The Biden administration announced Thursday that the first auction of offshore leases for wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico will take place on August 29 off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.
The Interior Department said the lease sale would cover more than 300,000 acres. It includes 102,480 acres off the coast of southwest Louisiana and 102,480 acres and 96,786 acres in Galveston, Texas.
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The sale plans come as wind energy projects in the Northeast are already taking shape. Earlier this month, the government approved construction to begin on New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. This was followed by the approval of projects under construction in the Northeast, one off Massachusetts and the other off New York and Rhode Island.
Three offshore wind turbines are seen off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island on August 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
“We’re going to the Gulf,” President Joe Biden said Thursday in Philadelphia. He was there to visit the Philly shipyard, where steel was being cut for the Acadia, a ship that will help build offshore wind farms.
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The administration said in February it was considering selling offshore leases in the Gulf, where industries that traditionally provide offshore oil and gas drilling services are also embracing wind energy development.
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The Gulf, which will be auctioned next month, has 3.7 gigawatts of generating capacity, enough to power about 1.3 million homes, an Interior news release said. The administration has set a target of installing 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030.
Source by [Fox News]
