The project sponsor notified NMFS that they would not complete the acoustic modeling for their MMPA incidental take authorization application until the end of February, which caused the milestone for determining the application complete to be extended. This extension required revisions to the subsequent MMPA milestones as well as revisions to the ESA/EFH milestones, per the dependencies and inter-relatedness of the milestones.
Cooperating under NEPA
Milestones:
-
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
:
Official Notice of Availability of a Draft EIS published in the Federal Register (FR) beginning both the public comment period and concurrent CAA Section 309 Review (Agency Action)
- Current Target Date: 10/31/2025
-
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
:
Official Notice of Availability of a Final EIS published in the FR beginning both the public review period and concurrent CAA Section 309 Review (Agency Action)
- Current Target Date: 08/14/2026 -
Endangered Species Act Consultation (NOAA-NMFS)
:
ESA Consultation Concludes (Agency Action)
- Current Target Date: 06/29/2026
PROJECT WEBSITE: Atlantic Shores Offshore 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
02/11/2027
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 - Regulatory
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense, US Army Corps of Engineers - Civil Works
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service
Environmental Protection Agency
Description:
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC (“Atlantic Shores”) proposes to construct, operate, and maintain the Atlantic Shore North Project (the “Project”; “Atlantic Shores North”), an offshore renewable wind energy facility in Lease Area OCS-A 0549, which is approximately 7.8 statute miles (mi) (12.6 kilometers [km]) from the New Jersey (NJ) shoreline and approximately 60 miles (96.6 km) from the New York State (NY) Coast.
The Lease Area layout is designed to maximize offshore renewable wind energy production while minimizing effects on existing marine uses. The structures will be aligned in a uniform grid with multiple lines of orientation allowing straight transit through the Lease Area. Within the Lease Area, the WTGs and OSSs will be connected by inter-array cables and/or inter-link cables. Energy from the OSSs will be delivered to shore by buried export cables that will be located within designated Export Cable Corridors (ECCs) from the Lease Area through Federal as well as New Jersey and/or New York State waters to landfall sites on the New Jersey and/or New York coastlines.
Atlantic Shores will use horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technology to install the export cables from the end of the ECCs to the landfall sites to minimize impacts to the intertidal and nearshore habitats and ensure stable burial of the cables. From each landfall site, the onshore interconnection cables will travel underground primarily along existing roadways and utility rights-of-way (ROWs) to new or existing onshore substation and/or converter station sites.
Original Target Date: 08/20/2026
Milestone: ITA decision rendered (Agency Action)
Requested extensions greater than 30 days for this Action are shown below:
ITA decision rendered (Agency Action) extended by 146
From: 08/20/2026
To: 01/13/2027