This polygon shapefile represents the most recent changes for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Wind Development Planning Areas in the Atlantic. Wind Planning Areas in this layer represent up to six different types of announcements within the US Federal Register that can be used to show the current status of an area that is being considered for Wind Power Development. The Smart from the Start Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) are represented in a separate layer. Not all areas will start out as WEAs. Since the WEAs were the first announcement for some of these areas, we have decided to repost the WEA layer to show its original areas prior to any reshaping by BOEM after the original announcement since the reshaped areas are really not the WEAs but one of the other six types of areas represented here. For those areas that started out as WEAs, the user may see the changes that have taken place over time. For the areas represented here, once an area has changed from one type of area to another, it will be replaced entirely by the new area. The types of areas and their descriptions can be found in the attributes section of the metadata record. To let those that are interested in Wind Energy Planning and Development know of the most recent updates to areas of interest for Wind Energy Development off the United States Coast within Federal Waters. Not for navigational use. Not to be used for leasing purposes. For visual purposes only. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.