By
Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis
The White House announced Monday an ambitious plan to expand wind farms along the East Coast and jumpstart the country’s nascent offshore wind industry, saying it hoped to trigger a massive clean energy effort in the fight against climate change.
The plan would generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade - enough to power more than 10 million American homes and cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. To accomplish that, the Biden administration said it would speed permitting for projects off the East Coast, invest in research and development, provide low-interest loans to industry and fund changes to U.S. ports.
“We are ready to rock and roll," National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters in a phone call Monday. She said the framed the effort as much about jobs as about clean energy. Offshore wind power will generate “thousands of good paying union jobs. This is all about creating great jobs in the ocean and in our port cities and in our heartland,” she said.
The new initiative represents a major stretch for the United States. The country has only one offshore wind project online right now, generating 30 megawatts off Rhode Island.
Biden officials said they would speed up offshore wind development by setting concrete deadlines for reviewing and approving permit applications; establish a new wind energy area in the waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast; invest $230 million to upgrade U.S. ports; and provide $3 billion in potential loans for the offshore wind industry through the Energy Department.
The program also instructs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to share data with Ørsted, a Danish offshore wind development firm, about the U.S. waters where it holds leases. NOAA will grant $1 million to help study the impact of offshore wind operations on fishing operators as well as coastal communities.
The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, a joint project of DOE and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, will also give $8 million in research grants to 15 offshore wind research and development projects.
Unlike other renewable energy sectors, offshore wind represents one of the most labor-friendly opportunities for U.S. workers because these projects require regular operations and maintenance support. In November Ørsted signed an agreement with the North America’s Building Trades Unions to transition some of its workers into offshore wind, and the company has also provided support to train members of the Masters, Mates and Pilots union.
Investing money in ports, moreover, can provide job opportunities in disadvantaged communities on America’s coasts.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the Biden plan an example of “clean energy patriotism” -- investing in U.S. industries and U.S. workers. ”It does reflect this whole of government embrace," Granholm said."We all have a role to play."
While offshore wind represents the fastest-growing sector in renewable power, the U.S. remains far behind Europe. Wiik Vollset noted that Europe already has 24 gigawatts of operational capacity, and the U.K. alone aims to have 40 gigawatts online by 2030.
“Compared to Europe, the U.S. is very much in its infancy,” he said, adding that the new goal would amount to sometime akin to 3,000 industrial-scale turbines off the U.S. coast.
Some states have aggressive offshore wind targets already: New York aims to have 9 gigawatts online, and New Jersey 7.5 gigawatts, by 2035. As part of Monday’s announcement, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management said it will start preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for Ocean Wind, a New Jersey project that has a capacity of 1,100 megawatts and has the potential to become the nation;s third commercial scale offshore wind project.
While Ocean Wind has the potential to power 300,000 homes, it has already generated some opposition from Ocean City, N.J. residents, who complain it could affect their views.
Earlier this month Interior approved an environmental review for Vineyard Wind, off the Massachusetts coast, which could become the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project.
“For generations, we’ve put off the transition to green energy, and now we face a climate crisis," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told reporters. “It’s a crisis that doesn’t discriminate... We must seize this tremendous opportunity””