From the onset, President Joe Biden made it clear that renewable energy will define his administration, and he is living up to expectations. Likewise, the US offshore industry is poised for a major revamp as the focus shifts to emission-free electricity.
Offshore Windmills
The new administration has confirmed plans to deploy enough offshore windmills to power millions of households. As part of the ambitious plan, the government intends to have 30 Gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.
Similarly, the Interior Department is tasked with creating a New Wind Energy Area Offshore between the long island and the New Jersey coast. The department is also poised to permit Ocean Wind, a major renewable energy project on New Jersey’s coast. The New projects should employ more than 40,000 people.
AIP Ban Appeal
Biden’s administration’s focus on renewable energy already has a ripple effect in the broader energy industry. US oil and gas trade group, American Petroleum Institute, has already lodged a complaint urging the administration to reinstate leasing on federal property.
The push comes on President Biden pausing via executive order new leases for oil and gas drilling projects in federal land. The administration has stood firm curtailing new drilling on federal acreage as part of a decarbonization drive.
API is already crying foul, reiterating that the ban could result in a 15% increase in coal use. The group also argues that CO2 emissions from the power sector could rise by 5.5% by 2030 with the ban in place.
Arizona Standoff
Even as the Federal government and other states shift focus to renewable energy, Arizona renewable energy ambitions hang in the balance. The state GOP-dominated legislature has already made it clear that it will strip elected utility regulators of the power to set energy policy.
Clean Energy advocates have already warned that such a move would curtail the state’s ambitions to have a 15% renewable energy mandate by 2020. According to the advocates, progress would stall on energy companies not being forced to install green technologies to take advantage of extreme heat from climate change.
