Part I: With its first offshore wind project approved and more in the pipeline, New York’s labor movement is ready to go

By Elana Knopp, Senior Content Writer, Edison Energy. In December, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the completion of its environmental review of potential impacts from offshore wind leasing activities in the New York Bight, a portion of the Atlantic Ocean located offshore New York and New Jersey. The final Environmental Assessment (EA) assesses potential impacts from the issuance of leases within nearly 800,000 acres of wind energy areas in the New York Bight. Based on the analysis in the EA, BOEM issued a finding of no significant impact (FONSI). Click here for the full interview.

“We’ve really been engaged in the fight to get the New York Bight developed for quite some time, and it’s great to see the Biden administration’s prioritization of this area and the opportunity it creates for good union jobs,” Dignan said. “And you see that concretely because included in the proposed Sale of Notice is a lease stipulation that the work and construction in these lease areas would be covered by project labor agreements. That’s a great start. BOEM and Director Lefton have really prioritized good union jobs, so that’s the forum on how we can get this started, making sure that we have project labor agreements on construction, and then we take it from there.”