Where we go from here
The fishing boat Virginia Marise from Pt. Judith RI, near the Block Island Wind Farm.
Photo courtesy Deepwater Wind
Originally published in 2018 by The Christian Science Monitor under the title "Can offshore wind and commercial fishing coexist?" this in-depth piece by staff writer Eva Botkin-Kowacki covers the origins, history, politics, fears and hopes swirling around the controversial Block Island Wind Farm. It's still a great read.
Flash forward six years, and New England states are developing "Mitigation Funds for Offshore Wind Projects" designed to compensate fishing communities and (primarily) the marine environment for financial loss that can be attributed to Wind Projects, and for research needed to make claims verifiable and learn more about this new technology’s impact. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being put into play from New York to Nantucket. Where are those dollars going? Mary Lhowe, News contributor at ecoRI, concisely covers the topic here.
Editor’s Note: The EcoRI article lists Fund distribution amounts by state. The one distribution in CT at the time of writing was “$1.25 million to Mystic Aquarium. November 2022.” You can read Mystic Aquarium’s press release here.
And yes, our own CT Legislature is hard at work doing what they do. The Office of Legislative Research published this detailed analysis in February.
Putting the wheels in motion with Stonington in mind, Energy and Technology Committee member Aundré Bumgardner co-sponsored SB 383, which passed unanimously March 21, and "outlines the creation of an Offshore Wind Energy Mitigation Fund Oversight Committee" beginning July 1 2024. You can review the bill here.
On the Federal level, House Resolution 239 "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or constructed" is plodding its way through. You can review that bill here.
Politics, money, power — sounds like a made for TV production. But ultimately, “We’ve got two renewable resources. One in seafood, and one in wind,” says Eric Hansen, a Massachusetts scallop fisherman. “They shouldn’t have to compete.”