Ryan Zinke, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), has announced the proposed lease sale for two additional areas offshore Massachusetts for commercial wind energy leasing.
Totaling nearly 390,000 acres, Lease OCS-A 0502 consists of 248,015 acres, and Lease OCS-A 0503 consists of 140,554 acres.
A “Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for Commercial Leasing for Wind Power on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore Massachusetts” will be published in the Federal Register on April 11. It will include a 60-day public comment period.
According to the DOI, the document provides detailed information concerning the area available for leasing, the proposed lease provisions and conditions, auction details (e.g., criteria for evaluating competing bids and award procedures), and lease execution. Comments received electronically or postmarked by the end of the public comment period will be made available to the public and considered before the publication of the final sale notice, which will announce the time and date of the lease sale.
More information on how to submit comments can be found here.
In addition, the PSN requests the following from potential bidders: (1) affirmation of continued interest from any prospective bidders already qualified for commercial wind energy development offshore Massachusetts, and (2) submission of the required qualification materials from any prospective bidders that BOEM has not previously qualified for a Massachusetts lease sale.
BOEM will host a public seminar to describe the auction format, explain the auction rules and demonstrate the auction process through examples. The time, venue and related materials for the seminar will be posted online here.
