Wind farm pushes back deadline

NEW BEDFORD — Vineyard Wind is committed to building the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm off the Massachusetts coast despite a decision by federal regulators to delay issuing a key environmental impact statement, company CEO Lars Pedersen said Monday.

But the company will have to push back its deadline for the 800-megawatt project, Pedersen said.

“We are very proud of the Vineyard Wind team’s achievements so far and we are disappointed not to deliver the project on the timeline we had anticipated,” Pedersen said in a written statement. “We were less than four months away from launching a new industry in the United States.”

More than 50 U.S. companies have been awarded a contract or are currently bidding on contracts associated with the 84-turbine wind farm, Pedersen said.

Connie Gillette, chief of public affairs for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Friday the agency took the action after receiving comments “from stakeholders and cooperating agencies” requesting a more robust cumulative analysis.

That expanded analysis would include projects that have been awarded power purchase agreements, but may not have submitted construction and operations plans.

Vineyard Wind said it hasn’t received any information about the requirements for the expanded analysis. The company said 3,600 jobs, a $2.8 billion investment in new infrastructure, and contracts with shipyards in the Gulf Coast and the northeast are hanging in the balance.