Biden boosts wind project

The Biden administration is moving to sharply increase offshore wind energy along the East Coast, saying Monday it is taking initial steps toward approving a huge wind farm off the New Jersey coast as part of an effort to generate electricity for more than 10 million homes nationwide by 2030.

Meeting the target could mean jobs for more than 44,000 workers and for 33,000 others in related employment, the White House said. The effort also would help avoid 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, a key step in the administration’s fight to slow global warming.

The administration said it intends to prepare a formal environmental analysis for the Ocean Wind project, which would move it toward becoming the third commercialscale offshore wind initiative in the U.S.

The Interior Department has previously announced environmental reviews for Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork wind farm, about 35 miles east of Montauk Point in New York.

President Biden has vowed to double offshore wind production by 2030 as part of his effort to slow climate change. The likely approval of the Atlantic Coast projects — the leading edge of at least 16 offshore wind projects along the East Coast — marks a sharp turnaround from the Trump administration, which stymied wind power both onshore and in the ocean. As president, Donald Trump frequently derided wind power as an expensive, birdslaughtering way to make electricity.