S. 5378: Outer Continental Shelf Lease Restoration Act of 2026

This bill would create a process for handling offshore wind lease areas on the Outer Continental Shelf that have been surrendered, terminated, canceled, or given up after January 20, 2025.

What it would do

• Identify “terminated lease areas” as offshore areas that were previously leased for wind energy but are no longer tied to an active lease because that lease was surrendered.
• Automatically give nearby offshore wind lease holders the first chance to acquire those areas at a price based on the original minimum bid price per acre.
• Require the Secretary of the Interior to issue and vest the lease in the adjacent leaseholder once payment is made, without additional approval steps.
• If more than one lease borders the surrendered area, the area would be divided among them based on which lease is closest to each offshore block.
• If an adjacent leaseholder does not buy its share, that share would be returned to the leasing inventory and offered for lease again within 90 days, on the same terms and conditions as before the surrender.
• Prevent the company that surrendered the lease (and related parent, subsidiary, successor, or affiliate entities) from buying back, bidding on, or holding an interest in that same area.

Environmental review provisions

• The bill would ratify and approve prior environmental reviews and consultations already done for the original wind energy area designations and lease issuances.
• It would say those prior reviews satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act and related federal requirements for the transfer of these areas under the bill.
• It would not remove environmental review requirements for future project-level approvals, such as site assessment plans or construction and operations plans.

Limits on offshore oil and gas activity

• Until the surrendered wind lease areas are fully conveyed to adjacent leaseholders, or reoffered if unclaimed, the Secretary of the Interior would be barred from issuing new offshore oil and gas leases or new oil and gas permits on the Outer Continental Shelf.
• This restriction would not interfere with obligations under oil and gas leases or permits that were issued before the bill becomes law.

Other legal effects

• The bill would say that these transfers and dispositions do not restore the former lessee’s rights in the surrendered area, do not reinstate the old lease, and do not require repayment of any consideration already received in connection with the surrender.
• It would bar most court review of individual conveyances, vesting decisions, apportionments, or dispositions under the act.
• Any lawsuit challenging the law itself, or claiming an action exceeded the bill’s authority, would have to be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit within a short deadline.

Relevant Companies

• None found