A bipartisan group of U.S. congressional lawmakers from Louisiana and Massachusetts is urging the Trump administration to move ahead with offshore wind development, starting with the prompt completion of a permitting process that has held up the country's first utility-scale offshore wind project, Vineyard Wind LLC's 800-MW Vineyard Offshore Wind Project off Cape Cod, Mass.
In a letter dated Aug. 16, eight lawmakers called for the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce to "judiciously evaluate" the project's potential impacts to the New England commercial fishing industry and identify any steps necessary to address those concerns so the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, can issue the supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, for the Vineyard Wind facility.
"We believe it is possible for multiple industries to coexist in mixed-use regions offshore," the lawmakers, who include Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Reps. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., wrote. "We urge your departments to work together to find a solution that will address concerns raised by stakeholders, protects the environment, and allows the Vineyard Wind project to remain viable."
Along with potentially saving Massachusetts ratepayers approximately $35.29/MWh on average over the term of its 20-year contracts, the Vineyard Wind wind project will reduce the New England state's reliance on imported fossil fuels, the lawmakers said. "Further, Louisiana and Gulf Coast companies that have decades of experience working in the Gulf of Mexico are eager to make needed investments to support this project and future offshore wind energy projects."
The lawmakers wrote the letter after Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt on Aug. 9 announced a further delay in the issuance of a final EIS for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project. In its decision, BOEM said it intended to undertake a supplemental draft EIS process by analyzing the effects of the many offshore wind projects and procurements that are expected to follow the development of Vineyard Wind as part of that extended study.
On Aug. 12, Vineyard Wind responded to the delay, saying that its shareholders have affirmed the company's commitment to building the project. However, the developer acknowledged that its original timeline for the project no longer is feasible due to the delay in the EIS process. Contracted by Massachusetts to help fulfill the state's clean-energy mandate, Vineyard Wind previously planned to begin construction in late 2019 and to become operational by 2021 or 2022. Under its power purchase agreements with Massachusetts' utilities, Vineyard Wind is required to have 400 MW of nameplate capacity online by 2022.
Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S and Avangrid Inc.'s Avangrid Renewables LLC subsidiary. The majority stakeholder in Avangrid is Spanish energy company Iberdrola SA.
