House Spending Plan Slaps Hefty Inspection Fees On Offshore Wind Projects

"The Republican appropriations bill for the Interior Department proposes per-turbine fees for wind projects, potentially boosting those costs much higher than fees paid by oil and gas companies."

"The House Republican spending bill for the Interior Department contains another potential punch for the beleaguered offshore wind industry: big new fees.

The fiscal 2027 Interior-Environment spending bill, which a House Appropriations subcommittee advanced last week, would impose a range of fees on offshore wind projects. Those are broken into annual fees and physical inspection fees.

Annual fees would be $7,300 for an onshore inspection visit to an offshore wind project’s control center and $15,400 for a visual inspection of a wind turbine. Further physical inspections of a wind turbine or substation would cost $72,800.

The new fees largely reflect the White House’s proposed budget for Interior, released in March. The fees could amount to much more than is paid by offshore oil companies for inspections, given that the language calls for per-turbine inspections and wind farms include many turbines: 62 for the newly running Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts and more than 170 anticipated for a project under construction off the coast of Virginia."

Annual fees for offshore oil and gas operations under the bill, by contrast, have been largely the same for years and are not charged per well.

Current annual fees for offshore oil and gas operations — which are maintained in the House Republicans spending plan — amount to $10,500 for structures with no wells, $17,000 for ones with one to 10 wells and $31,500 for those with more than 10 wells. Other fees are charged for drilling rigs based on water depth: $16,700 for shallow water rig inspections and $30,500 for those in deeper water. Inspecting wells operating without rigs under the bill would range from $4,470 to $13,260, depending on their water depth.

Elizabeth Klein, who directed BOEM during the Biden administration, said that based on the bill, offshore wind developers could potentially pay millions for BSEE officials to board a helicopter and visually inspect dozens of turbines.

“That’s nuts,” she said, adding that the oil and gas fees were “nowhere near the amount that could be suggested here.”

Klein also said the fee for a physical inspection of a turbine — which would be more than twice the cost of inspecting rigs — also seemed odd, given how large deep-water rigs can be.

Other critics said that the fees don’t reflect the potential environmental harms from accidents. While accidents will also occur with offshore wind — such as a turbine blade breaking off — the environmental harm caused by an oil spill is often much larger.