Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Propels the U.S. Offshore Wind Industry
U.S. Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources and Environment, Land, and Natural Resources Alert
By: Gail H. Conenello, Nathan C. Howe, Ankur K. Tohan, David L. Wochner
The flurry of offshore wind activity off the U.S. Eastern Seaboard continues, as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced recently it will hold an auction on 23 February 2022, to lease six new areas for offshore wind development in the New York Bight. The six lease areas will be located off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and will comprise 488,201 total acres. Such acreage should be sufficient to develop an estimated 5.6 gigawatts (GWs) of new offshore wind capacity, enough to power nearly two million homes. The six new lease areas will add to the 18 existing lease areas for offshore wind development that currently exist off the U.S. East Coast. This new lease sale combined with other recent BOEM developments exemplifies the Biden Administration’s commitment to the development of offshore wind resources in the United States.