US President Biden to Announce Gulf of Mexico Offshore Wind Lease Sale

July 20, 2023, by Adnan Memija

US President Joe Biden will announce today the first-ever Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale as part of his administration’s efforts to boost renewable energy, according to the White House.

Today, the Department of the Interior (DOI) is issuing the final sale notice for the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which will take place on 29 August.

The lease sale will include one offshore wind energy area (WEA) of 102,480 acres offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two lease areas totaling nearly 200,000 acres offshore Galveston, Texas.

In February, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its proposal for the first offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico for areas within the WEAs.

The first WEA is located approximately 24 nautical miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, while the second one is located about 56 nautical miles off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

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These areas have the potential to power almost 1.3 million homes with clean energy.

In May, BOEM revealed that the development of offshore wind leasing areas in the Gulf of Mexico will have no significant impacts on environmental resources.

The final environmental assessment (EA) was made possible by the work of the Gulf of Mexico Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, a collaboration between Tribal, Federal, state, and local government agencies.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department has held three offshore wind lease auctions – including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and the first-ever sale offshore the Pacific Coast in California, and advanced the process to explore additional Wind Energy Areas in Oregon, Gulf of Maine, and Central Atlantic.

Steel-cutting Ceremony for Jones Act Subsea Rock Installation Vessel

It is also worth noting that President Joe Biden will attend the steel-cutting ceremony at the Philly Shipyard for the first-ever Jones Act-compliant vessel for offshore wind subsea rock installation.

The vessel, called Acadia, is being built for the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC.

The ship will transport and strategically deposit loads of up to 20,000 MT of rock on the seabed, laying scour protection for offshore wind farm foundations, cables, and other structures.