2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable Submissions
Summary: Offshore wind is a key component of U.S. energy policy. Installation of thousands of floating and fixed foundation turbines, their supporting structures, and transmission cables are anticipated in the next 8 years along our coasts. The Office of Renewable Energy Programs of the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, as the overseeing lead federal agency, sets policies and requirements for the sampling and assessment of marine resources within areas leased to offshore wind developers. The data collected during sampling and assessment is crucial to understanding and mitigating the impacts of development on marine resources. Under the current policies, the data collected on abundance of protected species, fish, birds, and bats, as well as meteorological and bathymetric data, on behalf of the developers by researchers are held by the developers. The corporate policies of these companies are imposing severe restrictions, limitations, and even complete embargoes on these datasets, placing the ability to independently measure, assess, and uncover impacts at risk. In addition to inaccessibility to data from corporate policies, the close-holding of these data places them at risk of loss, corruption, and cyberattack. A change in Federal policy is needed to first, require the safe housing and sharing of these data in a timely manner, and secondly to house and serve these data in a manner consistent with the needs of marine experts and the expectations of marine stakeholders. This challenge presents an opportunity for Federal agencies to lead and participate in a collaborate effort to ensure that the wealth of data collected for offshore renewable energy projects is safely archived and accessible to the regulatory and science community for informed decision making not just on offshore wind, but ocean science in general. Similar structures developed for offshore renewable energy internationally can serve as a model. The UK for example, adopted the Marine Data Exchange (https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/) through the Crown Estate first to serve as a data warehouse for offshore developers, and more recently has been working on making the data and reports publicly available. A similar system could be modeled in the US, and presents an opportunity for an innovative collaborative project led by the Federal agencies through the SOST program.
Sector: NGO
Organization: Responsible Offshore Science Alliance
POC: Mike Pol, mike@rosascience.org
Other Contacts: Lyndie Hice-Dutton, lyndie@rosascience.org