Safety Zone; Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm Project Area, Outer Continental Shelf, Lease OCS-A 0512, Offshore New York and New Jersey, Atlantic Ocean

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 147</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2024-0704]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA00</RIN> <SUBJECT>Safety Zone; Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm Project Area, Outer Continental Shelf, Lease OCS-A 0512, Offshore New York and New Jersey, Atlantic Ocean</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing 55 temporary safety zones around the construction of individual wind energy facilities during the development of the Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm project area. The area lies within Federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf, specifically in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Renewable Energy Lease Area OCS-A 0512, approximately 12 nautical miles south of Long Island, NY. This action protects life, property, and the environment during construction of each facility. When being enforced, only attending vessels and vessels with authorization are permitted to enter or remain in the temporary safety zones. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective without actual notice from April 11, 2025 through 11:59 p.m. on February 29, 2028. For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from 12:01 a.m. on March 10, 2025, until April 11, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> type USCG-2024-0704 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rulemaking, call or email Mr. Craig Lapiejko, Waterways Management, at Coast Guard First District, telephone (571) 607-6314, email <E T="03">craig.d.lapiejko@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">BOEM Bureau of Ocean Energy Management</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COP Construction and Operations Plan</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DD Degrees Decimal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EW1 Empire Wind 1</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">LNM Local Notice to Mariners</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">MSIB Marine Safety Information Bulletin</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NJ New Jersey</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NY New York</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NAD 83 North American Datum of 1983</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NM Nautical Mile</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OCS Outer Continental Shelf</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OSS Offshore Substation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">VHF Very High Frequency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">WTG Wind Turbine Generator</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The Energy Policy Act of 2005, Public Law 109-58, amended the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> by adding a new subsection 8(p) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to issue leases, easements, and rights-of-way in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for renewable energy development, including wind energy projects. The Secretary of the Interior delegated to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) the authority to decide whether to approve Construction and Operations Plans (COPs) for such projects. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  See p. 5 of the Record of Decision for the Empire Offshore Wind Project (EW 1 and EW2) Construction and Operations Plan (November 20, 2023). It is available at: <E T="03">https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/renewable-energy/state-activities/Empire%20Wind%20OCA-A%200512%20ROD%20signed.pdf.</E> </FTNT> Empire Offshore Wind LLC, an offshore wind farm developer, proposed to develop two clusters of offshore wind energy facilities, known as Empire Wind 1 (EW1) and Empire Wind 2, just outside of the Port of New York and New Jersey. On February 22, 2024, BOEM announced its approval of Empire Wind's COP, which authorizes the offshore construction and operation of the wind energy project, consisting of both clusters of facilities. That was the project's final approval from BOEM, following the agency's Record of Decision (ROD) approving the project. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  BOEM announced the availability of the ROD on November 28, 2023, at 88 FR 83146. </FTNT> Empire Offshore Wind notified the Coast Guard that they plan to begin construction of the facilities in the EW1 Wind Farm project area, which lies within Federal waters on the OCS. The construction, which may begin as early as March 2025, will occur in a portion of the BOEM Renewable Energy Lease Area OCS-A 0512. That lease area lies approximately 12 nautical miles (NM) offshore, south of Long Island, New York (NY), and 17 NM offshore east of Long Branch, New Jersey (NJ). On October 22, 2024, after determining that the establishment of safety zones was necessary to provide for the safety of life, property, and the environment during the anticipated construction of the structures, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) titled “Safety Zone; Empire Wind 1 Wind Farm Project Area, Outer Continental Shelf, Lease OCS-A 0512, Offshore New York and New Jersey, Atlantic Ocean” (89 FR 84316). There, we explained the basis for the NPRM and invited comments on our proposed regulatory action related to the establishment of safety zones around the construction of 54 Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) and one Offshore Sub Station (OSS) located in the EW1 project area. We received 42 written submissions during the comment period that ended November 21, 2024. Under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Delaying the effective date of this rule would be impracticable because action is needed to ensure public safety during construction by March 10, 2025. Construction of the wind energy facilities may begin by then, and the rule must in place by then in order to mitigate the potential safety hazards associated with construction. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this rule under the authority provided in 14 U.S.C. 544, 43 U.S.C. 1333, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Delegation No. 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4. Our regulations in 33 CFR part 147, which implement these authorities, permit the establishment of safety zones for non-mineral energy resource, permanent or temporary structures located on the OCS. As explained in 33 CFR 147.1, safety zones under part 147 may be established around OCS facilities being constructed, maintained, or operated on the OCS. Such safety zones may be established to promote the safety of life and property on the facilities, their appurtenances, and attending vessels, and on the adjacent waters within the safety zones. They may include provisions to protect the environment, such as measures to protect the living resources of the sea from harmful agents. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of Comments, Changes, and the Rule</HD> As noted above, the Coast Guard received 42 written submissions to our NPRM published October 22, 2024. The comments in these submissions were thoroughly considered and the First Coast Guard District Commander has determined that establishment of 55 temporary safety zones through rulemaking is warranted to ensure the safety of life, property, and the environment within a 500-meter radius of each of the 55 facilities during their construction. Two of the 42 submissions were supportive of the 55 temporary 500-meter safety zones. One submission pointed out a technical error in the proposed rule, and the remaining 39 were opposed to the rule as proposed. One of the two supportive submission stated the reasoning for their support to our proposed rule was to “reduce the risk for onsite workers.” The other supporter of our proposed rule stated their support was to ensure the safe execution of the project. The remaining 39 submissions opposed the proposed rule. These submissions communicated their opposition to wind farm construction in general and not necessarily to the creation of safety zones around this construction. As explained in the Background section, however, the Coast Guard does not have approval authority over the wind farm project, and this rule is not proposing to approve of the construction or operation of the project itself. Thus, comments on the merits of this wind farm project, or of wind farms in general, are outside the scope of this rulemaking. One commenter specifically disagreed with the Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation program Decision Support System document finding that our rule is not a piece of or connected to the larger action of offshore wind development generally and requested a more comprehensive assessment of how the U.S. Coast Guard will meet our regulatory obligations. The Coast Guard is not, however, the decision-maker responsible for approval of the project. If the commenter believes that BOEM did not adequately consider environmental impacts flowing from the need to address navigational concerns during construction as part of BOEM's approval of the project, the commenter should direct those concerns to BOEM. The Coast Guard's role in this project is simply to co ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 45k characters. 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