Rights to plan two wind farms off the coast of Southeastern North Carolina were provisionally awarded to two companies Wednesday, fetching $315 million in combined bids.  The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) auction began Wednesday morning for two lease areas in the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area, totaling nearly 110,100 acres. With each area ...

Bald Head Island Ltd., the parent company of the island’s ferry transportation enterprise, is asking state regulators to disregard the Village of Bald Head Island’s request for additional oversight on the company's other transportation-related services.  Last month, the village formally asked the N.C. Utilities Commission to regulate Bald Head Islan ...

Major players in the renewable energy sphere have shared their perspectives with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management regarding its proposed offshore wind lease of Wilmington East, an ocean-bound area 15 nautical miles from Bald Head Island. The development of wind turbines in this 127,865-acre space could generate billions in economic development opportunities fo ...

Spoiler alert: You can’t see the potential offshore wind farm from shore. That’s according to renderings released Friday by the Offshore Wind for North Carolina, an organization created by the Southeastern Wind Coalition.  The sample visualizations depict what an offshore wind farm installed 15 nautical miles (nm) off the coast of Bald Head Island would ...

The Port of Wilmington attracted a new global shipping carrier, CMA CGM. The company announced Wednesday it will make its inaugural one-time stop at the Port of Wilmington sometime in March. Roughly 10,500 containers aboard the CMA CGM COLUMBA will be filled with furniture, household goods, consumer products and construction tools from Asia to be delivered along th ...

The possibility of wind turbines off Southeastern North Carolina shoreline is coming into focus as federal and state interests signal strong support for advancing clean energy initiatives. Meanwhile, local concerns over adverse visual impacts persist.   The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a draft environmental as ...

Earlier this month, the North Carolina state budget set aside $283 million to cover the non-federal portion to construct the Wilmington Harbor Navigation Improvement Project.   Despite the big-ticket award, progress on the project is stalled as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awaits federal funding to cover a required pre-construction review pr ...

U.S. Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., filed a bill Nov. 18 with the goal of funneling more money into the state’s ferry system.   The bill would tweak the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) grant criteria for passenger ferries, removing the requirement that recipients must meet the Secretary of Commerce’s definition of an &ldq ...

Customers of the Port of Wilmington now have direct rail access to midwestern markets with the launch of the Wilmington Midwest Express. The route is the N.C. State Ports Authority’s daily direct connection to the midwest through the Carolina Connector Intermodal Rail Terminal in Rocky Mount. Gov. Roy Cooper attended an opening ceremony for the Rocky Mount ...

While billions in goods sit anchored outside the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, six of the Port of Wilmington’s eight weekly services are arriving on time with no scheduling difficulties. These steady routes are coming from Central and South America and Europe.  Local hiccups are occurring in the Wilmington port’s two Asian trans-Pacific services, ...