Department of the Interior January 26, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published FR Doc. 2010- 26655 in the Federal Register on October 21, 2010, announcing availability of the draft revised Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) and Environmental Assessment (EA) for Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. The document identified a review period ending on January 15, 2011. Due to the holiday rush and delayed postal delivery of some materials for public involvement, we are concerned that many people will not be able to meet our deadline; therefore we are reopening the comment period until March 15, 2011.

BOEMRE provides public notice of a proposed lease area for commercial wind development on the OCS off Delaware and requests submission of indications of competitive interest. The proposed lease area was identified through the issuance of a Request for Interest (RFI) published in the Federal Register on April 26, 2010 (75 FR 21653). In response to that notice, BOEMRE received two nominations of proposed lease areas: One from Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC (Bluewater) and another from Occidental Development & Equities, LLC (Occidental). Subsequently, BOEMRE determined that Bluewater is qualified to hold an OCS commercial wind lease in accordance with the regulatory requirements at 30 CFR 285.106 and .107, and that Occidental did not provide the necessary documentation demonstrating that it was qualified to hold an OCS commercial lease at the time. As a result, Occidental's lease nomination was nullified and Bluewater's nomination remained as the only eligible expression of interest upon which to base the proposed lease area. In accordance with 30 CFR 285.232, by letter dated November 8, 2010, BOEMRE informed Bluewater that there appeared to be no competitive interest in the proposed lease area and requested that Bluewater inform BOEMRE if it wished to proceed with acquiring a lease. By correspondence dated December 3 and December 9, 2010, Bluewater Wind stated its intention to acquire a lease for the proposed lease area and provided documentation that it had submitted the required acquisition fee. This RFCI 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 285. Subsection 8(p)(3) of the OCS Lands Act requires that OCS renewable energy leases, easements, and rights-of-way 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 RFCI provides such public notice for the proposed lease area. Also, with this announcement BOEMRE invites all interested and affected parties to comment and provide information including information on existing uses and environmental issues and concernsthat will be useful in the environmental analysis of potential wind development activities in the proposed lease area. A detailed description of the proposed lease area is presented below.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Bureau of Indian Education (Bureau) is seeking comments on renewal of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the collection of information for Homeliving Programs and School Closure and Consolidation. The information collection is currently authorized by OMB Control Number 1076-0164, which expires on March 31, 2011.