TELECONFERENCE: UPDATES ON CORPS AND BOEMRE PROPOSALS TO STREAMLINE THE PERMITTING PROCESS FOR MHK AND OFFSHORE WIND
Earlier this month, both the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE, formerly, MMS) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) each issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) which have the potential to expedite the permitting process for MHK and offshore wind. BOEMRE’s proposed rule would cut out redundancy in the leasing process by eliminating the need for issuance of a second notice following receipt of an unsolicited request for a noncompetitive lease. The Corps’ proposed rule would create a new nationwide permit (NWP) for hydrokinetic or offshore wind pilot projects, with a half acre limit and 300 linear foot limit for streamed disturbances. A nationwide permit authorizes activities on a national level and activities that satisfy the requirements and conditions of the nationwide permit do not require individual processing or permits. Comments on BOEMRE’s NOPR are due March 17, 2011, and comments on the Corps’ NOPR are due April 18, 2011. OREC plans to submit comments in response to both of these proposals.
In light of the importance of these proposals to the marine renewables industry, OREC will conduct a briefing on the BOEMRE and Corps NOPRs. The briefing will be conducted by phone on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 at 2:30 pm ET. Dial in information is:
Phone Number: 7124320800 Access #: 241054
For your convenience, you can view each NOPR here:
BOEMR NOPR, 76 FR 8962 (Feb. 16, 2011) (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=2011-3515&packageId=FR-2011-02-16&acCode=FR)
Corps NOPR, 76 FR 9174 (Feb 16, 2011) (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=2011-3371&packageId=FR-2011-02-16&acCode=FR)
For this briefing, we are fortunate to have as a co-presenter, Julia Scarpino Wood of VanNess Feldman, one of our member companies. Julia has been counseling MHK developers for several years now and generously volunteered to brief members on the BOEMR NOPR, as well as other recent developments of note at BOEMR. Carolyn Elefant, counsel to OREC, will discuss the NWP process. We look forward to your participation.
OREC hopes to sponsor regular telephonic briefings and we invite requests from our members on topics that they would like to discuss.