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Public Input Requested on Potential Impacts to Historic Priorities: 

Commercial Wind Lease Issuance and Site Characterization Activities 

on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf 

October 27, 2011 

On November 23, 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the “Smart from the 

Start” Atlantic wind energy initiative to accelerate the responsible development of wind energy 

on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This initiative calls for the identification of areas 

of the Atlantic OCS that appear most suitable for commercial wind energy activities, and the 

opening of these areas for leasing and detailed site assessment activities. 

On August 18, 2011, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) launched the first phase 

of this initiative offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts through the publication of a Notice of 

Intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (76 FR 51391) and a Call for Information and 

Nominations (76 FR 51383). These notices can be found at: http://www.boem.gov/RenewableEnergy-Program/State-Activities/Rhode-Island.aspx. The Call Area is located within the Area of 

Mutual Interest (AMI) as described by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the 

Governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and has been further delineated through extensive 

consultation with other Federal agencies and BOEM’s Intergovernmental Renewable Energy 

Task Forces. See Figure 1. 

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470f), and the act’s 

implementing regulations (36 CFR 800), require federal agencies to consider the effects of their 

actions on historic properties and afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a 

reasonable opportunity to comment. BOEM is currently conducting Section 106 review for the 

issuing of leases and approving site assessment activities in the Call Area. As part of this 

Section 106 review, BOEM has initiated the consultation process with state historic preservation 

officers, Tribal officials and others. BOEM is now reaching out to the general public for 

comment regarding the identification of historic properties or potential effects to historic 

properties. This information will allow BOEM to consider and document historic preservation 

concerns early in the Section 106 process and allow the agency to consider the views of the 

public in the decision-making process. 

Specifically, BOEM has determined that the following activities in the Call Area constitute an 

undertaking subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act: 

(1) Lease issuance (including reasonably foreseeable consequences associated with 

shallow hazards, geological, geotechnical, and archaeological resource surveys); and, 

(2) Approval of a Site Assessment Plan (including reasonably foreseeable 

consequences associated with the installation and operation of a meteorological tower 

and/or meteorological buoys). 

Please note that any leases that may be issued will not authorize construction or operations of 

commercial wind energy projects; specific proposed projects will undergo appropriate 
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environmental review and analysis, and a separate Section 106 review, with additional 

opportunities for public comment. 

Comments on the proposed undertaking as it pertains to historic properties should be submitted 

to BOEM by November 10, 2011. Written comments may also be delivered by hand or by mail, 

enclosed in an envelope labeled “MA-RI AMI Section 106 Consultation” to Program Manager, 

Office of Renewable Energy (HM 1328), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 381 Elden 

Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170–4817. 

Figure 1