Us Department Of The Interior News

The United States and French energy major TotalEnergies said on Monday they would redirect nearly $1 billion from offshore wind leases to U.S. oil and natural gas production.The agreement marks a new strategy in the Trump administration's wide-ranging effort to stymie development of U.S. offshore wind projects, which President Donald Trump has said he finds ugly, costly and inefficient.His administration has moved to increase domestic fossil fuel production and scrap policies…

British energy major BP has received approval from the Trump administration to advance its Kaskida project in the Gulf of Mexico, a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement late on Friday.The $5 billion investment would unlock 10 billion barrels of resources that BP has discovered in the Paleogene fields of the U.S. Gulf, the spokesperson said.The U.S. Department of the Interior's approval of Kaskida follows a year-long review of the company's development plan…

Two of San Diego Bay’s most cherished working vessels have earned national recognition. The Silvergate (built in 1940) and the Cabrillo have been officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Both vessels are owned and operated by Flagship Cruises & Events, San Diego’s oldest family-owned maritime fleet.This designation acknowledges the cultural, architectural, and maritime significance of the vessels, which are among San Diego’s last remaining historic ferries still operating on the water.

The underlying lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s December 22, 2025 suspension order will continue to proceed.Empire Wind will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.Empire Wind is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to deliver a critical new…

Empire Offshore Wind LLC (Empire) filed a civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today, January 2, 2026, challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s order directing a suspension to the Empire Wind project. As part of that case, Empire plans to seek a preliminary injunction and allow construction to continue while the litigation proceeds. While Empire continues to work closely with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the other relevant authorities to find a prompt resolution to the matter…

On Friday, January 2, 2026, Orsted said  it was challenging the U.S. government's suspension of the lease for its Revolution Wind joint venture and would seek a court injunction against the decision to halt its $5 billion offshore wind project.The Trump administration suspended leases on December 22 for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction off the U.S. East Coast over what it called national security concerns, sending shares of offshore wind companies…

Equinor said it is complying with a stop-work order issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which ordered the suspension of offshore construction activities on the Empire Wind project citing national security concerns.Empire Offshore Wind LLC, the project company, received the notice on December 22 and has begun safely suspending all ongoing work on the U.S. outer continental shelf, while retaining the ability to carry out emergency actions and measures necessary to protect health…

The Trump administration suspended leases on Monday for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction off the U.S. East Coast over what it called national security concerns, sending shares of offshore wind companies plunging.The suspension was the latest blow for offshore wind developers that have faced repeated disruptions to their multi-billion-dollar projects under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he finds wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient. State officials, offshore wind companies, and industry trade groups slammed the move as unjustified.The U.S.

As oil exploration and production goes, so goes the market for Offshore Service Vessels (OSVs) and Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs). Throughout 2025, the prices of oil- which drives exploration and production (E & P), have softened, moving down towards $60/barrel amidst economic uncertainty and a wider than anticipated opening of the taps by major oil producers. In the past year, the Baker Hughes overall count of U.S. rigs working has declined. September 2025’s U.S. Rig count of…

The US Department of the Interior has announced the publication of a Request for Information and Interest to explore the potential for seabed mineral leasing offshore American Samoa.The Request for Information, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register in the coming days, will launch a 30-day public comment period and mark the first formal step toward what could be the first mineral lease sale in federal waters in over 30 years.The RFI, issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)…

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said she would fight the federal decision to halt all construction for the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project made by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).The U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered a halt to construction on Equinor's Empire Wind project off the coast of New York, citing inadequate environmental analysis conducted by the Biden Information.Empire Wind was approved by the Biden administration in November of 2023 and began construction in 2024.At the end of December 2025…

In the last decade, changing U.S. Administrations have become increasingly tumultuous, as the swings in priorities and directives have a real, material impact on business. Read on for insights on the current and future of U.S. Offshore Wind.In the weeks preceding his late January inauguration, then President-elect Donald Trump referred to wind turbines (both onshore and offshore) as “garbage in a field” and described electric power produced through offshore wind as “…the most expensive energy ever…”In the same briefing…

The US Department of the Interior will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale off southern Oregon on October 15, 2024.The auction will be conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and could generate more than 3.1 gigawatts of renewable energy if fully developed, enough to power approximately one million homes.Lease Area P-OCS 0566 (Coos Bay) consists of 61,203 acres and is approximately 32 miles from shore. Lease Area P-OCS 0567 (Brookings) consists of 133,792 acres…

The US Department of the Interior has approved the Atlantic Shores South offshore wind energy project – the nation’s ninth commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project approved under President Biden’s leadership.The Atlantic Shores South wind project consists of two wind energy facilities — Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project 1 and 2 — and associated export cables, which are expected to generate up to 2,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power close to one million homes with clean renewable energy.The project is approximately 8.7 miles offshore New Jersey at its closest point.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Friday announced its approval of Ørsted’s construction and operations plan (COP) for the Sunrise Wind project, marking the final approval needed from the federal agency to move the project toward the start of offshore construction.New York’s largest offshore wind project, the 924 MW Sunrise Wind project will to be located south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and east of Block Island, R.I.The COP approval outlines the project’s one nautical mile wind turbine spacing…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday finalized two wind energy areas (WEAs) in the offshore Oregon region, aligning with government goals to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change.The two WEAs, Coos Bay WEA and Brookings WEA, are spread across 195,012 acres (78,919 hectares) and "the department continues to take steps to evolve its approach to offshore wind to drive towards union-built projects and a domestic-based supply chain," said the agency, which is part of the U.S.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday approved the Empire Wind offshore project, owned by Equinor and BP, the sixth commercial-scale wind farm to be greenlit under President Joe Biden's administration.Empire Wind is among several offshore wind projects facing construction and financing cost blowouts that the troubled industry says would not be covered by existing power sales contracts, but it could be helped by a new auction planned by New York state.Along with Danish counterpart Orsted, Equinor and BP have taken a combined $5 billion of writedowns on U.S.

A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial…

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday approved the construction of a 704-megawatt (MW) wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, the fourth major offshore wind project the agency has greenlit as the Biden administration tries to meet a goal of bringing 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power online by 2030.The Revolution Wind project about 15 nautical miles southeast of Point Judith, R.I. is being developed by Eversource and Ørsted as Rhode Island and Connecticut's first utility-scale offshore wind farm…

German energy company RWE announced it has hired Amanda Lefton as Vice President of Offshore Development, U.S. East.Lefton was previously Director of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) during a period of sigificant growth for the U.S. offshore wind industry under direction from the Biden Administration. Lefton resigned from here position at BOEM effective January 19, 2023.RWE is one of the world's largest producers of offshore wind energy, with projects in Asia, Europe and the United States.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said Monday that President Biden would take action to designate about 2.8 million acres in the Arctic Ocean nearshore the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) as indefinitely off-limits for future oil and gas leasing. This action will complete protections for the entire Beaufort Sea Planning Area, building upon President Obama’s 2016 withdrawal under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect the Chukchi Sea Planning Area and the majority of the Beaufort Sea…

Most of the media coverage of offshore wind development in the United States focuses on the leases of the offshore areas where the wind turbines will be located. However, equally important is the landside dimension of these projects, including the manufacture, installation, maintenance and operation of the turbines. Several awards made in the last two rounds of funding under the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) show how offshore wind now offers an additional direction of port development for which funding is available.

The U.S. Department of the Interior will reform its regulations for the development of wind energy facilities on the country's outer continental shelf to help meet crucial climate goals, it said in a statement on Thursday.The proposed rule changes would save developers a projected $1 billion over a 20-year period by streamlining burdensome processes, clarifying ambiguous provisions, and lowering compliance costs, the statement said. "Updating these regulations will facilitate the safe and efficient development of offshore wind energy resources…