“It’s a big deal, a big deal. It’s a sign that we’ve been in the United States before,” said Dan Reacher, who served as an assistant secretary in the Department of Energy in the Clinton administration and now advises Magellan Wind. never did where we can go offshore downwind.” Develops projects with offshore floating turbines.
“I’ve been in the wind industry for a long time,” said Mr. Reischer. “This is a repeat of what we did a few decades ago when we pushed onshore wind, when it went from a small niche source of energy to become a mainstream, economical source of electricity.”
Even so, there is no guarantee that companies will lease space and build wind farms in federal waters. Once offshore areas are identified, they will be subject to lengthy federal, state and local reviews. If potential sites may harbor endangered species, conflict with military activity, damage underwater archaeological sites, or harm local industries such as tourism, the federal government may consider them unsuitable for leasing. can.
As they have in response to other offshore wind farms, commercial fishing groups and coastal landowners will try to stop the projects. In the Gulf of Mexico, where oil and gas exploration is a major part of the economy, fossil fuel companies may fight the development of wind power as a threat to not only their local operations but their entire business model.
“To make these announcements, and to make them in a very political way, what it means, which area, when we still don’t know what the implications of these projects will be, is really problematic,” said Fish. Anne Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Coalition, a coalition of catchment groups. “In an ideal world, when you welcome a new industry, you do it in stages, not all at once.”
Interior Department officials said they wanted to take such considerations into account.
“We are working to facilitate a pipeline of projects that will establish confidence for the offshore wind industry,” said Amanda Lefton, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “At the same time, we want to reduce potential conflicts as much as possible while meeting the administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.”