The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has published the draft environmental assessment (EA) for the offshore wind leasing of the New York Bight.
The EA assesses the potential impacts of the issuance of commercial and research leases within the nearly 324,000-hectare wind energy areas of the New York Bight, and granting of rights-of-way and rights-of-use and easement in the region.
The areas include the lease sites proposed in the Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for the New York Bight, published on 11 June, which provides detailed information on potential future offshore wind leasing in the area.
The EA considers potential environmental consequences of site characterisation activities, such as biological, archeological, geological, and geophysical surveys and core samples, and site assessment activities including the installation of meteorological buoys.
It also takes into account project easements associated with each potential lease issued and grants for subsea cable corridors in the New York Bight.
As part of the EA scoping process, BOEM sought comments on the issues and alternatives to be considered in the EA and received approximately 3000 comments.
If approved, offshore wind development in the areas included in the PSN could encompass up to eight lease areas totaling over 253,000 hectares, with the potential to generate more than 7GW of clean wind energy.
BOEM is also inviting stakeholders to two public virtual meetings, to be held on 24 and 25 August.
The release of the draft EA will also initiate a 30-day public comment period on the assessment itself.