The Office of Advocacy will host a roundtable to discuss the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) request for information to update its guidance on mitigating the impacts of offshore wind development on fisheries. BOEM in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (hereinafter Services) intends to develop guidance to mitigate certain impacts of offshore wind projects on fisheries. The Services are looking for comments specifically regarding communication and outreach, project siting, safety, environmental monitoring, and financial compensation. The Services will also accept comments on other topics. The roundtable will take place on Tuesday December 14, 2021 from 2-3:30 p.m. (ET). Roundtable participation details will be provided upon receipt of RSVP. RSVPs should be sent to Prianka.Sharma@sba.gov. The purpose of the roundtable will be to gather specific small entity input and presentations on the request for information. Parties interested in making oral presentations during the roundtable should indicate this in their RSVP.
Agenda
2:00 p.m. – 2:05 p.m. Introductory Remarks
Prianka Sharma, Assistant Chief Counsel, Office of Advocacy
Elisabeth Newcomb, Regulatory Economist, Office of Advocacy
2:05 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Input from Interested Small Entity Stakeholders
Presentations made during this roundtable will not substitute for written comments directly from interested parties to BOEM. Advocacy strongly encourages those entities specifically interested in this rulemaking to provide both oral presentations during the roundtable, and written comments to the rulemaking docket.
Roundtable meetings are open to all interested persons, with the exception of the press, in order to facilitate open and frank discussion about the impacts of Federal regulatory activities on small entities. Agendas and presentations are available to all, including the press. Anyone who wants to receive roundtable agendas or presentations, or to be included in the distribution list, should forward such requests to prianka.sharma@sba.gov. The purpose of these Roundtable meetings is to exchange opinions, facts and information and to obtain the attendees’ individual views and opinions regarding small entity concerns. The meetings are not intended to achieve or communicate any consensus positions of the attendees.
Small Entity Natural Resources Roundtable
Issue for Discussion
November 16, 2021
Mitigation of Impacts of Offshore Wind Development on Fisheries
On November 22, 2021 the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a request for information to guide its development of agency guidance for mitigating the impacts of offshore wind development on fisheries. BOEM also announced a series of public listening sessions to gather information and feedback from interested parties. The meetings are scheduled to occur between December 1, 2021 and December 15, 2021.
Written comments are due by January 7, 2021.
- Read the Request for Information notice, submit comments, and register for the public meetings here.
- Advocacy contact: Prianka Sharma or at (202) 205-6938.