Louisiana to develop leasable areas in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore wind development

Earlier this month, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced the formation of a new task force to help the state fully realize its potential in the growing offshore wind industry. When complete, it will produce a map of areas in the Gulf of Mexico available for leasing to developers and will ultimately facilitate the lease process.

The announcement came on 9 November at the inaugural meeting for another task force, of which renewable energy is a focus, the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Edwards issued an executive order which established a Climate Initiatives Task Force tasked with the goal of issuing “strategies and recommendations” to relevant agencies on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, Harry Vorhoff, the Deputy Director for Coastal Activities in the Governor’s Office, said in an interview with New Project Media.

That 23-person task force, of which ten members will come from governmental agencies and entities like the Louisiana Public Service Commission, will look beyond new development to promote broader emissions reductions. But development will play a role, Vorhoff said.

“We are taking a comprehensive look and that is why, to help this task force, we’ve set up six missions-based committees that will be taking a sector-specific look,” said Vorhoff, “at where the emissions are coming from and what are some of the options on the table that they can develop and understand the costs, and any co-benefits, any avoided negative impacts, and then offer those up to, ultimately, the task force to consider and sort of put all the pieces of the puzzle together to determine how the state can incentivize reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

That task force includes stakeholders from industry, environmental groups, non-profits, community groups, indigenous communities, etc. to “really have this task force look like the people of Louisiana,” he said.

Edwards wrote a letter in October to Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) requesting the establishment of an “intergovernmental task force to look at the development of renewable energy in the Gulf off Louisiana’s coast,” Vorhoff said.

It will be led by BOEM. The two task forces are “similar and related efforts,” Vorhoff said, but there is no set date for the development-focused group’s launch.

“But (based on) the other states that have undertaken this effort … it could very well be a multi-year process and at the end of the day, after working with federal, state, local, tribal governments and bringing in stakeholders who use offshore waters, the end product will be a map of areas to lease and ultimately, the federal government, through the Bureau of Ocean Management, (will be) leasing out parts of offshore federal waters for renewable development,” Vorhoff said.

Offshore wind is the leading option for development off the coast, he said, but other generation options will be studied by the task force.

Vorhoff will serve as the Governor’s designee in the Climate Initiatives Task Force and the point man for state government in the BOEM task force, he said. He wants to facilitate cooperation.

“I’ll be ensuring that both efforts are informing each other as appropriate and as needed,” he said.

Producing the map, and subsequently leasing swaths of the Gulf to developers, is the ultimate goal, he said. The time is right, he said, because “there is really no time to waste.”

Louisiana’s main advantage in attracting renewable developers is its workforce and experience in offshore energy work, which “bodes well for Louisiana’s offshore wind industry,” Vorhoff said.

“Louisiana companies have already played a very important role in the development of offshore wind on the East Coast, whether it’s Block Island … or other projects,” Vorhoff said. “The expertise that Louisiana has, particularly in offshore oil and gas development … that know-how and that skill and that expertise really translates quite well to building these offshore wind turbines.”