Hey there.
This is Felix Contereras, one of the co hosts of Alt Latino, the podcast from NPR Music, where we discuss Latinx culture, music and heritage with the artists that create it.
Listen now to the alt Latino podcast from NPR.
This is Planet Money from NPR.
Late last summer, Mike Salado was in his New Orleans office early.
A hurricane was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Mike was fixed on his screen for another big event for the Gulf.
See, Mike had helped set up the first ever auction for offshore wind farms in the region.
He works for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
That's a government agency that manages how the sea, owned by the government, is used for things like drilling oil or gas.
It was leasing out patches of water for companies to build giant wind turbines in the water and sell their electricity.
It was a lot of anticipation.
We were just waiting to see what those first bids would be.
A lot of excitement.
A lot of excitement.
And you can hear it in his voice.
I mean, look, Mike is a steady hand on this big government work, so, you know, he's appropriately measured.
But this auction could mean pretty high bids.
A similar patch of ocean near New York had gone for over a billion dollars.
And when Mike had asked around with developers about interest, this Gulf site, we.