➤ The director of the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said President Joe Biden's goal of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 is ambitious, necessary and realistic.

➤ Federal agencies are looking to coordinate transmission planning of offshore wind projects.

➤ Project developers are working with BOEM to mitigate offshore wind farms' impacts on ocean ecosystems.

Amanda Lefton, who is wrapping up her first year as BOEM director, is helping to launch an entirely new industry in the U.S. Despite challenges, Lefton said the administration is making unprecedented progress on offshore wind energy. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Can you give a year-end review of BOEM's actions on offshore wind?

Amanda Lefton: Over the last year at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, we have made tremendous progress in realizing the administration's vision and ambition to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

We have approved the nation's first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters, Vineyard Wind 1 [Massachusetts] and Southfork [New York]. We have initiated an additional nine project reviews ... and we will get a record of decision on those. We have set our sights on actually reviewing 16 construction and operation plans or projects by 2025.

We have developed a leasing path between now and 2025 that shows up to possibly seven new lease sales. And over the last year, we have made really remarkable progress on multiple fronts advancing offshore wind off the coast of California, and of course, the East Coast, having just released the final sale notice for the New York Bight.

Have you been talking to developers? What are you hearing from them?

We talk to all stakeholders and ocean users. We have active conversations with the commercial fishing industry, with environmental NGOs, with communities, with local governments. ... And part of that, of course, is having conversations with lessees.

We have moved forward with a request for information and are in the process of trying to develop fisheries mitigation guidance. What I find to be really heartening is that there seems to be an overwhelming drumbeat of support for having those kinds of guidelines, to have a clear process for how we move forward with such a critical issue. Clearly, for the commercial fishing industry, this is incredibly important. The states have called for us to do it. And the developers have also said that this is helpful and necessary.

Are any lessons from Europe on getting offshore wind projects through the regulatory process?

We're seeing other countries like the U.K. really focus on transmission. We've seen how they have sited projects and how they have worked with various stakeholders.

I think it's also important to recognize where there are differences. Something that I think is a little bit unique to us — compared to other developed countries that have developed offshore wind markets — is that our processes are bifurcated here. If you look at Scotland, for instance, [they] have the lease and the procurement. [In the U.S.], we are the entity that permits and leases, whereas the states truly have been leading the procurement conversation. So, I think there are a lot of lessons learned that we can take away.

All these state solicitations are asking for developers to go it alone on transmission. Is there any way to get a more centralized, coordinated system for transmission planning?

One of the other things that we did in the New York Bight is actually put the lessees on notice that we are in the process of developing different pathways for transmission that we will likely implement in the New York Bight going forward.

I think we will need to have a coordinated approach moving forward on transmission. It is obviously not something that is solely within BOEM's wheelhouse; we oversee the siting for the transmission in the Outer Continental Shelf, but then it goes into state waters, and then it's interconnected onshore.

We have begun working with the Department of Energy on a partnership to seek solutions for transmission and really bring together those various entities that do need to be around the table to develop that path. Fortunately, some states have really begun ... to seek solutions on their own. [The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities] is a good example; they're using the [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's] Order No. 1,000 process to try and identify points of interconnection and have a more planned approach for offshore wind.

So the US is on track to meet the 30-GW-by-2030 goal?

Absolutely. Listen, our goal to achieve 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 is ambitious. And it's challenging. But it is absolutely necessary — and it's realistic. We will achieve that goal.