On 25 May 2021, the White House and the State of California announced a plan to unlock more than 600 square miles of federal waters off the California coast for commercial scale wind energy development, with 4.6 gigawatts of generation potential. The announcement is a welcome step forward in an ongoing effort by federal, state, and local stakeholders to kickstart the offshore wind industry in the West Coast’s deep ocean shelf. Although California is still years away from operational projects, Tuesday’s breakthrough signals the resolution of resource conflicts with the Department of Defense that [...]

On 7 May 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a proposed rule that would revoke the Trump administration’s rule that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) does not apply to the incidental take of protected migratory birds. If finalized, the proposed rule would represent a return to pre-Trump years, when courts disagreed about the scope of the MBTA and USFWS exercised broad discretion whether to seek civil or criminal penalties against parties whose activities unintentionally harmed or killed migratory birds. The proposed rule may ultimately clear the way for an MBTA [...]

In March 2021, the White House announced an ambitious federal initiative to expand offshore wind energy development in the United States. The plan targets 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 and calls on the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to authorize at least sixteen offshore wind projects over the next four years to meet that goal. The initiative’s short-term objectives are focused on the East Coast, where permitting is already afoot, but plans for the coast of California are underway as well. 30 Gigawatts by [...]

As expected, the Biden administration will invoke the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to delay the effective date of the Trump administration’s proposal to exempt incidental take from liability under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The Trump administration rule would have taken effect on 8 February 2021; the Biden administration delay will extend the effective date until 8 March 2021. The new Federal Register notice, to be published on 9 February 2021, will request further public comments to inform the Biden administration’s review of the rule while at the same time clearly signaling its [...]

On 14 January 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a proposal intended to make it easier to develop renewable energy projects on BLM-administered lands in Southern California. The renewable energy industry should take the time to show the Biden administration why this is one Trump-era regulatory shift that should be carried forward if climate change reduction is indeed a priority. The proposal seeks in part to address long-standing renewable energy industry concerns that BLM took far too many acres off the table when it adopted the 10-million-acre Desert Renewable Conservation Plan (DRECP) [...]