Administration sets plan for 7 offshore wind farms by 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will help develop up to seven offshore wind farms on the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico as it moves to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 — generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said at a wind power conference in Boston that her department hopes to hold lease sales by 2025 for projects off the coasts of Maine, New York and the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Carolinas, California, Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico.
If approved and built, the projects could avoid about 78 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, officials said.
“The Interior Department is laying out an ambitious road map as we advance the administration’s plans to confront climate change, create good-paying jobs and accelerate the nation’s transition to a cleaner energy future,” Haaland said. “We have big goals to achieve a clean energy economy and Interior is meeting the moment.”
In addition to offshore wind, the Interior Department is working with other federal agencies to increase renewable energy production on public lands, Haaland said, with a goal of at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy from wind and solar power by 2025.
Haaland and Amanda Lefton, director of department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said officials hope to reduce potential conflicts with fishing groups and other ocean users as much as possible. “This means we will engage early and often with all stakeholders prior to identifying any new wind energy areas,” Lefton said in a statement.
President Joe Biden has set a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts, or 30,000 megawatts, of offshore wind power in the United States by 2030. Meeting the target...
