The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has finalized an environmental review for potential wind development activities in six lease areas covering over 488,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey, known as the New York Bight. This initiative aligns with the Biden-Harris administration's objective to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. BOEM estimates that these lease areas could produce up to 7 GW of offshore wind energy, sufficient to power around two million homes.
"BOEM has collected input from Tribes, Federal and state government agencies, local communities, ocean users, and key stakeholders as part of our comprehensive environmental review," said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. "We appreciate the feedback we have received, and we believe our regional approach will provide a solid baseline for future environmental reviews for any proposed offshore wind projects in the New York Bight."
In February 2022, BOEM conducted an auction generating over $4.3 billion for rights to these six lease areas—a record amount for any U.S. offshore renewable or conventional energy lease sale.
BOEM prepared a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to evaluate potential environmental impacts from offshore wind activities in these lease areas. The Proposed Action for the PEIS outlines avoidance, minimization, mitigation, and monitoring (AMMM) measures that may be required as conditions for approval of activities proposed by lessees in construction and operations plans submitted for these areas. Additional project-specific environmental analyses will build on this PEIS. This marks BOEM's first regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development across multiple lease areas.
Between early 2024 and prior years, BOEM held five public meetings and eight regional environmental justice forums to gather input on the Draft PEIS from Tribal Nations, local community members, government partners, and ocean users. This engagement was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. BOEM received 1,568 unique comments from 560 submissions which informed the Final PEIS.
Under the current administration, more than 15 gigawatts of clean energy have been approved from ten offshore wind projects—enough to power nearly 5.25 million homes—and five offshore wind lease auctions have been held.
The “Notice of Availability of a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Expected Wind Energy Development in the New York Bight” is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on October 25, 2024.
For further details, visit BOEM’s website.
