The Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind (RWSC) released a historic research plan that sets priorities for all stakeholders to fully avoid, minimize, and mitigate any harms to wildlife caused by offshore wind energy development in much of the U.S. Atlantic Ocean. The new plan is the first of its kind in establishing a collaborative regional approach to study potential effects of offshore wind on birds as well as marine mammals, sea turtles, bats, fish, and ocean habitats along the East Coast.Read More
A tiny government organization with authority over a major wind project off the Humboldt County coast is voting tonight on a proposal to keep the port green.The Humboldt Bay Harbor District is proposing to draw up a strategy to keep emissions as minimal as possible at the port, where plans call for assembling 1,100-foot turbines to be tugged 30 miles offshore.It’s not yet clear what all that will take, particularly given challenges with transmission and distribution capacity in the region. An engineering firm is figuring it out. But local environmental organizations, residents, tribes and labor have made clear they’ll insist on it, said Jennifer Kalt, executive director of the nonprofit Humboldt Waterkeeper.“We have this renewable energy project, and we don’t want a fossil fuel-spewing port to go with that,” Kalt said.The requirements — which could include electric boats, construction equipment and cranes — will almost certainly drive up the cost of the project, scheduled to come online in the mid-2030s. But the California Air Resources Board is already greening ports, and EPA is helping pay to electrify them.The plan, scheduled to be finalized by March 2025, has support from Crowley, the international company that has been negotiating with the harbor district to build out the port’s wind infrastructure.“The district’s resolution represents an important step in incorporating sustainability into the offshore wind industry, not only in Humboldt, but in California and beyond,” Amy Monier, the company’s director of projects, said in an emailed statement. — Wes VenteicherRead the Full Article
A new report from the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt evaluates potential scenarios for electric grid transmission development to support floating offshore wind along the northern coast of California and the southern coast of Oregon. The scenarios include onshore and offshore (undersea) transmission systems, with interconnections ranging from 7.2 to 25.8 gigawatts of generation capacity. The study encompasses multiple possible wind farm sites between Coos Bay, Oregon and Cape Mendocino, California, including the two currently awarded lease areas located 20 miles off California’s Humboldt Bay, and two Draft Wind Energy Areas near Brookings and Coos Bay, Oregon.Because the existing transmission infrastructure in these rural, coastal areas is very limited, major investments will be required to support offshore wind development.This study also includes a preliminary assessment of anticipated permitting challenges related to environmental impacts, land use conflicts, and undersea cable routing.Because the Pacific offshore wind buildout will take decades to accomplish, the report emphasizes that infrastructure investment decisions made in the early phases must be informed by expected long-term strategies—both to minimize cost and impact, and so that developments do not become stranded.The analysis indicated that coastal communities near wind farms could be connected to the new transmission infrastructure, thereby increasing the reliability and available capacity of electricity in those areas, for only 0.4% to 2.4% of the overall cost of the transmission upgrades.Keep reading
The California Coastal Commission decided unanimously Wednesday that five appeals brought to the commission over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed aquaculture facility raised no substantial issues, at least within the confines of the appeals.“I think their hearts and their minds and their concerns are absolutely in the right places. These are the issues we really, really need to be dealing with,” said Commissioner Mike Wilson.He added he agreed with staff the concerns weren’t in the confines of the appeal.The appeals covered a range of topics, including the project’s greenhouse gas emissions, effects on marine resources from water intake and discharge, allowance of a fire road in dune mat habitat, public access impact and a lack of an evacuation plan during a tsunami.The staff recommendation was that none of the appeals raised a substantial issue with the project’s consistency with Humboldt County’s Local Coastal Plan or the public access policies of the Coastal Act. Staff noted marine impacts are to be addressed during other decisions like the already approved wastewater permit and soon-to-be-discussed intake permit.Staff noted the commission will be addressing the marine resources in reviews of the ocean discharge and seawater intake separately — it says the scope of these impacts are not within Humboldt County’s coastal development permit.Keep reading
Increased tides give a potential glimpse of sea-level rise impactsThe United States Coast Guard warned all beachgoers in the Pacific Northwest to be on high alert for sneaker waves while looking at the king tides this weekend.“They’re the highest natural tides of the year, which occur when the moon’s orbit is not uniform around the Earth, so when the moon is the closest to the Earth, that’s when you get it,” said Lori Dengler, geology department professor emeritus for Cal Poly Humboldt. “They come a handful of times a year. They’re easy to predict in advance when you have those situations.”King tides are a non-scientific term for the most dramatic tides of the year. They lead to the highest high tides and the lowest low tides, which can prove to be dangerous for beachgoers.“All beachgoers in the Pacific Northwest are encouraged to exercise heightened caution for sneaker waves during the upcoming king tides this weekend and for the remainder of the winter. The Coast Guard and National Weather Service are urging the public who visit coastal beaches during king tides to be on alert for dangerous surf and potentially fatal sneaker waves.” said the U.S. Coast Guard in a news release on Friday.The king tides affect different beaches differently, with Dengler saying that beaches with steep angles end up being more prone to sneaker waves and water surges.“Our steep beaches, Big Lagoon Beach is notorious, Gold Bluff beach up in Del Norte is another beach where you tend to have these particularly strong sneaker waves,” Dengler said. “Flatter beaches like Clam Beach, it’s not as big as a problem.”The director of the Humboldt Waterkeeper, Jennifer Kalt, says that there’s more to watch out for than just the water itself.“People tend to think of roads as permanent things, but they’re actually a lot of times pretty tenuous,” Kalt said. “There’s a lot of low-lying areas around Humboldt Bay that get flooded when there’s a king tide.”Although the king tides can damage roadways and people, Kalt says it can be a “good time to visualize” what the ocean will look like with a heightened sea level.“The Humboldt Bay area is experiencing twice the relative rate of sea-level rise as the rest of the West Coast because the ground below the bay is sinking at the same rate that the sea level is rising,” Kalt said, “Something like 90% of the tidal wetlands around the bay were filled a century ago and were turned into communities.”Keep reading
