Biden administration announces record-breaking offshore wind lease sale

The Biden administration continues to make progress on its climate agenda with several federal agencies announcing new clean energy projects that aim to provide union jobs and move America toward a greener economy.

The largest project includes a record-breaking wind lease sale off the coast of New York and New Jersey that is expected to generate up to 7-gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power 2 million homes, according to the Department of the Interior. The department will oversee six different lease areas that cover nearly 500,000 acres along the New York-New Jersey coastline. Financial incentives will also be available for wind-turbine materials that are made in the U.S.

As offshore wind expands in the country, the administration estimates that as many as 80,000 new jobs in the wind-energy sector could be created by 2030.

This giant push for wind energy helps President Joe Biden achieve an administrative goal of 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. Additionally, the president set a target of 25-gigawatts of onshore clean energy by 2025.

In the last year, the Department of the Interior approved 18 onshore clean energy projects that will deliver more than 4-gigawatts of energy and there are an additional 54 projects in the pipeline that could deliver more than 27-gigawatts of clean energy through wind, solar and geothermal installations.

To help ensure all this clean energy does reach the homes of millions of Americans, the Department of Energy is using funds established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to accelerate the deployment of new transmission lines to connect consumers to cleaner and cheaper energy.