The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries’ Shrimp Task Force meeting last week featured an update on federal proposals to develop wind energy leases in the Gulf of Mexico, reports The Center Square.
Officials with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management discussed the status of two areas identified for potential wind energy lease sales in the Gulf, the process used to identify the areas, and next steps moving forward.
Tershara Matthews, chief of BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico office, detailed two draft wind energy areas in the Gulf of Mexico recently posted for public comment by the Department of the Interior: a 546,645-acre site approximately 24 nautical miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas, and a 188,023-acre site 56 nautical miles from Lake Charles.
The former has the potential to power 2.3 million homes, the latter 799,000 homes.
Matthews says the proposal and accompanying draft environmental assessment took into consideration aquaculture opportunity areas, buffers requested by the U.S. Coast Guard, active oil and gas platforms and pipelines, shipping areas, Department of Defense requests for low-altitude training, migratory bird routes, popular fishing and shrimping areas and other concerns. Read the full story about the leases from The Center Square.
