NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Signs of the nascent wind industry were everywhere in the ocean waters off the coasts of Rhode Island and New York early this morning. Huge upright steel tubes jutted out of the water, waiting for ships to turn up turbines that would generate wind-powered electricity.
A battleship gray ship was in pursuit. With this ramp-up of US offshore wind power, American shipping companies and seafarers fear that they will be left behind.
So Aaron Smith, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, looked through binoculars to see if vessels servicing the new wind farms were using foreign-flagged vessels rather than US-made vessels with American crews.
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“It really makes me angry when I think of the men and women I know who can do this work. American citizens, legally competent, sit at home while foreign nationals go to work in US waters,” Smith said. “It is unfair.”
The ship is named the Jones Act Enforcer, after the century-old law that says the carriage of goods between US points is restricted to US-built, owned, and documented vessels only. The motto: “We’re watching.” Smith documented operations for submission to federal law enforcement agencies and members of Congress.
A monopile (left) stands above the waterline awaiting its tower, blades and turbine sections, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, off the coast of Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A marine chart for the South Fork Wind project area is displayed on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 on the vessel Jones Act Enforcer off the coast of Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) —
Charles Krupa/AP
Aaron Smith, President and CEO of the Offshore Marine Service Association, photographs vessels installing portions of a wind farm Tuesday, July 11, 2023 off the coast of Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) —
Charles Krupa/AP
The fishing vessel New Horizon sails past a monopile structure for an offshore wind farm project Tuesday, July 11, 2023 off the coast of Rhode Island while working with foreign vessels. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The Offshore Marine Service Association states that it strongly supports the offshore wind industry. Many of its member companies are already working in it. Smith said this effort is about securing their future — decades of jobs and investment. The US could need about 2,000 of the most powerful turbines to meet its goals of expanding offshore wind power and drastically reducing fossil fuel use to protect the atmosphere and reduce climate change.
The Enforcer made several trips to where Danish energy company Ørsted is developing the South Fork Wind project together with utility Eversource. This will likely be the first commercial wind farm to open in the US.
Approaching the site Tuesday, Smith saw a large crane vessel flying the Cyprus flag, smaller Belgian-flagged vessels, and US fishing and offshore support vessels near the turbine bases. The Associated Press was the only media outlet on board.
A boat passes the Jones Act Enforcer ship along the shore, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
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The US fleet does not yet have huge vessels specialized in offshore wind power to install foundations and turbines. But some of the foreign-flagged vessels working in wind-powered areas along the east coast are tugboats and smaller supply vessels. US ship operators told the AP they have similar ships that can do the job.
Ørsted responded that 75% of the vessels supporting South Fork Wind’s offshore construction are US flagged, including barges, tugboats, crew carriers and fishing vessels that monitor safety and marine mammals. But the larger US-flagged offshore wind power vessels are yet to be built. Nevertheless, American unionists are on board the installation ships for South Fork Wind, the company told the AP.
“As the US industry continues to mature, we are shaping our projects to appeal to as many American workers, contractors, suppliers and vessels as possible. We are proud that South Fork Wind sends hundreds of American seafarers and union members at sea in a variety of roles,” said Bryan Stockton, Ørsted’s head of regulatory affairs, in a statement on Thursday.
Ørsted’s offshore work complies with the provisions of the Jones Act, Stockton added.
Workers exit a gangway on the C Rambler, a United States-based offshore supply vessel, as they shadow the Cyprus-flagged crane vessel Bokalift 2 off the coast of Rhode Island on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
That day, Smith said he could see no clear violations of the Jones Act, no “doubtful evidence.” To bring a Jones Act case to Customs and Border Protection, the association would have to track multiple periods of activity and monitor a ship for weeks, if not months. It would need to show goods being loaded onto a ship in port, transported to an offshore location, and returned empty.
In the past, the association has also screened oil and gas sites for foreign vessels. The company first chartered the Enforcer from Harvey Gulf International Marine in late 2021.
Both wind and oil and gas companies can apply for exemptions from the Jones Act, relying on national defenses and the unavailability of US vessels, or receive a Customs ruling that a particular transaction with a foreign vessel is permissible.
But Smith said he felt offshore wind turbine developers were breaking the spirit of the law. He said he feared investors would not fund the construction of offshore vessels if they competed with foreign vessels with cheaper daily rates, mainly because foreign crews could be paid less. This would create a cycle in which developers continue to use foreign vessels because US vessels are unavailable.
An installed monopile rises from the sea at the South Fork Wind project awaiting tower, turbine and rotor blade sections, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, off the coast of Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The association wants to break this cycle while the industry is on the rise, Smith said. Federal officials expect to review at least 16 commercial offshore wind turbine construction and operation plans by 2025.
“That’s a lot of work we could do,” Smith said, “and a lot of good-paying jobs.”
Randy Adams owns Sea Support Ventures in Cut Off, Louisiana. Its ships conduct geological surveys for oil and gas. He wants to do the same for the clean energy transition, but hasn’t done it yet.
“My only concern is that our industry will be left behind in wind farm work,” he said. “I can’t say we’re excluded from that, but we’re certainly not at the top of the totem pole.”
As for the Jones Act Enforcer, Smith plans to keep it anchored in the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, through August and visit the two commercial wind farm sites. Ørsted installs 12 turbines. The other developer, Vineyard Wind, is building a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast of Massachusetts.
Vineyard Wind said in a statement Thursday that its project complies with all US laws, including the Jones Act, and fully supports the American marine and shipbuilding industry.
Before arriving in Massachusetts, the Enforcer was off the coast of Virginia where Dominion Energy is planning an offshore wind farm. Smith investigated whether foreign ships were scouring the area for unexploded ordnance, and he said they were, despite at least four of its member companies bidding for the contract.
The sun reflects off the water of the South Fork Wind project, seen from the deck of the Jones Act Enforcer vessel, Tuesday July 11, 2023, off the coast of Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Dominion told the AP that these ships do not transport goods between US points and are therefore in compliance. The company said U.S. ships are tasked with surveying, reconnaissance, transporting equipment and transporting technicians.
In Texas, Dominion is also currently building the Charybdis, the first offshore wind installation vessel to comply with the Jones Act and says it strongly supports the act. Ørsted will charter this ship.
Ørsted is also investing in the Eco Edison, the first US-made offshore wind farm, currently under construction in Louisiana, and five additional crew transfer vessels under construction in Rhode Island.
Sam Giberga is Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Hornbeck Offshore Services in Covington, Louisiana. Its supply vessels and multi-purpose support vessels are primarily used by the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. He said they were initially excited about the prospect of offshore wind energy because it is clean energy that will create jobs and business. But to him, it’s starting to feel like a broken promise. The company recently lost a bid to a foreign ship.
“We are a maritime nation. Always. “That’s the next great ocean frontier and we’re not going to make it,” Giberga asked. “Why should we allow that?” ___
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