Climate Jobs NY Update: Labor, Environment, and Industry Groups See Massive Gains with Historic NY Bight Lease Sale

Together with our partners, we welcome this week’s outcome of the largest-ever auction of offshore wind development rights! The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) award of 6 new lease areas offshore New York and New Jersey, within an area known as the New York Bight, sets the stage for a multi-billion dollar investment in renewable energy projects, domestic supply chain, and regional ports and harbors, creating tens of thousands of good union jobs while addressing the climate crisis.

The lease sale, hitting an historic high of $2.2 billion at the time of our Union Matters’ submission, marks the culmination of several years of analysis, stakeholder engagement (including with maritime industries, commercial fisheries, non-governmental organizations) and inter-agency collaboration to maximize the responsible development of offshore wind energy in the New York Bight while protecting current and future uses of the ocean environment. BOEM incorporated stakeholder input and reduced the initial 2018 Call Area’s 1.7 million acres by 72 percent to approximately 488,000 acres.

The lease areas sold today can accommodate at least 7 gigawatts of clean wind energy, enough to power over 2 million homes. This sale represents a significant step forward in fulfillment of the Biden-Harris Administration’s pledge of achieving 30 GW of offshore wind development by 2030, while simultaneously facilitating achievement of New York’s nation’s leading mandate of 9 GW offshore wind by 2035.