Biden Administration To Allow Wind Farms Along Almost Of U.S. Coastline

The Biden administration has announced a plan to allow wind farms along most of the coastline of the U.S.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency will begin to identify, set boundaries and lease federal waters in the Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic states, North and South Carolina, California and Oregon to wind power developers by 2025.

President Joe Biden has pledged to cut the country’s fossil fuel emission by 50% by 2030 by creating policies that promote electricity as a source of power. The Biden administration has promised to build 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030.

Biden is pushing the Clean Electricity Performance Program or (CEPP), a $150 billion program that would pay electric utilities to increase the amount of electricity bought from zero-carbon sources like solar and wind power. But there is no guarantee that companies will lease in federal waters to build wind farms.

If the potential sites could harm endangered species, conflict with military activity or harm local tourism, the federal government could deem them unsuitable for leasing. Oil and gas companies also could fight the development of wind energy to block a potential threat to their business.

Article by Ian Darville