President Barack Obama announced on April 22, 2009 that the U.S. Interior Department (USDOI) had completed the Final Renewable Energy Framework or rulemaking process (i.e., regulations) to govern management of the Renewable Energy Program for the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) within USDOI is responsible for overseeing the implementation of this framework. It establishes a program to grant leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of offshore wind generating facilities on the OCS, as well as other forms of renewable energy such as wave, current, and solar.
To date, five commercial wind energy leases have been issued for areas on the U.S. OCS and several other areas are at various stages in the process leading to leasing. The leases issued for two states in particular — Delaware and Virginia — help serve as case studies for how the U.S. regulatory process for ocean wind leasing operates. This paper will discuss the process by which these leases were issued and next steps, which will illustrate the implementation and best practices of the U.S. regulatory process for offshore wind leasing.
