Greentech Media: Vineyard Wind's Permitting On Track Despite Coronavirus, BOEM Says

By Karl-Erik Stromsta

James Bennett, manager of BOEM’s renewable energy program, said his team is in a “full telework arrangement right now” as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown. Bennett said BOEM is sticking to the timeline that would see Vineyard get its final decision by the end of this year, but he cautioned that the pandemic could knock things further off course.

“We don’t anticipate any schedule slips just yet,” Bennett told the International Partner Forum, organized by the Business Network for Offshore Wind and held virtually this year because of the pandemic.

“A lot of it will depend on how things work out with COVID and whether we’re able to have the stakeholder involvement at the level that we’d like to,” Bennett added. “But overall we’re on track and on schedule, and we’re continuing on for Vineyard Wind and the other projects as well.”