December 17, 2021 — The Biden administration has found that huge arrays of offshore wind turbines off the coast of New York and New Jersey won’t cause significant impacts to the local environment, clearing the way for highly anticipated lease sales.
Issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today, the finding moves the New York Bight closer to being auctioned off to offshore wind developers — a sale that would be the first under President Biden.
Over 7 gigawatts of electricity could be produced in the New York Bight, enough for about 2.6 million homes, according to Interior. That’s close to one-fourth of the offshore wind power that Biden wants to develop across the country by 2030, making it a priority area for the administration.
The wind power would also feed into dense, fossil-fuel-reliant cities located in two states that are hungry for carbon-free electricity to meet their own net-zero goals.
In its finding, BOEM said that selling off as many as 10 commercial and research leases to wind developers in the New York Bight would result in “no significant impacts” to the environment, at least during the phase where developers carry out preconstruction surveys and testing in the lease areas.