A group of fishing organizations, businesses and communities led by the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) have filed a lawsuit to try to halt the leasing of an up to 1GW wind farm off the coast of New York.
The suit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is seeking summary judgment and requesting the court to invalidate the lease.
Norwegian oil major Statoil won the December 2016 auction for the right to develop the 32,000-hectare site off the coast of Long Island with a bid of $42.5m.
FSF, which represents the majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fleet, alleges the BOEM leasing process did not adequately consider the impact of wind power development on the region’s fish populations and habitats, shoreside communities, safety and navigation.
Other plaintiffs include the Garden State Seafood Association, the Fishermen’s Dock Co-Operative in New Jersey, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce, Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, SeaFreeze Shoreside, Sea Fresh USA and The Town Dock in Rhode Island.
A US federal judge dismissed in February the plaintiffs’ attempt to delay the execution of the lease citing they had failed to show “that the purported injury is certain, great, actual, imminent and beyond remediation”.
Image: coast of Long Island (Wikimedia Commons)
Lawsuit seeks to halt NY lease
Fishermen argue again that BOEM did not adequately address their concerns
By EBS