Abstract
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has prepared this environmental assessment (EA) to determine whether the issuance of leases and grants within the Call Area in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) would lead to reasonably foreseeable significant impacts on the environment and, thus, whether an environmental impact statement (EIS) should be prepared before a lease or grant is issued. BOEM’s approach for this EA is to analyze the entire GOM Call Area rather than using the Area Identification (Area ID) process to identify Wind Energy Areas (WEA), followed by preparation of an EA covering only those areas to be considered for potential leasing. Although the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis is not required at the Area ID stage, BOEM has decided to prepare this EA prior to the identification of the WEAs as an exercise of agency discretion. This approach not only allows greater flexibility for future identification of WEAs but also provides NEPA coverage for unsolicited requests for non-competitive commercial or research leases that could be received in the GOM Call Area.