oceanpolicy.com

In furtherance of the Biden administration’s “America the Beautiful” initiative to conserve at least 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030, NOAA has announced that it will hold two public listening sessions to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to learn about the initiative and provide input on how the agency should “use existing legal authorities to conserve and [...]

NOAA’s National Ocean Service today announced that it is extending the comment period through Monday, Nov. 22 on its draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (appendices accessible here) analyzing the potential impacts associated with NOAA’s recurring data collection projects to characterize submerged features in U.S. rivers and state and federal waters over the next six years. While the original comment period was [...]

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today announced the availability of a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the construction and operation plan submitted by South Fork Wind, LLC for its proposed wind farm and export cable project offshore Rhode Island. The Final EIS’ proposed action is to approve the construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of [...]

President Biden today nominated Jainey Bavishi to serve as Assistant Sec. of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. Bavishi is currently Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency, and previously served as Associate Dir. For Climate Preparedness at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as NOAA Director of External Affairs and Senior [...]

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory today met with U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), California Energy Commissioner Karen Douglas, and tribal and community leaders to talk about wind energy opportunities off California and took a tour of the Port of Humboldt Bay.  Meeting topics included needs of California’s offshore wind industry, planned [...]

The White House today announced the establishment and inaugural meeting of the 25-member  “America the Beautiful Interagency Working Group.”  Co-chaired by Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack, and Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo, the group was created to coordinate federal efforts to implement the Biden administration’s initiative to conserve and restore at [...]

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service today announced its issuance of a final rule effective Wednesday, Sept. 1 revising critical habitat for the Southern Resident killer whale distinct population segment by designating six additional coastal critical habitat areas along the U.S. West Coast.  The areas include 15,910 square miles of waters between the 20-ft. and 656.2-ft. depth contours from [...]

The White House announced today that it held a virtual convening meeting of the White House Coastal Resilience Interagency Working Group that was led by Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, and Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy David Hayes. Mallory addressed the role of coastal communities in mitigating climate change and [...]

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service today highlighted a recent study finding an increased presence of North Atlantic rights whales in wind energy areas off Southern New England and noted the importance of engaging stakeholders to minimize potential impacts on right whales and other protected species. Northeast Fisheries Science Center whale aerial survey team lead and study co-author [...]

The Coast Guard today announced that it is seeking comments by Tuesday, Jan. 25 on its Port Access Route Study to evaluate safe access routes for vessel traffic movements to and from West Coast ports and places and whether a Shipping Safety Fairway and/or routing measures should be established, adjusted, or modified.  The announcement noted that study recommendations [...]