The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has set new dates for the public meetings regarding its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, which had previously been postponed due to the government shutdown.
The first four meetings will be held in Massachusetts, with the first scheduled to begin on 11 February at the Nantucket Atheneum.
Further events will take place on 12 February at Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, on 13 February at the Double Tree Hotel and on 14 February at the Fairfield Inn and Suites.
The final public meeting will be held on 15 February at Narragansett Community Center in Rhode Island.
All of the meetings are set to begin at 5:00 p.m. local time and will have a Q&A session shortly after they start.
BOEM said that it had also extended the public comment period, which is a crucial part of the permitting of the 800MW project.
To remind, the five meetings had initially been planned for mid-January but had to be postponed due to a lack of appropriated funding which ceased a number of government activities.
Vineyard Wind is North America’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, scheduled to enter the construction phase this year and expected to be operational in 2021.
It is being developed by Vineyard Wind LLC, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.