The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will conduct a regional environmental review of six lease areas offshore New York and New Jersey, in an area known as the New York Bight.
Leases for these six areas were awarded through BOEM’s February 2022 auction that brought in over USD 4.3 billion, a record amount for any US offshore renewable or conventional energy lease sale.
This is the first time BOEM has conducted a regional analysis containing multiple lease areas for offshore renewable energy.
Additional environmental analyses specific to each proposed wind energy project will build off this programmatic review once BOEM receives individual Construction and Operations Plans (COPs) from the leaseholders.
”The Biden-Harris administration is committed to unlocking the economic potential of offshore wind as a part of combating the climate crisis before us,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton .
”This new regional approach is an evolution of our process to help ensure timely decisions that advance offshore wind while protecting the ocean environment and marine life. In addition, this approach ensures both a comprehensive view of the New York Bight area and improved process efficiencies for future project reviews.”
BOEM will publish a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) in the Federal Register on Friday, 15 July, which will initiate a 30-day public comment scoping period.
Comments gathered during this time will help BOEM identify what it should consider as part of the PEIS. The PEIS will analyze potential impacts from wind energy development activities in the New York Bight region, as well as measures that can be taken to avoid, minimize, mitigate, and monitor such potential impacts. During the public comment period, BOEM will hold three virtual public meetings on 28 July, 2 August, and 4 August.
The six lease areas cover a total area of 488,201 acres and have a combined installation capacity of 5.6 GW.
The wind farms at the six areas are projected to produce some 19.6 TWh of electricity per year, enough to power close to two million homes.