Biden administration announces plans for up to 12 lease sales for offshore wind energy

FILE - Turbines operate at the Block Island Wind Farm, Dec. 7, 2023, off the coast of Block Island, R.I. The Biden administration is preparing to announce plans for a new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028. The plan was to be announced Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in New Orleans by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production was announced Wednesday by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028.

Haaland announced the plan at a conference in New Orleans.

Under the plan outlined Wednesday, which includes some previously announced lease auctions, three of the anticipated sales would be for Gulf of Mexico tracts to be offered this year, in 2025 and in 2027. Central Atlantic area leases would be sold in 2024 and 2026.

Other anticipated sale areas include the Gulf of Maine (2024 and 2028); Oregon waters (2024); an area of the Atlantic known as New York Bight (2027); and California, Hawaii, and an as-yet unspecified U.S. territory (2028).

The sales will be coordinated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Since the start of President Joe Biden’s administration, the Interior Department has approved the nation’s first eight large offshore wind projects and held four offshore wind auctions, including first-ever sales in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.

“As we look toward the future, this new leasing schedule will support the types of renewable energy projects needed to lower consumer costs, combat climate change, create jobs to support families, and ensure economic opportunities are accessible to all communities,” Haaland said in a news release ahead of remarks to a conference in New Orleans.

Haaland also announced Wednesday that BOEM and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement had finalized updated regulations for renewable energy development offshore.

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Associated Press reporter Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.