Fishermen in New England Wednesday praised the Trump administration’s move to pull another permit from a massive offshore wind farm as it continues to take a chisel to the green energy industry.
While former President Joe Biden approved numerous offshore wind projects that threatened the fishing industry, Trump has encouraged fishermen by moving to ax many of these wind farms, board member Jason Joyce at the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) told the Daily Caller News Foundation. NEFSA praised the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) latest action, as the agency noted in a Wednesday court filing that it is moving to revoke another Biden-era offshore wind permit for the New England Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.
“The commercial fishing industry as a whole is very happy with the direction that the President has taken and his administration is taking on rescinding the permits or defunding the projects,” Joyce told the DCNF. “Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has taken a stance of supporting offshore wind, which is against commercial fishing, because the two can’t mix.”
gov.uscourts.dcd.280980.16.0 by audreystreb
The DOI recently issued a work-stop order for a massive offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut on Aug. 22 and is seeking to withdraw federal approval for another other project close to Maryland after axing another wind farm permit near New Jersey. Additionally, the Department of Transportation also announced that it either withdrew or terminated funding for 12 offshore wind projects on Friday right as the White House reportedly escalated the fight against offshore wind, according to two anonymous sources briefed on the matter that spoke with The New York Times.
“On day one of his second term, President Trump signed an Executive Order instructing agencies to review leasing and permitting practices for wind projects,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the DCNF, referencing Trump’s day-one executive order. “Agencies are implementing that Executive Order by evaluating whether they have any policies in place that would advantage wind developers over more effective and reliable types of energy, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear.”
NEFSA argued that the administration pulling federal support for the massive New England wind project greenlit by Biden in April 2024 is a huge win for the fishing industry as offshore wind projects disturb the waters they rely on to make a living. Joyce argued that offshore wind should not be a partisan issue, and that advocates — often Democrats — need to recognize that commercial fishing cannot continue as usual when offshore wind farms disrupt the industry.
“They’ve tried to imply that the two can mix, [but] if the species we’re trying to catch has been driven off by the offshore wind industry. … We can still go out there, but there’s nothing to catch,” Joyce told the DCNF.
NEFSA has criticized offshore wind for years alongside some environmentalists, as they believed wind farms posed dangers to marine life. Notably, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed to the DCNF that the Biden administration did not adequately review the environmental impacts of some offshore wind projects before approval.
Joyce said that he believes whales that have washed up dead on New England’s coast were a “canary in the coal mine that this is bad [for the environment.]” Joyce continued to describe the massive scale of these offshore wind farms, “it’s not a small post and stamp spot in the ocean. [These wind farms cover] hundreds and hundreds of miles,” and added that he believes the noise generated by these wind farms stuns whales, leading to “temporary deafness.”
The DOI has broadly moved to yank federal support for the green energy technology Biden pushed for through billions in subsidies, loans and grants, with the agency creating a permitting hurdle for wind and solar on Aug. 1 and announcing that it would end any “preferential treatment” on federal lands for wind and solar projects it considered to be “unreliable” and “foreign-controlled” on July 29.
Joyce argued that pile-driven offshore wind farms are particularly damaging to the fishing industry and the environment as they “drive off all the forage fish,” “predators,” and turn the surrounding waters into “a no man’s land where nothing wants to live.”
“We term it as industrializing the ocean, and that’s what it is,” Joyce said. “They would be basically turning a fragile ecosystem into an underwater industrial park.”
Joyce argued that no one would allow what offshore wind farms do to the environment on land, but because the activity is far out in the ocean, it falls into the old “out of sight, out of mind” adage.
“It doesn’t need to be partisan,” Joyce said. “We’re hopeful that not just the president but other politicians who have the power to make a difference and protect the marine environment would pay attention. … They can take a stance against offshore wind, and it’s a positive for our country and our commercial fishermen certainly appreciate it.”
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