Comment Period Ends December 10, 2022
On October 26, 2022, NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rulemaking (87 FR 64868; October 26, 2022) regarding the incidental, but not intentional, harassment of marine mammals that may occur during the five-year construction of the Ocean Wind 1 offshore wind energy facility off New Jersey in lease area OCS-A-0498 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). When published, NOAA Fisheries allowed for a 30-day public comment period, which was scheduled to end on November 25, 2022.
On November 10, 2022, NOAA Fisheries received a request from the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) for a 15-day comment period extension. In consideration of this request and the targeted timelines for this project, in this case NOAA Fisheries has elected to provide an additional 15-days to allow the public to fully and comprehensively provide input on the proposed action.
Because of this, NOAA Fisheries has published a notice in the Federal Register that has extended the public comment period from November 25, 2022 to December 10, 2022. This extension will not impact NOAA Fisheries’ overall timeline for meeting future MMPA milestones associated with this project.
No information has changed and all information that was previously described in the initial proposed rule (87 FR 64868; October 26, 2022) remains applicable. All documents and information remain available on NOAA Fisheries’ website where public comments can continue to be submitted through either the Federal Register page or the Regulations.gov webpage through the instructions found in the public comment extension Federal Register notice.
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