Offshore Wind Moves Rapidly Ahead While Industry in Financial Turmoil

Humpback whale breaching
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Recent news and decisions, including cancelled projects, companies selling investments in offshore wind (OSW) projects, or OSW companies seeking more money to make projects viable, clearly highlight the financial turmoil within the industry. On January 3, 2024, Equinor and BP announced an agreement with New York to terminate a key contract for the 90-turbine OSW project Empire Wind 2. The contract set the price of energy the state would pay the companies. Equinor and BP want more money from New York than initially contracted. The project is not cancelled, but the fiscal concerns are evident. With the OSW projects and proposals still being fast-tracked, the public has upcoming opportunities to raise concerns and demand reasonable and responsible offshore wind. Please consider taking action as listed below, and see CleanOceanAction.org for more details and helpful resources:

• New Proposal to Harm Thousands of Marine Mammals: Atlantic Shores is requesting an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to harass marine mammals with underwater noise while conducting high resolution geophysical seismic and sonar surveys in three OSW lease areas and the associated export cable corridor areas. The proposal includes new activities in an expanded area. Atlantic Shores has already received six IHAs for their offshore wind preconstruction work for multiple OSW projects.

Take Action: Your voice is needed! Send comments with concerns to ITP.Clevenstine@noaa.gov by February 5, 2024.

• Public Meetings and Comments on Environmental Impacts of Six OSW Power Plants: In the latest attempt to speed up OSW energy development, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released one lengthy Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for six OSW lease areas in the NY Bight. This is the first time BOEM has issued a PEIS for multiple OSW lease areas, which in this case totals over 488,000 acres of the ocean.

Take Action: (a) Attend/Speak at virtual (January 31 and February 13, 2024) and/or in-person (February 5, 7, and 8, 2024) public meetings, and (b) write/send comments to BOEM requesting a 90-day extension to the comment period and/or outlining concerns. Comment deadline: February 26, 2024.