WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will announce the first offshore wind power development rights sale 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 to expand offshore wind power development into the Gulf of Mexico, introducing the nascent clean energy industry into a major hub for oil and gas production.
The Interior Department will announce that the sale will take place on Aug. 29, the White House said.
The sale will include a lease area of 102,480 acres offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two lease areas totaling nearly 200,000 acres offshore Galveston, Texas, the White House said. Companies will bid on the right to develop those acres.
The Biden administration has held three offshore wind lease auctions, including the largest ever such U.S. sale last year for areas off the New York and New Jersey coasts that attracted a record $1.5 billion in bids, and the first ever off the Pacific coast in California.
Biden is traveling to Philadelphia on Thursday to pitch the promise of a green economy to union workers who remain skeptical that the solar, wind and electric vehicle industries can deliver the same economic punch for organized labor as oil refineries and fossil fuel-fired power plants.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Sonali Paul)
