Cape & Islands leaders want more time to comment on the offshore wind plan

As the July 1 deadline for comments to the federal government approached on a proposal to auction offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine — which also includes Cape Town’s outermost towns — regional leaders wanted more time to express their views.

The Cape & Islands Municipal Leaders Association, an organization of 105 elected officials representing all 22 cities on the Cape, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, sent a letter to the Office of Ocean Energy Management asking for an extension of the deadline to July 22.

BOEM began a public comment period on its proposed announcement of lease sales on May 1, a day after announcing its plan to offer nearly one million ocean acres in the Gulf of Maine for offshore wind production for the first time.

“This extension of the comment period will allow for additional public meetings to discuss comments and concerns and will ensure more efficient permitting, construction and operation of what is likely the most important energy facility investment ever made,” the association said in a June 25 letter.

The letter also listed 13 specific comments and concerns the organization had raised about the leasing plan, including questions about the potential installation of floating turbines, impacts on small fisheries and ports, and environmental impacts.

Eight potential lease areas have been proposed in the Gulf of Maine: three totaling 363,305 acres east of Wellfleet and Truro, starting approximately 24 miles offshore and extending east, three east of Boston, beyond the eastern boundary of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary at mouth of Massachusetts Bay, and two east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and southeast of Portland, Maine.

According to the federal agency, these areas could generate 15 gigawatts of renewable energy, which would power more than five million homes. It is possible that some turbines will be visible from the Atlantic Ocean cliffs in Truro, in very good conditions and depending on the final height of the structure.

On Thursday, Cape & Islands Association of Municipal Leaders president Douglas Brown said the organization’s first formal presentation on plans for the Gulf of Maine was June 14 at its annual meeting on Martha’s Vineyard.

“A few days before the meeting, I received an email from someone at BOEM asking if they could join us,” he said.

It was then that the region’s leaders first realized as a group how much influence the region had, he added.

“They came and showed us the lease areas,” Brown said. “Someone came up after the meeting and said, ‘Wow, this is awfully close to Cape Cod, not what I expected in the Gulf of Maine.’”

He said that despite some notice from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before June about the impending announcement of the proposed sale of the Gulf of Maine, many did not fully understand how far the area extended. In his view, the Gulf ends at the top of Cape Cod, and the waters east of the Cape are the open Atlantic Ocean.

“I think (the Bay) ends at Chatham now,” he said.

He added that six of the eight proposed lease areas “are closer to Cape Cod than to Maine.”

“I don’t know of a time when there’s been a BOEM meeting on this on Cape Cod,” Brown said. “There are a lot of things we need to think about and talk about.”

The extension of the public comment period to July 22 requested by Cape Cod and island leaders coincides with another public comment period for the draft environmental impact assessment, which just opened on June 21. The assessment includes site characterization studies – such as biological, archaeological, geological and, according to the agency, geophysical surveys and core samples, as well as the installation of weather buoys, which is expected to occur after the issuance of lease agreements.

Regarding public comment on the lease sites, currently ending July 1, the Office of Ocean Energy Management is specifically soliciting comments on various aspects of the proposed lease sites, including the size, orientation and location of the eight lease sites and how Which areas, if any, should be prioritized for inclusion or exclusion from this year’s scheduled lease sales.

To submit comments, visit Regulations.gov. In the search box, type BOEM-2024-0026 in the comments section of the leasing websites, click “search,” and follow the instructions to submit public comments.

To submit comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment, type BOEM-2024-0030 in the search box.

Virtual meetings to review the draft environmental assessment are also scheduled for Monday, July 8 at 1:00 p.m. and Wednesday, July 10 at 5:00 p.m. Registration links for each meeting are available at www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/Maine/Gulf of Maine

Heather McCarron can be reached at [email protected] or follow her at X @HMcCarron_CCT

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