U.S. Interior Department Finalizes Rule to Streamline & Modernize Offshore Renewable Energy Development [Video]

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WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today 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 (OCS).

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. BOEM and BSEE have complementary obligations in implementing the offshore wind program.

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.

“I am so proud of the work that the Interior Department is doing …