US Interior Department Finalizes Offshore Renewable Energy Rule

US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) have finalized updated regulations for renewable energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.  

The final rule increases certainty and reduces the costs associated with the deployment of offshore wind projects by modernizing regulations, streamlining overly complex processes and removing unnecessary ones, clarifying ambiguous regulatory provisions, and enhancing compliance requirements.

Over the next 20 years, the final rule is expected to result in cost savings of roughly $1.9 billion to the offshore wind industry, savings that can be passed onto consumers and used to invest in additional job-creating clean energy projects.

During the Biden-Harris administration, the Department has approved the nation's first eight commercial-scale offshore wind projects, with a combined potential of over 10 gigawatts of clean, renewable energy able to power nearly 4 million homes.

The final rule includes a process to regularly update a five-year offshore wind leasing schedule.

Among its provisions, the final rule:

• Eliminates unnecessary requirements for the deployment of meteorological buoys

• Increases survey flexibility

• Improves the facility design, fabrication, and installation certification and verification process

• Establishes a public renewable energy leasing schedule

• Reforms BOEM’s renewable energy auction regulations

• Tailors financial assurance requirements and instruments

• Clarifies safety management system regulations

• Clarifies and strengthens oversight of critical safety systems and equipment.