North American Windpower: Massachusetts Officials To Host Meetings On Offshore Wind Energy Development Process

Massachusetts Officials To Host Meetings On Offshore Wind Energy Development Process

by NAW Staff on Monday 12 November 2012

This week, officials at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) will host the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for a series of public meetings on the offshore wind power development process.

The goals of the meetings are to provide an overview of the environmental assessment (EA) for the Massachusetts offshore wind energy area (WEA), receive public comment, and discuss the next steps in the environmental and leasing process.

The EA, which was released by BOEM on Oct. 31, analyzes the potential environmental effects associated with renewable energy leasing and data gathering in the designated WEA in federal waters off the coast of Massachusetts. The session will include presentations from BOEM, followed by a public comment period.

In addition, the EEA will host meetings of its fisheries and habitat working groups on offshore renewable energy in New Bedford and Falmouth, Mass., respectively. Both working groups were formed by EEA to inform the federal offshore wind development process.

More information on the meetings can be found here.

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