WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the sale of rights to the first offshore wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday as part of a trip to highlight the administration’s efforts to boost renewable energy, the White House said.
In February the United States proposed expanding the development of offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico, introducing the emerging clean energy industry to a major oil and gas production facility.
The Interior Department will announce that the sale will take place on August 29, the White House said.
The sale will include a 102,480-acre lease off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two leases totaling nearly 200,000 acres off the coast of Galveston, Texas, the White House said. Companies will bid for the right to develop those hectares.
The Biden administration has held three offshore air lease auctions, including the largest U.S. auction last year in coastal areas of New York and New Jersey that pulled in a record $1.5 billion, and the first ever on the Pacific coast in California.
Biden travels to Philadelphia on Thursday to pitch a green economy promise to federal workers who remain skeptical that the solar, wind and electric vehicle industries can deliver the same economic punch to scheduled workers as oil refineries and fossil power plants.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Sonali Paul)
Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.
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