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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). Th is initiative calls for the identification of areas of the Atlantic OCS that appear most suitabl e for commercial wind energy activities, and the opening of these areas for leasing and de tailed 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 Ma ssachusetts through the publ ication of a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (76 FR 51391) and a Call for Information and Nominations (76 FR 51383). Thes e notices can be found at: http://www.boem.gov/RenewableEnergy-Program/State-Ac tivities/Rhode-Island.aspx . The Call Area is located within the Area of Mutual Interest (AMI) as de scribed by a Memorandum of Un derstanding (MOU) between the Governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and has been further delineated through extensive consultation with other Federal agencies a nd BOEM’s Intergovernmental Renewable Energy

Task Forces. See Figure 1.

Section 106 of the National Historic Preser vation Act (16 U.S.C. 470f), and the act’s implementing regulations (36 CFR 800), require fede ral agencies to consider the effects of their actions on historic properties and afford th e 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 act ivities in the Call Area. As part of this Section 106 review, BOEM has initiated the consu ltation 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 wi ll allow BOEM to consider a nd document historic preservation concerns early in the Section 106 process and a llow the agency to cons ider the views of the public in the decision-making process.

Specifically, BOEM has determined that the foll owing activities in the Call Area constitute an undertaking subject to Sec tion 106 of the National Hi storic 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 Pl an (including reasonably foreseeable consequences associated with the installa tion and operation of a meteorological tower and/or meteorological buoys).

Please note that any leases that may be issued will not authorize construc tion or operations of commercial wind energy projects; specific proposed projects w ill undergo appropriate2 environmental review and analysis, and a se parate Section 106 revi ew, with additional opportunities for public comment.

Comments on the proposed undertaking as it pertai ns 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