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The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released the draft environmental review of offshore wind lease areas in the Central Atlantic region, including one offshore Delaware and Maryland and another one off Virginia.
The draft environmental assessment (EA) will be available to public comments through February 12, 2024, the government agency said on Thursday.
BOEM’s environmental analysis was carried out after the Department of the Interior (DoI) last month announced a proposed lease sale for two Central Atlantic Wind Energy Areas (WEAs). Namely, these are lease area A-2, which covers 101,443 acres and stretches between Delaware and Maryland, and lease area C-1, which consists of 176,505 acres and is 35 nautical miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.
If fully developed, the two areas could host turbines to supply power to over 2.2 million homes annually.
The site assessment took into account the potential consequences of geophysical activities and the installation of meteorological buoys within the selected lease sites. Easements and grants related to each potential lease, including subsea cable corridors, were also considered.
BOEM noted its review encompassed another area, B-1 offshore Maryland’s Ocean City, which was announced last summer but was not included in the proposed lease sale as further evaluation will be required to assess potential conflicts with other existing ocean uses. B-1 is included in the draft EA as the area may be considered in a potential second lease sale in the Central Atlantic, possibly as soon as 2025.
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