The Biden administration's sale of offshore wind development rights off the coasts of New York and New Jersey continued to shatter all records on Friday, reaching over $3.8 billion with one single block fetching over $1 billion.
The auction, which began on Wednesday, is the first offshore wind lease sale under U.S. President Joe Biden, who sees the expansion of offshore wind as a way to tackle climate change and create thousands of new jobs.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees energy development in federal waters, offered six leases across 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares) between New York's Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.
As of around 10:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT), there were 52 rounds of online bids.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici/Editing by Marguerita Choy)