NEW ORLEANS — 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, where Maine Gov. Janet Mills was a keynote speaker, delivering remarks at a meeting of experts at the forefront of floating offshore wind technology and commercialization.
Under the plan Haaland 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 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which will coordinate the sales, announced last month the selection of a 2 million-acre site off the coasts of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire for an offshore floating wind project. The site generally won praise, with some calls for greater protections of habitats and fishing areas.
On Wednesday, Mills’ office announced that Maine had taken the first steps in procuring 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2040, a goal her administration set over the summer to create jobs and protect the lobstering industry. Mills’ office released a Request for Information (RFI) asking for public input on the process of building offshore wind resources.
“Offshore wind offers Maine the opportunity to generate clean, homegrown energy, to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, to create good-paying jobs, and to protect our environment for future generations,” Mills said in a prepared statement.
The RFI seeks public input on Maine’s plan for implementing commercial offshore wind, covering areas that include regional coordination, fisheries, ports, labor, transmission and environmental impacts.
Information collected through the RFI will be used to evaluate design solicitations and assess key program objectives. The design process is scheduled to be completed by July 2025.
“Public input gathered through this RFI will shape Maine’s first offshore wind solicitation, a key milestone in the development of responsible offshore wind for the state and the region,” said Dan Burgess, director of Governor’s Energy Office.
Since the start of 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.
Press Herald Staff Writer Grace Benninghoff and Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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