Maine

BOEM has received an unsolicited request for a commercial lease from Statoil North America Inc. (Statoil NA).

• Statoil North America’s Lease Request

BOEM has finished a completeness review of the unsolicited lease application and has deemed Statoil NA to be legally, technically and financially qualified to hold a commercial lease on the Outer Continental Shelf.

• The “Potential Commercial Leasing for Wind Power on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore Maine; Request for Interest” was published in the Federal Register on August 10, 2012 under Docket ID: BOEM-2012-0003
• The “Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Potential Commercial Wind Lease Issuance and Approval of Construction and Operations Plan Offshore Maine” was published in the Federal Register on August 10, 2012 under Docket ID: BOEM-2012-0049
• Map Showing Area Proposed by Statoil North America

The comment period for the Request for Interest closed on October 9, 2012.
BOEM received ten comments to the Request for Interest. The comments are available by clicking here:

• The BOEM Notice of Determination of No Competitive Interest for the area requested by Statoil North America for a commercial lease was published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2012 under Docket ID: BOEM-2012-0091
• Notice of Determination of No Competitive Interest for Proposed Statoil Hywind Project

The BOEM held its first task force meeting with the federal, state, local and tribal governments. The goal of the task force is to facilitate intergovernmental communications regarding OCS renewable energy activities. Files from the first Maine Task Force meeting on September14, 2010 are below.

• Task Force Introduction
• Introduction to the BOEMRE Environmental Process
• Introduction to the Request for Interest
• Coastal and Marine Data in Maine delivered by Maine State Planning Office
• List of Attendees at the meeting  

BOEM is posting the Statoil the application (excluding privileged and confidential information) to provide preliminary information on the proposal in advance of the meeting on December 8, 2011.

A second Maine task force meeting was held on December 8, 2011. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the unsolicited lease application received from Statoil North America. Files from this meeting are below:

• Meeting Agenda
• Overview and Recap
• Description of the Statoil Lease Request
• Request for Competitive Interest
• Environmental Review Process
• U.S. Coast Guard Presentation
• Department of Defense Presentation
• NOAA National Marine Fisheries Services Presentation
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Presentation
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Issue Paper
• List of Attendees

A third BOEM Maine Task Force meeting (via teleconference and webinar) was held on May 23, 2012 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 p.m. The purpose of this teleconference was to discuss the “Request for Competitive Interest” Notice for the unsolicited lease request received by BOEM for the proposed “Hywind” project.

• Because of the nature of the discussion only task force members could participate in this teleconference.
• BOEM convened a public question and answer session following the inter-governmental session from 3:00 pm to 3:30pm.
• Presentation from the BOEM Maine Intergovernmental Task Force Teleconference and Webinar

BOEM convened an information session in Maine to explain the next steps of the leasing and environmental review processes and provide additional opportunities for public input regarding the proposed Statoil Hywind project. The meeting was held on Tuesday October 23 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Boothbay Region High School, 236 Townsend Avenue, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The presentation from the public session is below:

• Presentation from the BOEM Public Information Session October 23 2012