The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today announced that it is seeking comments by Tuesday, June 1 on its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the construction and operations plan submitted by Revolution Wind, LLC for a wind energy facility off Rhode Island, with export cables connecting to the onshore electric grid in North Kingstown, RI. In conjunction with the comment period, BOEM will conduct virtual public scoping meetings on Thursday, May 13, Tuesday, May 18, and Thursday, May 20.
The proposed plan would involve up to 100 wind turbine generators, inter-array cables, up to 2 offshore substations, and 2 transmission cables.
Based on its preliminary evaluation, BOEM said it anticipates noise and collision-related impacts to sea turtles and marine mammals, stated that structures installed could “permanently change benthic habitat and other fish habitat,” and cited potential impacts on commercial fisheries and for-hire fishing.
