagram. ‘When we realized there had been a spill of printer cartridges, we put a shout out asking people to let us know if they had found any,’ said Tracey Williams, co-author and a professor at the University of Plymouth. ‘When a cartridge was reported, we logged the date it was found, where it was found and the quantity found on an Excel spreadsheet. We also created various hashtags that people could use.’” [E&E News, 5/5/21 (=)]

 

 

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