A federal court has thrown out key Endangered Species Act (ESA) analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which will be vacated as of Dec. 20, 2024. The United States District Court for the District of...more
Welcome to Dorsey’s Energy Law: Month in Review. We provide this update to our clients to identify significant developments in the previous month. ...more
New and additional bonding requirements for certain companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) will take effect in June as a result of a recent rulemaking. These new requirements will be phased in over a...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Sept. 29, 2023, announced its long-awaited Five-Year Offshore Leasing Plan as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (the Plan)....more
Over the past year, a number of new interpretations related to the application of the coastwise laws to the developing offshore wind industry in the United States have clarified how construction and operation of offshore wind...more
The United States Department of the Interior published the final well control rule on Aug. 22 from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). The rule clarifies blowout preventer (BOP) system regulations and...more
The Opportune 2023 Study has been conducted to independently calculate the OCS plugging and abandonment (P&A) liability, assess the risk such liability poses to the U.S. taxpayer, and perform a cost-benefit analysis of how...more
The Biden administration has proposed changes regarding when oil, gas, and sulfur lessees and certain other parties operating in the offshore Outer Continental Shelf must post additional bonds or other “supplemental financial...more
On June 29, 2023, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would substantially revise the financial assurance requirements applicable to offshore oil...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior, through its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), published a proposed rule on June 29, 2023, to significantly modify how the agency assesses the offshore oil and gas industry's...more
California has tremendous offshore wind resources and ambitious offshore power goals, but the uncertain rules and regimes for development have delayed implementation of projects. The California Energy Commission (CEC)...more
A new proposal aims to streamline the process for permitting and developing offshore renewable energy projects and reduce costs to developers. On January 30, 2023, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a...more
The California coast is home to some of the best offshore wind resources in the country. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that California's coast has a resource potential of 201,000 megawatts (MW) of...more
Existing safety and environmental oversight and enforcement regulations governing Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) renewable energy activities were moved from the purview of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to that...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed rule to update regulations for the development of offshore wind energy resources, found at 30 C.F.R. Part 585.1 The...more
On January 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) announced a proposed rule (the “Modernization Rule”) to modernize its regulations for renewable energy development on the...more
California’s first upcoming offshore wind lease sale, scheduled for December 6, 2022, is the next major step forward for clean energy in the Golden State. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the State of...more
After the landmark prices received for eight offshore wind leases in the New York Bight, and with great anticipation for the upcoming December 6, 2022, lease auction for the Humboldt and Morro Bay Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) off...more
On October 21, 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) published a Final Sale Notice (“FSN”) for commercial leasing for wind power on California’s Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”). Specifically, the FSN...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (the Act), which passed the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7, 2022, requires that previously announced offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska be held during the next two years....more
The Inflation Reduction Act spending bill, reflecting compromise between Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, contains several measures to bolster offshore wind and other renewable energy development in the...more
In a ruling having major implications for the offshore wind industry, the Federal District Court of Massachusetts held in May 2022 that patent law applies to wind turbines attached to the seabed within 200 nautical miles of...more
On July 1, 2022,1 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) released its Proposed Program for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (“DOI”) National Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”) Oil and Gas Leasing Program (“National...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior on July 1, 2022, released its long-awaited update on the next Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) five-year proposed offshore drilling program (Program), a day after the previous program expired....more
The proposal would auction off almost 375,000 acres of the Outer Continental Shelf offshore California for wind energy development. Key Points: ..The two areas proposed for leasing have the potential to provide more...more