Biden administration green-lights country's first big offshore wind project
11 May 2021
The Biden administration today gave final approval to Vineyard Wind, a project off the Massachusetts coast slated to be the country's first large-scale offshore wind farm.
Why it matters: While the green-light for the long-proposed projected was expected, it marks a key step in White House plans to help spur development of a suite of coastal projects off New York, New Jersey and other states.
Driving the news: The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind, once built, will provide enough power for 400,000 homes and businesses and create 3,600 jobs, according to the announcement from the Departments of Interior and Commerce.
The project, which will span dozens of turbines, is a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, which is an arm of Spanish power giant Iberdrola.
The big picture: The White House is keen to advance multiple projects that are already in the pipeline and expand areas offered for development.
- In late March administration officials set a target of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind generating capacity operating in U.S. waters by 2030.
- That would go well beyond plans already on the drawing boards among Equinor, Shell and BP, Portugal's EDP and others are involved in various partnerships for U.S. projects.
What they're saying: “Today’s offshore wind project announcement demonstrates that we can fight the climate crisis, while creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our competitiveness at home and abroad,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.