The US Department of the Interior has announced the transfer of regulations governing offshore renewable energy activities from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
The transfer will include workplace safety and environmental compliance, evaluating and overseeing facility design, fabrication, installation, safety management systems and oil spill response plans, BOEM said.
BSEE’s will also be responsible for enforcing operational safety through inspections, incident reporting, and investigations; enforcing compliance, including safety and environmental compliance, with all applicable laws, regulations, leases, grants, and approved plans through notices of noncompliance, cessation orders, civil penalties, and other appropriate means.
In addition, it will oversee decommissioning activities.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Laura Daniel-Davis said: “Over the past several months, BOEM and BSEE have taken steps to ensure a seamless transition of functions related to safety and environmental protections for the offshore renewable energy program.
“This rule advances regulatory clarity and transparency for the offshore wind industry.
“It allows the bureaus to focus on ensuring that future clean energy development and operations continue to occur in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.”
In 2011, the Department formally established BOEM and BSEE as new bureaus to carry out its offshore energy management, safety and environmental oversight missions.
The establishment of BOEM and BSEE marked the culmination of an effort to reorganise the former Minerals Management Service following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
As part of that reorganization, oversight of offshore renewable energy, then an emerging industry, was assigned to BOEM.
This latest action recognises that the scopes of the bureaus’ roles and responsibilities have matured over the last decade and supports the Department’s commitment to independent regulatory oversight and enforcement in the renewable energy programme, BOEM said.
The rulemaking does not make substantive changes to current regulatory requirements, nor does it impose additional regulatory burdens.
BOEM will remain responsible for determining areas suitable for siting offshore wind energy facilities and issuing leases, easements and rights-of-way for activities that produce or support the production, transportation, or transmission of offshore energy or energy resources.
It will still be the agency that reviews and approves construction and operations plans, site assessment plans, and general activities plans, required for authorizing offshore renewable energy development.
BOEM will also conduct analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental studies and incorporate mitigation measures into plan approvals to avoid or minimise harm to the marine, coastal, or human environments.
A joint notice to lessees outlines the transfer of responsibilities with information for submitting information to each bureau. The final rule will publish in the Federal Register in the coming days.