By Natalie DeCoste
The White House is pushing to jumpstart the U.S.’s offshore wind business by giving wind-power developers access to more of the Atlantic Coast and initiating a series of environmental reviews.
The White House announced on Monday that it convened leaders from across the government to announce the administration’s plans that will catalyze offshore wind energy, strengthen the domestic supply chain, and create union jobs.
The administration will focus on fast-tracking leasing in federal waters off the New York and New Jersey coasts, a move that is a priority for wind-power interests and state officials.
Those who met include National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met today with state officials, industry executives, and labor leaders.
Many offshore wind energy businesses want to locate the new wind turbines in the shallow waters south of Long Island and east of New Jersey, known as the New York Bight. The White House is pushing forward the permitting process for a project known as Ocean Wind off the southern coast of New Jersey.
Officials from the White House say they are beginning environmental reviews of the Ocean Wind project. This will be the first environmental review of what the government hopes are 10 reviews starting this year.
“This offshore wind goal is proof of our commitment to using American ingenuity and might to invest in our nation, advance our own energy security, and combat the climate crisis. DOE is going to marshal every resource we have to get as many American companies, using as many sheets of American steel, employing as many American workers as possible in offshore wind energy—driving economic growth from coast to coast,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
If completed, the project will become America’s third commercial-scale offshore wind project. The project will have a total capacity of 1,100 megawatts (MW) — enough to power 500,000 homes across New Jersey. Currently, the U.S.’s other two offshore wind farms are off Rhode Island and Virginia’s coasts and have fewer than 10 turbines in operation.
The Biden administration hopes that the push towards clean energy will help slow climate change and create some blue-collar jobs in the U.S.
One study that the Biden administration uses shows that the New York area project can support up to 25,000 development and construction jobs from 2022 to 2030 and an additional 7,000 jobs in communities supported by this development. The study also indicates the New York Bight lease area can support up to 4,000 operations and maintenance jobs annually and approximately 2,000 community jobs in the following years.
As part of the announcement, the Departments of Interior, Energy, and Commerce announced a shared goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the United States by 2030, which will require more than $12 billion per year in capital investment in projects. The White House claims the projects will generate enough power to meet the demand of more than 10 million American homes for a year and avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.
