Biden administration announces schedule for up to 12 lease sales for offshore wind energy [Video]

NEW ORLEANS — A new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production was announced Wednesday by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028.

Haaland announced the plan at a conference in New Orleans, where Maine Gov. Janet Mills was a keynote speaker, delivering remarks at a meeting of experts at the forefront of floating offshore wind technology and commercialization.

Under the plan Haaland outlined Wednesday, which includes some previously announced lease auctions, three of the anticipated sales would be for Gulf of Mexico tracts to be offered this year, in 2025 and in 2027. Central Atlantic area leases would be sold in 2024 and 2026.

Other anticipated sale areas include the Gulf of Maine (2024 and 2028); Oregon waters (2024); an area of the Atlantic known as New York Bight (2027); and California, Hawaii, …