New Hampshire Governor Requests Coordination with Feds on Offshore Renewable Energy

In a letter to Walter Cruickshank, the acting director at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Governor Christopher T. Sununu formerly requested the establishment of an intergovernmental offshore renewable energy task force for the State of New Hampshire.

Due to the U.S. Federal Government shutdown, a formal response from BOEM has not yet been published, but similar task forces for other states have coordinated federal, state, and local efforts to determine the feasibility of offshore wind in federal waters and act as a preliminary step in a lengthy process.

A joint resolution filed by a group of New Hampshire state senators and representatives earlier in 2019 supported efforts to develop wind power off the state’s coast and requested that Sununu contact BOEM about creating the offshore wind task force. State officials previously estimated the offshore wind resource potential in New Hampshire at nearly 3,500 megawatts. Because the state does not have a large electric load, potential exists for the export of power generated by New Hampshire’s offshore wind projects to neighboring states.