Department of Commerce August 21, 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS has received a request from Bay State Wind, LLC (Bay State Wind), for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to marine site characterization surveys off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Area OCS-A 0500 and the associated export cable route (ECR) area. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-time, 1-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in the Request for Public Comments section at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorization and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.

On July 29, 2024, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued its final judgment in Meihua Group International Trading (Hong Kong) Limited v. United States, Consol. Court no. 22-00069, sustaining the U.S. Department of Commerce's (Commerce) second remand results pertaining to the administrative review of the antidumping duty (AD) order on xanthan gum from the People's Republic of China covering the period of review (POR) July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020. Commerce is notifying the public that the CIT's final judgment is not in harmony with Commerce's final results of the administrative review, and that Commerce is amending the final results with respect to the dumping margins assigned to Meihua Group International Trading (Hong Kong) Limited/Langfang Meihua Biotechnology Co., Ltd./Xinjiang Meihua Amino Acid Co., Ltd (collectively, Meihua), Jianlong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (formerly, Inner Mongolia Jianlong Biochemical Co., Ltd) (Jianlong), and Deosen Biochemical (Ordos) Ltd.

NMFS received a request from Community Offshore Wind, LLC (COSW) for the renewal of their incidental harassment authorization (IHA) (hereinafter, the "initial IHA") to take marine mammals incidental to marine site characterization surveys in coastal waters off of New Jersey and New York in the New York Bight, specifically within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Area OCS-A 0539 (Lease Area) and associated Export Cable Route (ECR) survey area (ECR Area). Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, prior to issuing the initial IHA, NMFS requested comments on both the proposed IHA and the potential for renewing the initial authorization if certain requirements were satisfied. The renewal requirements have been satisfied, and NMFS is now providing an additional 15-day comment period to allow for any additional comments on the proposed renewal that were not previously provided during the initial 30-day comment period.