Today marks the beginning of a whole new industry here in the Gulf of Mexico: offshore wind energy. The Biden administration opened the first-ever wind lease sale in the Gulf, and 300,000 acres of the Gulf will be auctioned off. Companies will now bid for the rights to put giant wind turbines off the coast of southwest Louisiana and east Texas. It’s a big day to say the least. And there’s been a whole lot of excitement leading up to the lease sale. It even has bipartisan support. And this could just be the start.
To understand how we got here, today, we are bringing you an episode from our friends at New Hampshire Public Radio’s podcast Outside/In. The episode is from a series called Windfall.
Picture this: thousands of wind turbines off the Atlantic coast, each one taller than the Washington Monument. Offshore wind is seen as an essential solution to climate change, and it’s poised for explosive growth in the United States. How did we get to a moment of such dramatic change?
Windfall is the story of a promising renewable technology and the potential of wind power in a changing climate. It’s a story about who has the power to reshape our energy future.
Featuring: Henrik Stiesdal, Bryan Wilson, and Bob Grace.
Part 1 of 5. Listen to the rest of the series here.
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LINKS
CREDITS
Co-hosts: Sam Evans-Brown and Annie Ropeik
Written and reported by Sam Evans-Brown
Senior Producer: Jack Rodolico
Executive Producer: Erika Janik
Mixed by Taylor Quimby
Fact-checker: Sara Sneath
Editors: Erika Janik, Annie Ropeik, Justine Paradis, Taylor Quimby, Felix Poon, and Hannah McCarthy
Special thanks to Sarah Mizes-Tan and WCAI for the audio of the Block Island Wind Farm Tour, and to Vincent Schellings, Walter Musial, Michael Taylor and Dan Shreve
Music: Ben Cosgrove, Blue Dot Sessions, and Breakmaster Cylinder
Windfall Graphic Design: Sara Plourde