The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed an environmental review to assess potential wind development activities within six wind lease areas covering 488,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey in an area known as the New York Bight.
The bureau estimates that full development of the lease areas could generate 7 GW of offshore wind energy.
“BOEM has collected input from Tribes, Federal and state government agencies, local communities, ocean users and key stakeholders as part of our comprehensive environmental review,” says BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
“We appreciate the feedback we have received, and we believe our regional approach will provide a solid baseline for future environmental reviews for any proposed offshore wind projects in the New York Bight.”
In 2022, BOEM held an auction that brought in $4.3 billion for the rights to six lease areas in the New York Bight.
BOEM prepared a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyze potential environmental impacts of offshore wind activities in the six New York Bight lease areas. The Proposed Action for the PEIS identifies avoidance, minimization, mitigation and monitoring (AMMM) measures that BOEM may require as conditions for approval for activities proposed by lessees in the individual construction and operations plans submitted for these six lease areas.
Additional environmental analyses specific to each proposed project would build on the PEIS. This is the first time the bureau has conducted a regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development activities across multiple lease areas.
Earlier this year, BOEM held five public meetings, along with eight regional environmental justice forums between 2022 and 2024 to receive input on the Draft PEIS from Tribal Nations, local community members, government partners and ocean users. This public engagement was supported by funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
The bureau sought information on resources and issues, potential impacts to the environment and AMMM measures found in the Draft PEIS. BOEM received 1,568 unique comments from 560 submissions, which informed the Final PEIS, including the categorization and analysis of the AMMM measures. The Final PEIS analyzes 58 AMMM measures that have been applied previously to offshore wind activities, and eight that have not been applied previously but may help reduce potential impacts.
