The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday it will issue a proposed rule to update and modernize offshore wind regulations, intending to save developers $1 billion in deployment costs over 20 years.
The proposed rule will have eight major components, including eliminating requirements to use meteorological buoys, establishing a public Renewable Energy Leasing Schedule and reforming the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s renewable energy auction regulations.
BOEM has hosted 11 offshore wind auctions and signed 27 leases over the last 13 years when the regulations were crafted, and since the Biden administration took office two years ago, has approved the first two commercial-scale offshore wind farms in the U.S.
Interior said as officials executed the projects, they saw opportunities to streamline the process and speed development.
The department said it aims to “modernize regulations, streamline overly complex and burdensome processes, clarify ambiguous provisions and enhance compliance provisions in order to decrease costs and uncertainty associated with the deployment of offshore wind facilities.”
Other components of the rule are increases in survey flexibility, clarifications of safety management system regulations and improvements to the project design and installation verification process.
The department posted BOEM’s notice of proposed rulemaking ahead of its publication in the Federal Register in the coming days and will provide a 60-day comment period.
Josh Kaplowitz, the American Clean Power Association’s vice president of offshore wind, said in a release, “BOEM’s proposed rule is a major step in the right direction. Updating and enhancing BOEM’s rule-making process is critical to ensure the offshore wind industry maintains momentum in the permitting and deployment of clean energy.”
