Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Tommy Beaudreau said at the last night’s meeting that the leases for the offshore wind development in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf area off Rhode Island and Massachusetts could be awarded by December, writes South Coast Today news portal.
Even though the leases will be awarded soon, the first wind turbines are few years away.
“The leases only would give them the right to do a study. It would allow them to give us a plan saying here’s how many turbines we want, here’s what they would look like, and here is the environmental impact they would have,” said Beaudreau .
In July, BOEM released its own environmental assessment in which it did not analyze the environmental impact of turbines, but suggested areas that should be excluded due to environmental or economic concerns.
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Offshore WIND staff, July 18, 2012; Image: boem