The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Monday that it has completed its first “regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development activities across multiple lease areas” in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) analyzes potential environmental impacts of offshore wind development in the six New York Bight lease areas. In deeper water and farther offshore than projects permitted earlier, the lease areas are seen by industry advocates as a major step toward keeping future momentum.
“The six lease areas off the coasts of New Jersey and New York will host the next tranche of offshore wind power projects,” said Anne Reynolds, the American Clean Power association’s vice president for offshore wind.
The leases are held by developers:
Bluepoint Wind, LLC (OCS-A 0537)
Attentive Energy LLC (OCS-A 0538)
Community Offshore Wind, LLC (OCS-A 0539)
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Bight, LLC (OCS-A 0541)
Invenergy Wind Offshore LLC (OCS-A 0542)
Vineyard Mid-Atlantic LLC (OCS-A 0544)
The holdings date to a February 2022 BOEM lease auction that fetched more than $4.3 billion, shattering records for any U.S. offshore energy lease and juicing optimism in the wind industry.
Since then developers have run up against sobering realities of cost inflation, supply chain and capacity challenges. In late 2023 developer Ørsted abruptly cancelled its flagship Ocean Wind project near shore off southern New Jersey.
Developers of the nearby Atlantic Shores lease recently won BOEM approval for their construction and operations plan, but are expected to seek renegotiated power pricing to reflect escalating costs. A new report by the industry advocacy group Oceantic Network says a dozen projects in various stages off New England, New York and New Jersey are seeking to rebid or offer new power purchase agreements to states.
The U.S. presidential election two weeks away adds still more uncertainty to the industry’s future. Republican candidate Donald Trump has vowed to halt all offshore wind permitting and development if he takes office in January 2025.
Proposed actions for the new environmental impact statement include “avoidance, minimization, mitigation, and monitoring (AMMM) measures that BOEM may require as conditions for approval for activities proposed by lessees in the individual construction and operations plans submitted for these six lease areas,” according to the agency.
“Additional environmental analyses specific to each proposed project would build on the PEIS. This is the first time BOEM has conducted a regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development activities across multiple lease areas.”
