Fast on the heels of a small but successful sale of two leases off Delaware and Virginia, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued a Call for Information (“Call”) to kick off another round of leasing in the...more
On August 14, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held its long-awaited Central Atlantic lease sale, auctioning leases off Delaware and Virginia to Norwegian energy giant Equinor and utility Dominion Energy...more
The one-two punch of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (“Loper Bright”) and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Corner Post”) this past week spun...more
On April 30, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Treasury Department (“Treasury”) published Final Treasury Regulations (T.D. 9993) (the “Final Regulations”) providing guidance relating to the election...more
On May 20, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule listing the dunes sagebrush lizard (DSL) as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The DSL is a small, spiny lizard...more
Introduction On May 1, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published its Final Rule implementing revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”)—better known as Phase 2 (the “Final Rule”)....more
If the offshore wind industry is going to come close to meeting the Biden Administration’s goal of deploying 15 GW for floating wind by 2035, it’s going to require a lot of turbines spinning in the Gulf of Maine and off a...more
Last week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) jointly finalized a long-awaited overhaul of their offshore wind leasing and permitting regulations, which...more
UPDATE:
A recent lawsuit against Dominion Energy’s approved Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project off the coast of Virginia underscores our prediction in our March 8 QuickStudy that plaintiffs will craft their...more
On April 5, 2024, The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (“USFWS”) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) (collectively, the “Services”) finalized a series of rules reversing certain revisions to the Services’...more
On March 22, 2024, the IRS issued additional guidance (Notice 2024-30) on the energy communities provision of the Inflation Reduction Act. This latest guidance is narrowly focused on two topics: (1) expanding the “hook” by...more
In the world of offshore wind, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (“BOEM”) Gulf of Mexico region is known for its independent streak. The proposed sale notice (PSN) for its second Gulf of Mexico wind sale in two years...more
Of the four lease sales the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) expects to hold this year, the Gulf of Maine is shaping up to be the Big Dance. With some of the strongest winds on the East Coast, the Gulf of Maine is...more
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: a group of local residents or businesses opposes a renewable energy project for aesthetic, economic, or ideological reasons. But when filing lawsuits challenging project approvals,...more
As interest and investment in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects grows, spurred by the availability of tax credits and investor interest in the energy transition, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)...more
On February 12, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS” or “Service”) issued a long-awaited final rule revising its eagle permit program under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 668-668d) (“BGEPA”)....more
On February 13, 2024, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated two final Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) for the development of floating offshore wind energy projects off the southern coast of Oregon. This...more
On November 22, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Treasury Department (“Treasury”) published Proposed Treasury Regulations (REG-132569-17) (the “Proposed Regulations”) providing long-awaited guidance and...more
On November 17, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Treasury Department (“Treasury”) issued Proposed Treasury Regulations (REG-132569-17) (the “Proposed Regulations”) providing guidance and amending...more
Last week, at the American Clean Power Association’s Offshore WINDPOWER Conference, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced that Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have entered into a first-of-its-kind,...more
On July 3, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“the Service”) proposed to list the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) (“DSL”), a species found only in southeastern New Mexico and west Texas, as an endangered...more
On June 16, 2023, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously that the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”), when faced with insufficient data, cannot rely on...more
The definition of the term “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) in the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), and the resulting scope of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and U.S. Army Corps of...more
The Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) are steadily churning out guidance on the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (the “IRA”) expanded tax credits for renewable and...more
In an ongoing series related to the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”), we have been looking at key provisions of the IRA with the potential to benefit the U.S. offshore wind industry. On April 5, 2023, the IRS issued Notice...more