The Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) https://www.boem.gov/ is responsible for managing U.S. development of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy, mineral, and geological resources in environmentally and economically responsible manners. It was established on May 19, 2010 by Dept. of the Interior Secretarial Order 3299 restructuring  the previously existing Minerals Management Service (MMS).   BOEM’s legal authorities derive from various sections in the U.S. Code https://www.boem.gov/ including 43 USC 1332 https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title43-section1332 and its regulatory authorities began at 30 CFR 500 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-30/chapter-V.

Its website includes studies on various topics including marine environment acoustics, birds and bats, cultural and archaeological resources, economics, environmental monitoring, and fish and fisheries. Examples include Battle of the Atlantic:  A Catalog of Shipwrecks Off North Carolina’s Coast from the Second World War (2021) https://espis.boem.gov/final%20reports/BOEM_2021-076.pdf; Oregon OCS Seafloor Mapping: Selected Lease Blocks  Relevant to Renewable Energy (2017) https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/environmental-stewardship/Environmental-Studies/Pacific-Region/Studies/BOEM-2017-018.pdf; and Atlantic Science Year in Review (2022) https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/renewable-energy/studies/Atlantic-Science-YIR-2022.pdf.

BOEM FY 2027 congressional budget request which accounts for agency consolidation, is $296.175 million https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/renewable-energy/studies/Atlantic-Science-YIR-2022.pdf (p. 2) and its workforce is 513 employees https://www.openfeds.org/subagencies/IN27.

This blog post was submitted by Bert Chapman, Purdue University.