Carbajal Applauds Scheduling of First-ever Offshore Wind Lease Sale in the Pacific

Press Release

Today, Congressman Salud Carbajal applauded the U.S. Department of the Interior's announcement that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale on Dec. 6, 2022 for areas off the coast of California including Morro Bay.

BOEM will offer five lease areas in California that total approximately 373,268 acres with the potential to produce over 4.5 GW of offshore wind energy: enough to power more than 1.5 million homes while supporting thousands of new jobs.

These will be the first sales of offshore wind leases for sites on the West Coast, and the first-ever U.S. sale to support potential commercial-scale floating offshore wind energy development.

"After years of collaboration with our local, state, and federal partners, we are now only a few weeks away from proving that the Central Coast is leading the charge on our renewable energy transformation by becoming home to one of the first-ever offshore wind leases on the West Coast," said Rep. Carbajal. "Offshore wind holds incredible promise as a means to tackle climate change, and will serve our environmental, energy, national security, and economic prosperity goals for generations to come. The proposed sale in Morro Bay will help secure the Central Coast's dominance as a renewable energy powerhouse, which will attract new businesses and good paying, future-oriented jobs in a burgeoning sector of the economy."

"The demand and momentum to build a clean energy future is undeniable. I am proud of the teams at the Interior Department that are moving forward at the pace and scale required to help achieve the President's goals to make offshore wind energy, including floating offshore wind energy, a reality for the United States," said Secretary Deb Haaland. "Today, we are taking another step toward unlocking the immense offshore wind energy potential off our nation's west coast to help combat the effects of climate change while lowering costs for American families and creating good-paying union jobs."

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