Bureau of Ocean Energy Management August 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the regulations implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA, on July 9, 2012, BOEM announced its intent to prepare a Supplemental EIS for proposed Western Planning Area (WPA) Lease Sale 233 and Central Planning Area (CPA) Lease Sale 231 (WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS) (77 FR 40380). Due to a BOEM email address incorrectly noted in the July 9, 2012, Federal Register notice and out of an abundance of caution to ensure that BOEM receives all scoping comments, BOEM is reopening the scoping comment period.

The purpose of this public notice is to: (1) Describe the proposal submitted to BOEM by Statoil North America (Statoil NA) to acquire an OCS wind lease; (2) solicit public input regarding the proposal, its potential environmental consequences, and the use of the area in which the proposed project would be located; and (3) solicit submissions of indications of competitive interest for a commercial lease for wind energy development on the OCS off the coast of Maine for the area identified in this notice. On October 12, 2011, BOEM received an unsolicited request from Statoil NA for a commercial wind lease on the OCS offshore Maine. Statoil NA's proposed project, ``Hywind Maine,'' would consist of four 3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine generators (WTG) configured for a total of 12-MW in water depths greater than 100 meters and be located approximately 12 nautical miles (nmi) off the coast of Maine. The objective of the proposed Hywind Maine Project is to demonstrate the commercial potential of the existing floating offshore Hywind technology, while responding to a corresponding Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the Maine Public Utilities Commission. This request for interest is published pursuant to subsection 8(p)(3) of the OCS Lands Act, as amended by section 388 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) (43 U.S.C. 1337(p)(3)), and the implementing regulations at 30 CFR part 585.231(b). Subsection 8(p)(3) of the OCS Lands Act requires that OCS renewable energy leases, easements, and rights-of-way (ROWs) be issued ``on a competitive basis unless the Secretary determines after public notice of a proposed lease, easement, or right-of-way that there is no competitive interest.'' This request for interest provides such public notice for the proposed lease area requested by Statoil NA and invites the submission of indications of competitive interest. BOEM will consider the responses to this public notice to determine whether competitive interest exists for the area requested by Statoil NA, as required by 43 U.S.C. 1337(p)(3). Parties wishing to obtain a lease for the area requested by Statoil NA should submit detailed and specific information as described in the section entitled ``Required Indication of Interest Information.'' This announcement also requests that interested and affected parties comment and provide information about site conditions and multiple uses within the area identified in this notice that would be relevant to the proposed project or its impacts. BOEM separately published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) concurrently with this request for interest. The NOI starts the scoping process for the EIS under 40 CFR 1501.7, and solicits information regarding important environmental issues, alternatives, and mitigation that should be considered in the EIS. A detailed description of the proposed lease area can be found in the section of this notice entitled ``Description of the Area.''

This notice provides BOEM's determination of no competitive interest (DNCI) for the area requested by the Deepwater Wind Block Island Transmission System, LLC, application for a Right-of-Way (ROW) grant for renewable energy purposes on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of Rhode Island as described in the May 23, 2012, Notice of Proposed Grant Area and Request for Competitive Interest (RFCI) in the Area of the Deepwater Wind Block Island Transmission System (BITS) Proposal (77 FR 30551).