Offshore Wind Energy Infrastructure: Minimize Shared Use Conflicts

Challenge: Traditional offshore vessel routes, port approaches, anchorage areas, and fisheries often conflict with planned offshore wind infrastructure, such as turbines and cable routes. The shift from long-range planning to active leasing, COP submission, and rapidly forthcoming installation has increased the need to carefully assess multiple overlapping uses of the near-coastal space and create a thoughtful roadmap for ultimate buildout of the entire northeast and mid-Atlantic OCS region.

Solution: Constructive engagement with offshore wind developers, fisheries industry representatives, navigation stakeholders, academia, policymakers, and others to facilitate an ongoing exchange of information and knowledge, to minimize conflict, and to foster optimal outcomes. Policy outreach to help refine the federal processes surrounding leasing, permitting, construction, and operation of offshore wind energy areas with an eye to the eventual buildout of the entire OCS and the need for a holistic strategy to allow various user groups/systems to interact safely and efficiently. Active and ongoing participation in USCG Ports Access Route Studies (PARS), USCG Offshore Routing Measures proposal as well as key engagement with USCG Ports and Waterways Safety Assessment (PAWSA), Capitol Hill Ocean Planning policy support efforts, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy meetings, etc.