Several revisions to the Empire Wind COP and Project Design Envelope (PDE) have extended the length of the COP sufficiency review process beyond the initial DEIS publication milestone of August 5, 2022. Empire Wind submitted its most recent changes to its PDE and COP Volume 1 on April 4, 2022. The revised COP Volume 2 and responses to BOEM’s latest round of sufficiency review comments were then filed May 16, 2022. Finally, updates to several COP appendices and the acoustic modeling data were filed in mid-June 2022. BOEM began preparing the DEIS in January 2022 and a partial subject matter expert (SME) review was completed in March 2022; however, the COP revisions delayed BOEM's ability to provide the DEIS to the cooperating agencies by the April 29, 2022 milestone. BOEM was able to provide the DEIS to the cooperating agency by August 12, 2022. BOEM then received and responded to agency comments in time for DEIS publication on the updated milestone date of November 18, 2022 (the original publication milestone for the DEIS was August 12, 2022).
Milestones:
PROJECT WEBSITE: Equinor's Empire Wind
All dates below are specific to the schedule of the Environmental Review and Permitting processes for this project.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING STATUS
IN PROGRESS
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING
03/11/2024
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING PROCESSES
COMPLETED
SECTOR
Renewable Energy Production
CATEGORY
Project Category
FAST-41 Covered Projects
LEAD AGENCY
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
View FAST-41 Postings by Agencies
Other Agencies with Actions or Authorizations:
Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers - Civil Works
Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers - Regulatory
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service
Environmental Protection Agency
Description:
Equinor Wind proposes to construct and operate the Empire Wind Energy Project located in Lease Area OCS-A 0512, which covers approximately 79,350 acres (ac; 32,112 hectares [ha]) and is located approximately 14 statute miles (mi) (12 nautical miles [nm], 22 kilometers [km]) south of Long Island, New York and 19.5 mi (16.9 nm, 31.4 km) east of Long Branch, New Jersey.
Original Target Date: 09/08/2023
Milestone: Final decision/agency action (Agency Action)
Requested extensions greater than 30 days for this Action are shown below:
Final decision/agency action (Agency Action) extended by 136
From: 09/08/2023
To: 01/22/2024