Saturday, February 8, 2025

Department Of The Interior News

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DOI Implements GoM Name Change

As directed by the President, the US Department of Interior (DOI) has announced that Gulf of Mexico (GoM) will officially be known as the Gulf of America.The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect the change, effective immediately for federal use.  “The Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the most vital assets in the Nation’s history and economy. Spanning over 1,700 miles of U.S. coastline

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Underwater Power Grids Could Revolutionize How the US East Coast Gets Its Electricity

placed “points of interconnection.” This way, electricity produced by an offshore wind farm would be transmitted to where it is most needed, up and down the East Coast.Several areas along the Atlantic continental shelf have been leased for wind power development. (Image: U.S. Department of the Interior, 2024)Even better, electricity generated onshore could also be transmitted through these shared lines to move energy to where it is needed. This could improve the resilience of power grids and reduce the need for new transmission lines over land, which have been notoriously difficult to

Source: TDI-Brooks

TDI-Brooks Delivers Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II Report

TDI-Brooks has announced that the report for Contract M17PC00009, issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is available online.The report is titled “Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II: Continued Atlantic Research and Exploration in Deepwater Ecosystems with Focus on Coral, Canyon and Seep Communities.” It is the final deliverable of the BOEM Contract called Deep SEARCH, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey.Initially, the study was a five-year, collaborative scientific research program focused on the outer continental shelf

Image courtesy TDI-Brooks/BOEM

TDI-Brooks Finalizes Report for Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II

TDI-Brooks International completed the final report for Contract M17PC00009, issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management [BOEM]), titled “Deepwater Atlantic Habitats II: Continued Atlantic Research and Exploration in Deepwater Ecosystems with Focus on Coral, Canyon and Seep Communities.” This report is the final deliverable of the BOEM contract called Deep SEARCH, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey. Initially, the study was a five-year, collaborative scientific research program focused on the outer continental shelf between Virginia

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Baker to Head BOEM's Office of Renewable Energy Programs

The United States' Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday announced Karen J. Baker will lead its Office of Renewable Energy Programs (OREP).BOEM, an agency within the Department of the Interior, manages U.S. offshore energy resources.As Chief of BOEM's OREP, Baker will oversee the development of renewable energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf through planning, stakeholder engagement, environmental analysis and technical review.“We’re very excited to add Ms. Baker to our team at such a pivotal time in offshore wind development,” said BOEM Director Amanda

A crane replaces a bridge over the Ohmsett Oil Spill Response & Renewable Energy Test facility during refurbishment in spring 2022. (Photo: BSEE)

US Oil Spill Testing, Response Facility Gets Major Upgrade

Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, has now reopened after undergoing significant refurbishment over the past eight months as part of BSEE’s ongoing maintenance plan. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, the facility was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today, it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing and training using live oil. Because Ohmsett is a wave tank, it has also been used to test renewable energy technologies such as marine

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U.S. Offshore Wind Forecast: 45 Projects, $136B CapEx

capacity permitting by the month and year when BOEM expects all permitting to be complete. Most project capacity will be fully commissioned three to four years after final permitting.Exhibit 2 U.S. Offshore Wind Capacity by BOEM Permitting Target Date Source: Intelatus Global PartnersThe Department of the Interior has confirmed that BOEM will potentially hold up to seven new offshore lease sales by 2025. The first auction consists of six New York Bight leases. Other leasing will be held for sites in the North and South Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. This sets a clear foundation for

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Favorable Offshore Winds Blowing from the Biden Administration

, and expected to produce 800 MW of offshore wind and provide clean energy to 400,000 homes and businesses once it is operational in 2023. Vineyard Wind has committed to using the Port of New Bedford, MA, as its staging area.On March 8, 2021, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the Department of the Interior issued the final EIS for Vineyard Wind, endorsing the preferred alternative of an east-west, north-south configuration of no more than 84 wind turbines with one nautical mile spacing between the wind platforms, which is consistent with the Coast Guard’s recommendations. (See Vineyard

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US Targets 30GW of Offshore Wind by 2030, 110GW by 2050

.”Lewis, author of the recently released “2021, the Year when Offshore Wind Takes Off in the United States”, clarified that the White House Fact Sheet discusses deployment of 30GW by 2030. “This does not actually mean 30GW will be installed by 2030. Rather, the Department of the Interior (DOI) is to review 16 Construction and Operations Plans (COP) by 2025, addressing developer concerns around the federal review timetable. This equates to 19GW which can be readily forecast to be installed by 2030,” Lewis explained. “This is similar to the 9GW of projects that

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