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BLM's final EIS for ANWR Coastal Plain lease sale makes fewest acres available
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Bureau of Land Management has published its final supplemental environmental impact statement for a second oil and gas lease sale in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in 2017, mandated the conducting of two ANWR coastal plain lease sales. The first of these sales took place in January 2021 and the second must happen by Dec. 31 of this year. BLM has published the SEIS in anticipation of holding that second lease sale. But, in its SEIS, the agency has landed on a preferred alternative that only makes available for leasing 400,000 acres of land in the northwestern part of the coastal plain -- the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act mandates that at least 400,000 acres must be made available for leasing.
BLM must now issue a record of decision, together with the offer of a lease sale, within 30 days of publishing the SEIS.
Actions by the Biden administration In 2021 the incoming Biden administration ruled that the original lease sale EIS had been deficient. BLM then placed a moratorium on the permitting of ANWR lease related activities until the EIS had been reworked. Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska, two companies that had purchased leases, subsequently relinquished their leases. In September of last year BLM cancelled the leases of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the only other purchaser of leases. AIDEA subsequently took BLM to court, arguing that the lease cancellations had been illegal. In a recent board meeting AIDEA passed a resolution to spend up to $20 million to buy more leases in the expected second lease sale.
In announcing the publication of the new final EIS, BLM said that "the preferred alternative in the plan is informed by science, public comments and cooperating agency input, best balances the five purposes of the refuge, and presents a pathway that honors the refuge's original purposes while meeting the requirement under the tax act to offer a portion of the refuge for oil and gas leasing."
According to the SEIS, the five purposes of ANWR, as mandated by statute, are to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats; to fulfill international fish and wildlife treaty obligations; to provide the opportunity for continued subsistence use by local residents; to ensure the necessary water quality within the refuge; and to provide for an oil and gas program in the coastal plain.
Several alternatives considered Having dismissed an alternative involving no action, which would have been illegal under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, BLM considered four alternatives for the required second lease sale. The first of these alternatives would make the entire lease program area available for leasing. The second alternative would protect biological and ecological resources by making some portions of the coastal plain unavailable for leasing. This alternative would have the lowest acreage with stipulations for no surface occupancy but would only allow up to 2,000 acres of surface disturbance. A third alternative would include a new suite of lease stipulations and required operating procedures, while also considering climate change impacts and coordination with local communities. Features of this alternative would include bans on surface operations in a large portion of the area available to the lease sale, with an estimated area of surface disturbance of 1,464 acres. The fourth alternative, the preferred alternative, limits the available acreage to the minimum of 400,000 acres, while also providing protection for key resources. The total area of surface disturbance would be 1,040 acres, and seismic surveying would only be allowed in areas open for leasing, the SEIS says.
Analysis of environmental impacts Development of the SEIS involved the consideration and analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the different alternatives. This involved assessing the potential effects of future oil and gas activities on numerous factors such as climate; air quality; soil; water; solid and hazardous waste; vegetation and wetlands; wildlife; land ownership; cultural uses; subsistence uses; environmental justice; visual resources; wilderness; public health; and the economy, the SEIS says.
The SEIS says that BLM has considered a hypothetical oil and gas exploration and development scenario that determined that, of the 1,563,500 acres of federal land in the coastal plain, 427,700 acres have high potential for petroleum resources, 658,500 acres have medium potential and 477,200 acres have low potential. This unconstrained development scenario was applied to each alternative, to assess the potential impacts of surface disturbance. A significant number of potential surface, environmental and societal impacts were assessed.
The upshot has been a decision to approve the most restrictive of the exploration and development options.
Slammed by Alaska senators Alaska's senators slammed the Department of the Interior for the results of the SEIS, arguing that the department's findings place unacceptable and excessive restrictions on ANWR oil and gas exploration and development.
"What DOI has released ignores and makes a mockery of federal law and congressional intent for the coastal plain. We were crystal clear: DOI is responsible for an oil and gas program on the Coastal Plain, to benefit those who live on the North Slope and throughout Alaska and beyond," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "Instead, DOI has chosen to blatantly disregard the law ... to attempt to kneecap an entirely reasonable program that can strengthen our economy and national security. It is also deeply offensive and inappropriate for DOI to continue to erase the people of the North Slope -- particularly Kaktovik -- from the record of this program, as if they don't exist and shouldn't have their views on development prevail for the future of the coastal plain."
Kaktovik is an Alaska Native village in ANWR at the northeastern edge of coastal plain.
"One more time, the Biden-Harris administration is violating the law, ignoring Alaskans, particularly our indigenous communities, and undermining one of the core strengths of the United States -- American energy," said Sen. Dan Sullivan. "At every turn, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, in alliance with Lower 48 eco-colonialists, have subverted the ANWR oil and gas leasing program mandated by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. First, the Biden-Harris administration 'suspended' leases issued under the Trump administration's 2021 sale and then unlawfully cancelled them outright. Now, they are once again defying federal law by proposing to close three-quarters of the 1002 Area, including lands that are projected to have substantial resources beneath them."
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