{"id":364339,"date":"2025-02-03T14:59:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364339"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:59:33","slug":"deficiencies-in-dominions-offshore-wind-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364339","title":{"rendered":"Deficiencies in Dominion\u2019s offshore wind permits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By David Wojick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn light of various alleged legal deficiencies underlying the federal government\u2019s leasing and permitting of onshore and offshore wind projects, the consequences of which may lead to grave harm\u2026\u201d is the conclusion that guided President Trump\u2019s Executive Order suspending wind project permitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CFACT has already criticized several offshore wind permitting cases for being inadequate due to the omission of important issues, making them incomplete. Some of the worst cases are listed below. Although Dominion was not the subject of all of these criticisms, they are undoubtedly affected by them. Plus Dominion permits were the focus of many of these criticisms going back more than two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These characteristics apply to every instance of a permit deficiency. A substantial approval is supported by a formal document. These include the authorized COP, the Final NEPA EIS, the ESA Biological Opinion, and the MMPA Incidental Take Authorization. In each case a critical issue is overlooked in one or more of these permitting documents, making them incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relevant federal agency disregarded these deficiencies in each instance. However, the Trump administration is currently looking at the history and procedure of offshore wind permits. In each of the circumstances stated below, if the investigation is done correctly, they should discover incomplete approval paperwork, halt the approval until it is finished, and then reissue it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are some of the worst permitting flaws that CFACT has found so far:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The NMFS Incidental Take Authorization has no EIS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of an EIS for the NMFS harassment-taking permission is arguably the most obvious shortcoming. For Dominion, this is a huge takeover. Just about 60,000 mammal takings are permitted due to noise harassment during the Dominion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the authorization document, this authorization action requires an EIS in accordance with NEPA. The permission document then makes it clear that the harassment EIS is included in the Dominion project EIS as a whole. However, the taking is never mentioned in the project EIS. Therefore, until the necessary EIS is finished, we shouldn\u2019t start construction. The authorization paperwork that is currently in place is lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The impact of harassment is not considered in the Biological Opinion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same argument\u2014albeit one that is more complex\u2014applies in the Biological Opinion. The BiOp gave the harassment authority a small section 3.8, but the project EIS does not even address it. The BiOp only lists the number of endangered whale species that are being harassed and claim to have prepared every feasible mitigation strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no evaluation of the detrimental impacts of harassment, which is the problem of whale death. The BiOp does not state that such impacts exist, but other NMFS assessments do. This important problem of harassment-induced death is never discussed in the permit documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it is now known that harassment kills whales, CFACT warned NMFS of this possibility long ago, especially for the Dominion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It is important to carefully assess the potentially fatal consequences of harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 3. The turbine installation ship is not authorized to harass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Another instance of harassment is the deployment of several thrusters to maintain position by the pile driving ship Orion, which has been laying Dominion\u2019s monopile foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The thruster noise is above the harassment level, according to Rand Acoustics\u2019 measurements. However, such noise has not been approved because it was not mentioned in the harassment application. It appears that Orion is unable to lawfully work on the project. This will probably apply to tower, turbine, and blade installations as well as any monopile installation ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Before construction can continue, the Dominion project harassment authorization must be updated to account for all anticipated installation vessel noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 4. The use of suction caissons rather than pile driving is not considered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 One solution for wind turbine foundations that does away with the requirement for those tremendously noisy gigantic monopiles is the suction caisson. Monopiles pose the greatest damage to whales from offshore wind, but suction caissons pose minimal harm. For many years, offshore oil rigs have been anchored using the suction caisson technology. Although it is relatively new, offshore wind is obviously viable at the size of US offshore projects, as seen by the 900 MW project currently under construction off Taiwan by \u00d8rsted, the largest developer in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In terms of minor mitigation measures to lessen the threat of construction to endangered whales, the Dominion COP, the BOEM EIS, and the NMFS harassment permission all go to considerable lengths. The use of suction caissons as an alternative to pile driving, which may greatly lessen the hazard to endangered whales, is not considered by any of them, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 These three permission documents need to be revised to account for suction caissons instead of pile driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 5. Breaking the \u201csmall numbers\u201d requirement of the MMPA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Only a limited number of each species of protected mammal are eligible for incidental take authorizations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. More than 50,000 dolphins are covered by Dominion\u2019s acoustic harassment permission, which is obviously a significant amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Also 5% of the whole population of the critically endangered right whale is legally taken, which is by no means a tiny number. The overall quantity of taking would be many times the population if every leased project permitted this level of taking per MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Dominion COP must be redesigned in order to adhere to the MMPA small numbers requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  6. Sediment plumes from ocean currents passing across wind facilities are not considered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The notion that ocean current flow via a standing wind array will produce a continuing sediment plume, which could have a serious environmental impact, is now the subject of a substantial body of scientific literature. Only the temporary sediment plumes produced by cable trenching are considered in the Dominion Biological Opinion. The operational sediment plume, which can persist for as long as the project is in the ocean, is not taken into account. Here, the Clean Water Act might be relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Failure to take into account the project\u2019s contribution to the overall effects of several projects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to the simpler aggregate of the individual initiatives, the cumulative impact can be far larger. Avoiding project combinations, for example, can greatly lengthen the amount of time spent in regions with a lot of ship activity or fishing. The right whale\u2019s migratory path will be doubled by Dominion\u2019s proposed second CVOW project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cumulative impact should be covered in all the key Dominion project evaluation documents, but none are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 8. Operating noise is not considered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to several studies, the massive turbine array\u2019s operating noise will be higher than the acoustic harassment threshold. This noise is not covered by the Dominion harassment authority. The project cannot move further with the current construction and operation permit if it achieves this noise level. This impact must be included in the project assessment. Another potential problem is infrasound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Physical presence-based harassment is not considered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only acoustic harassment is covered by the Dominion harassment authorization. Harassment is defined by the MMPA as altering behavior. Avoiding the 150 square mile array of turbines is a significant behavioral shift that could have negative effects. As a result, the project\u2019s physical presence\u2014which is unapproved and has to be properly evaluated\u2014is harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn light of various alleged legal deficiencies underlying the federal government\u2019s leasing and permitting of onshore and offshore wind projects, the consequences of which may lead to grave harm\u2026\u201d is the conclusion that guided President Trump\u2019s Executive Order suspending wind project permitting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":364340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819776,691833015,691819125,691833016,691833014,691833013,691831255],"class_list":{"0":"post-364339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-dominion-energy","9":"tag-eis","10":"tag-harassment","11":"tag-nmfs","12":"tag-offshore-wind-permits","13":"tag-onshore-and-offshore-wind-projects","14":"tag-us-president-donald-trump","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0Wind-turbine-waves.jpg?fit=2508%2C1672&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1wMr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":369839,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369839","url_meta":{"origin":364339,"position":0},"title":"CFACT: Stop Offshore Wind!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the nation\u2019s leading environmental organizations,\u00a0Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, has done their homework on the ecological harms of offshore wind turbines. 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