The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has invited the public to comment on a regional environmental analysis of potential mitigation measures on future development activities for five offshore wind lease areas off California’s central and north coasts.
The Notice of Availability (NOA) for the California Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) published in the Federal Register on November 14, initiating a 90-day comment period.
BOEM estimates that full development of these leases, totaling 373,268 acres, has the potential to produce 4.6 GW of offshore energy.
“BOEM invites feedback from a wide range of stakeholders as we work towards achieving President Biden’s clean-energy goals, which are essential for the well-being of all Americans,” says BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
“Public input on our analysis will guide mitigation of future offshore wind energy development across multiple leases offshore California. We believe that this comprehensive regional approach will foster efficiencies for future project-specific wind energy project environmental reviews, all while ensuring the protection of our ocean environment and marine life.”
In 2022, BOEM held an auction that brought in $757 million for the rights to five lease areas offshore California, also the first U.S. lease areas granted for future floating offshore wind development.
This is only the second time BOEM has conducted a regional analysis of offshore renewable energy development and operations over multiple lease areas. The bureau decided to take this additional step to complete a PEIS because of the relatively close proximity of the five lease areas and the timing of when BOEM expects to receive future project plans for review.
The Draft PEIS analyzes programmatic avoidance, minimization, mitigation and monitoring measures that BOEM may require as conditions of its approval for any future proposed offshore wind projects in California.
Additional environmental analyses specific to each proposed wind energy project will build off this programmatic review once BOEM receives individual proposed project plans from the existing leaseholders.
