On October 29, 2024, DOI announced that the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) has launched the Partnership for an Offshore Wind Energy Observation Network (POWERON), an acoustic monitoring program for offshore wind. POWERON is a public-private partnership between BOEM and offshore wind lessees. POWERON is part of a larger BOEM initiative to study any impacts of offshore wind facilities on baleen whales; BOEM established the Passive Acoustic Monitoring Network in the Atlantic Ocean to do so with $5.8 million in IRA funding. Passive acoustic monitoring through POWERON will have a number of benefits, including data consistency and comprehensiveness, conservation and optimization of resources, and public access to data.
BOEM’s initiative is partially funded by IRA section 50303, which appropriated $150 million to DOI and its subsidiary agencies, including BOEM, to facilitate more efficient environmental reviews and authorizations, including the procurement of technical services for data and information systems.