Joshua Sturtevant*

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Joshua Sturtevant is a law clerk in the firm's New York office.

With the recent Gulf Auction falling short of expectations and projects on the East Coast faltering, many have adopted a bearish stance on the U.S. offshore wind sector. However, California recently passed two new bills to support the state’s burgeoning offshore wind industry: the Offshore Wind Advancement Act (AB 3) and the California Offshore Wind Expediting Act (SB 286). These bills, which take effect January 1, 2024, have the potential to significantly impact offshore wind development in California.Continue Reading New Bills Advance California’s Offshore Wind Strategy

On August 29th, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held the first auction for offshore wind areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Sheppard Mullin’s preview of the auction can be accessed here. The auction concluded after just two rounds of bidding, with only the Lake Charles area off the coast of Louisiana being awarded. The two Texas areas available in the auction, Galveston I and II, received no bids.Continue Reading Gulf of Mexico Offshore Auction Falls Short of Expectations

On July 21, 2023, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a Final Sale Notice (FSN) for offshore wind leases covering three areas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The auction will include a 102,480-acre area off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana and two areas off the coast of Galveston, Texas totaling nearly 200,000 acres. On August 29th, up to fifteen qualified bidders will vie to become the first offshore wind leaseholders in this high-potential region.Continue Reading Previewing the Gulf of Mexico Offshore Wind Lease Auction

The dust has settled on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) first west coast auction for federal offshore wind lease areas. The California auction for the Morro Bay and Humboldt Call Areas brought an aggregate $757,100,000 to federal coffers at a $2,028 per acre value (with variances between the areas discussed below). This per acre value is well below the results of the other BOEM auctions of 2022, New York Bight (approximately $9,000 per acre, the highwater mark in the U.S.) and Carolina Long Bay (approximately $2,800 per acre). The final figure places the final result firmly within, but on the low end of, BOEM’s pre-auction estimate of $400M – $1.6B.Continue Reading California’s First Offshore Wind Auction Finalized – Key Takeaways

The eyes of the offshore wind sector are turning with excitement to the west coast of the United States today as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) conducts a scheduled mock auction for the Morro Bay and Humboldt Call Areas leading into the live auction tomorrow, December 6th.Continue Reading Market Conditions Among Factors Adding Variability to Potential California Offshore Lease Outcomes

One of the most noteworthy features of the October 18th Final Sale Notice (FSN) for the PACW-1 offshore lease auction – which will be the first west coast auction held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) – is the availability of “multi-factor” bid credits. The multi-factor approach will allow bidders to earn credits for activities BOEM hopes to stimulate, including making commitments to domestic workforce training and supply chain development as well as entrance into community benefit agreements (CBAs) addressing the impacts of offshore development on local stakeholders. Up to 30% of the cash value of their bid is available to bidders in the form of bid credits, a not insignificant figure given both government and market estimates of potential lease values.Continue Reading Bid Credits Intended to Stimulate Local Coordination and Development in Upcoming California Lease Auction Add New Wrinkle to Bid Strategies

On October 18, 2022, the Department of the Interior announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) will hold an auction to sell five offshore wind energy leases in federal waters off the California coast, with two off the coast of Humboldt and three off the coast of Morro Bay. PACW-1 is the first sale of offshore wind leases on the west coast of the United States, and the first to support the development of floating offshore wind projects anywhere in the US. The auction follows the record-breaking New York Bight auction and the Carolina Long Bay auction, both held earlier this year.Continue Reading California Offshore Wind Auction