June 14, 2021 — The United States plans to auction leases for eight wind power sites in the shallow stretch of the Atlantic between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey.
President Biden has laid out an ambitious plan for the development of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, and these would be the first competitive offshore leases under his administration. Biden’s proposed infrastructure initiatives have stressed that shifting to clean energy will curb planet-warming greenhouse gases while creating jobs to boost the economy.
An organization that represents the scallop industry criticized the auction plans and called on the federal government to change the lease boundaries to better protect fishing grounds.
Shifting one lease area’s borders by five miles would “better ensure that critical scallop populations will be unaffected, while not diminishing the potential for wind power in the area,” the Fisheries Survival Fund said in an emailed statement.