Friday, March 29

Wind Farms Coming for New York Bight

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The Biden administration just announced that it’s starting the process of selling leases to develop wind farms in the New York Bight area between Long Island and New Jersey.

The Bight is a triangle in the ocean between Montauk Point at the end of Long Island and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. A total of eight leases will be for sale there, in what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (part of the Interior Department) calls “a priority offshore wind farm.”

The area is about 14 miles off the coast of New York and 26 miles from New Jersey. At that distance, the wind farms probably would not be visible from shore.

The Bureau says that wind turbines in the Bight can generate more than seven gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 2.6 million homes. A study last year by Wood Mackenzie, an international energy consulting firm, said that building wind farms in the New York Bight would involve 32,200 jobs and $3.3 billion in wages annually.

Offshore wind farms have been gaining ground recently. Officials have already approved the first commercial-scale wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, and the Biden administration said it would open the California coast to wind farms. It also is examining possible wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The commercial fishing industry in New York and New Jersey said the proposed wind farms there would conflict with scallops, clams and other seafood products. “Fishermen really haven’t been included as co-planners or trusted participants in offshore wind planning,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a fishermen’s group. “Everything is really one-sided.”

New rules from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management include requirements for enhanced communication with fishing communities. Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/climate/wind-energy-Atlantic-Biden.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Climate%20and%20Environment

 

 

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