Dear Federal Government: Transparency on Wind and Whales, Please
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2023
“For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully make the following two requests: First that NOAA/Fisheries reopen the public comment period on the CVOW request for an LOA. Second, that NOAA/Fisheries neither consider nor approve the LOA until after the entire NEPA process is concluded and a ROD is issued for the project. Should NOAA/Fisheries deny either of our requests, we will initiate legal action.”
There is an old joke: “When is an environmentalist not an environmentalist?” Answer: “When it comes to Industrial Wind Turbines.” …
I was reminded of this upon reading a respectful, firm letter from the legal council representing free-market organizations to Jolie Harrison, Chief Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service. The matter is in regard to Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project – Dominion Application for Letter of Authorization to Take Small Numbers of Marine Mammals, the latest salvo being
a request from the Virginia Electric and Power Company, doing business as Dominion Energy Virginia (Dominion Energy), for Incidental Take Regulations (ITR) and an associated Letter of Authorization (LOA) pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) [for] … authorization of take, by Level A harassment and Level B harassment, of small numbers of marine mammals over the course of 5 years (2024–2029) incidental to construction of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial (CVOW–C) project offshore of Virginia … and associated Export Cable Routes. Project activities likely to result in incidental take include pile driving activities (impact and vibratory) and site assessment surveys using high-resolution geophysical (HRG) equipment.
https://www.masterresource.org/heartland-institute/dear-federal-government-transparency-on-wind-and-whales/
