EPA New England issues a Draft OCS Air Permit for new offshore wind farm project

EPA New England issues a Draft OCS Air Permit for new offshore wind farm project

November 15, 2024

BOSTON (Nov. 15, 2024) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its issuance of draft Clean Air Act Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) air quality permit for Southcoast Wind LLC. The permit proposes to allow for the construction and operation of the source within the "wind development area," located in federal waters south of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

EPA's proposed approval is in concert with other federal reviews and approvals for the project, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's environmental review done as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

"When built, the Southcoast Wind project will contribute up to 2.4 gigawatts of energy - powering over 1 million homes," said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. "New England continues to lead the way to our clean energy future, growing clean tech jobs, and making sure our communities most overburdened by air pollution can breathe clean air and take advantage of green workforce development."

The public comment period for draft permit will remain open from November 15, 2024, to January 6, 2025. Interested parties can submit comments on the Preliminary Designation and the Draft Permit at https://www.regulations.gov (Docket ID #EPA-R01-OAR-2024-0393). All comments must be received by January 6, 2025.

In addition, the EPA will hold a public hearing for the OCS air permit at 6:00 p.m. EST on December 18th, 2024.EPA will consider all significant comments and make appropriate changes before issuing this permit.

OCS Air Regulations, found at 40 CFR part 55, establish the applicable air pollution control requirements for offshore wind facilities. The project's primary emission sources are compression-ignition internal combustion engines ("CI-ICEs"). These include engines on vessels while operating as OCS sources and generator engines installed on the offshore substation platforms (OSPs) and wind turbine generators (WTGs). Other emission units at this facility were also subject to a review of best achievable control technologies, including the medium voltage ("MV") and high-voltage ("HV") gas insulated switchgear on the OSPs. Additionally, emissions from any vessel servicing or associated with any component of the OCS source, such as WTGs and OSPs, are included in the Southcoast's potential to emit while the vessel is at the source or in route to or from the source within 25 nautical miles.

More information

Electronic copies of the permits, fact sheets, virtual public hearing information, and all supporting materials can be found on EPA's website at: https://www.epa.gov/caa-permitting/epa-issued-caa-permits-region-1.

Clean Air Act Permitting by EPA: https://www.epa.gov/caa-permitting/caa-public-comment-opportunities-region-1.