The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has opened a public consultation on a regional environmental analysis of potential mitigation measures on future development activities for five offshore wind lease areas off California’s central and north coasts.
The Notice of Availability (NOA) for the California Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) will be published today (14 November), initiating a 90-day comment period.
BOEM decided to take this additional step to complete a PEIS because of the relatively close proximity of the five areas and the timing of when BOEM expects to receive future project plans for review.
The Draft PEIS analyzes programmatic avoidance, minimization, mitigation, and monitoring measures that BOEM may require as conditions of its approval for any future proposed offshore wind projects in California.
“Public input on our analysis will guide mitigation of future offshore wind energy development across multiple leases offshore California. We believe that this comprehensive regional approach will foster efficiencies for future project-specific wind energy project environmental reviews, all while ensuring the protection of our ocean environment and marine life”, said Elizabeth Kle in, BOEM Director.
In December 2022, BOEM held an auction that brought in over USD 757 million for the rights to five lease areas offshore California – the first US lease areas granted for future floating offshore wind development.
BOEM estimates that the full development of these leases, totalling over 373,268 acres, has the potential to produce over 4.6 GW of offshore wind energy, enough to power over 1.5 million homes.