The Biden administration's commitment to the development of offshore wind as an alternative energy source is bearing tangible results. In November, construction began on Vineyard Wind, the first U.S. offshore wind project of commercial industrial scale. In February, six successful bidders offered a total of $4.37 billion for wind energy leases off the coasts of New Jersey and New York. Serious studies are being made of possible offshore wind installations in the Gulf of Mexico, with South Texas and the border of Louisiana and Texas having been identified as a leading candidates by wind capacity and economic potential. In January of this year, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that it is preparing a draft environmental assessment to consider potential offshore wind leasing in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently BOEM is considering approximately 30 million acres off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana for commercial development of offshore wind energy projects and has received expressions of interest from several parties.

Late last year, Congress amended Section 4(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to provide that federal laws extend to "(iii) installations and other devices permanently or temporarily attached to the seabed, which may be erected thereon for the purpose of exploring for, developing, or producing resources, including non-mineral energy resources" (emphasis added). In a recent ruling following this amendment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has construed this language to find that a jack-up vessel would become a coastwise point when attached to the seabed of the Outer Continental Shelf for the purpose of installing or constructing a structure to be used for the production of wind energy.