BOEM Lays Out New York
Windmill Areas
Newport, RI—At the New England Fisheries Management Council meeting here the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (formerly the Minerals Management Service), which exercises the oil, gas, and renewable energy-related management functions on the U.S Continental shelf, announced areas for wind energy development in the New York Bight on December 5, 2017. The study area is south of the western end of Long Island, NY and east of the New Jersey coast.
Bonny Brady, representing the Long Island (New York) Fishermen’s Association, said, “The BOEM New York draft call area takes over much of the New York Bight. The New York Bight has been sliced into five giant windmill sites.” Brady said she was “requesting that the council write a joint letter to the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior objecting to basically the taking of these two areas of the Exclusive Enterprise Zone (EEZ). “There’s pretty much no place else for us to go. This is a serious, serious issue.”
Brady told the council that “NOAA has a consult only if your (concern is a) specific species, otherwise they do pretty much anything they want to do.” She went on to say, “We are basically being pushed off our traditional historic fishing grounds.” She also requested that the council work with the Mid-Atlantic Council to draft a letter specifically addressing these offshore wind energy areas.
According to BOEM documents (see link below), the majority of offshore wind energy projects globally, both those in operation and those in development, are less than 37 miles offshore. The largest number under development globally is in less than a median depth of 131 feet. The largest number of operational or under construction is in a median depth of 32 feet.
