The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced it will conduct a regional environmental review of potential development activities on the five offshore wind lease areas off California’s central and north coasts.
A Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) have been publish in the Federal Register on Dec. 20, 2023, initiating a 60-day comment period. The input gathered during the comment period will inform the scope and alternatives of the PEIS. The PEIS will describe the potential impacts of federal offshore wind energy development activities off the coast of California, as well as the change in those impacts that could result from adopting programmatic mitigation measures. BOEM will conduct subsequent site-specific NEPA analyses and consultations for individual proposed wind energy projects as construction and operations plans for those projects are received. The five offshore wind energy lease areas off the coast of California were awarded through BOEM’s December 2022 auction that brought in over $757 million.
