By CARL CORRY //
More than 80,000 acres of federal waters about 11 miles off the coast of Long Island will be made available to lease for off-shore wind-energy development, the Obama administration announced this week.
The proposed lease area of 81,130 acres off the Rockaways comprises the New York Wind Energy Area, which the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management identified earlier this year in consultation with the New York Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force. The task force includes federal, state, tribal and local government partners.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced that it would participate in the BOEM’s auction for a commercial off-shore wind energy lease.
Adrienne Esposito: CCE “extremely excited.”
The announcement drew support from the Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group, and environmental advocacy organization Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
“When I led Long Island’s electric utility … we initiated the Long Island-New York City Offshore Wind Collaborative that originally looked to lease this land beneath the Atlantic Ocean for the development of wind energy,” LIA President Kevin Law said Friday. “The LIA supports NYSERDA’s involvement and efforts to address climate change and create a clean-energy economy on Long Island at a cost affordable to ratepayers.”
Executive Director Adrienne Esposito said the Citizens Campaign for the Environment is “extremely excited” about the off-shore progress.
“This is a project that is long time coming,” Esposito told Innovate LI. “Off-shore wind is a critical part of weaning the state off of fossil fuels.”
A “Proposed Sale Notice for Commercial Leasing for Wind Power on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore New York” – which will provide detailed information on the leasing area, proposed lease provisions and conditions and the auction – is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 6, followed by a 60-day comment period.
Further information, including instructions on how to how to submit comments, is available at http://www.boem.gov/New-York/.
