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ARTICLE · 07 OCTOBER 2022

US BOEM Issues Final Environmental Review For Offshore Wind Area Off Central California

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On October 5, 2022, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it had completed a final environmental assessment (EA) and issued a finding of no significant impacts (FONSI) for offshore wind energy activities.

United StatesEnvironment
Lauren A. Bachtel
Lauren A. Bachtel
J. Paul Forrester
J. Paul Forrester
Eric Pogue
Eric Pogue
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On October 5, 2022, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it had completed a final environmental assessment (EA) and issued a finding of no significant impacts (FONSI) for offshore wind energy activities in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) located 20 miles offshore central California. BOEM initiated the environmental review on November 12, 2021, and published a draft EA on April 6, 2022, for public review and comment.

BOEM's EA considers potential impacts from the issuance of leases within the Morro Bay WEA, which comprises nearly 240,898 acres (376 square miles) off the coast of Morro Bay, California, as depicted on the map below. The Morro Bay WEA, if developed, could bring up to 3 GW of clean energy to the grid, enough to power more than one million homes. The EA also considers potential environmental consequences of site characterization activities (e.g., biological, archeological, geological and geophysical surveys), site

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