On November 21, 2023, the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) announced that it has approved the Empire Wind offshore wind project, the sixth approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind energy project under the Biden administration.[1] The president aims to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. BOEM has committed to advancing 16 offshore wind projects by 2025. Empire Wind US LLC, a joint venture of Equinor and BP, will develop two offshore wind facilities: Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2. The projects will be about 12 nautical miles (nm) south of Long Island, New York, and have a capacity of 2,076 MW. BOEM estimates that the projects will support over 830 jobs annually during construction and about 300 jobs annually during operations. The Record of Decision includes measures aimed at avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating the potential impacts that may result from the project. Those measures include a commitment from Empire Wind to establish fishery mitigation funds to compensate commercial and for-hire recreational fishers for any losses directly arising from the project.

[1] https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-harris-administration-approves-sixth-offshore-wind-project