The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed an environmental review to assess potential wind development activities within six wind lease areas covering over 488,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey in an area known as the New York Bight. BOEM estimates that full development of the lease areas could generate up to 7 GW of offshore wind energy.
In February 2022, BOEM held an auction that brought in over $4.3 billion for the rights to six lease areas in the New York Bight.
BOEM prepared a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyse potential environmental impacts of offshore wind activities in the six New York Bight lease areas. The proposed action for the PEIS identifies avoidance, minimisation, 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.
Between 2022 and 2024, BOEM held five public meetings and eight regional environmental justice forums 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. BOEM sought information on important 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 categorisation and analysis of the AMMM measures. The Final PEIS analyses 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.
The “Notice of Availability of a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Expected Wind Energy Development in the New York Bight” will be published in the Federal Register on October 25, 2024.
