Notice2021-23505
Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 258
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
October 29, 2021
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentOcean Energy Management Bureau
Abstract
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the availability of the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas Lease Sale 258 (Lease Sale 258). This notice marks the start of the public review and comment period and announces three virtual public hearings on the DEIS. After the public hearings and written comments on the DEIS have been reviewed and considered, a final EIS will be prepared. The DEIS and associated information, including the exploration, development and production, and decommissioning scenario (E&D Scenario) are available for review on the agency's website at https://www.boem.gov/ ak258.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 207 (Friday, October 29, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 207 (Friday, October 29, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60068-60069]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23505]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
[Docket No. BOEM-2020-0018]
Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cook Inlet Lease Sale
258
AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability of a draft environmental impact
statement.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the
availability of the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the
proposed Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas Lease
Sale 258 (Lease Sale 258). This notice marks the start of the public
review and comment period and announces three virtual public hearings
on the DEIS. After the public hearings and written comments on the DEIS
have been reviewed and considered, a final EIS will be prepared. The
DEIS and associated information, including the exploration, development
and production, and decommissioning scenario (E&D Scenario) are
available for review on the agency's website at <a href="https://www.boem.gov/ak258">https://www.boem.gov/ak258</a>.
DATES: Comments are due by December 13, 2021.
BOEM will host three virtual public hearings on the DEIS as
follows:
<bullet> November 16, 2021; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (Alaska daylight time
(AKDT))
<bullet> November 17, 2021; 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (AKDT)
<bullet> November 18; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (AKDT)
Information regarding these hearings can be found at <a href="https://www.boem.gov/ak258">https://www.boem.gov/ak258</a>.
ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. In the search box, enter ``BOEM-
2020-0018'' and then click ``Search.'' Select the document on which you
want to comment and follow the instructions to submit comments and to
view supporting and related materials available for this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tyler Moore, Section Chief, BOEM,
Alaska Regional Office, 3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500, Anchorage,
Alaska 99503-5823, or at telephone number (907) 334-5200.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 17, 2017, the Secretary of the
Interior approved the ``Proposed Final 2017-2022 Outer Continental
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program'' (National OCS Program). The
National OCS Program includes proposed Lease Sale 258.
Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in
southcentral Alaska. The proposed action evaluated in the DEIS would
offer for lease all available OCS blocks in the northern portion of the
Cook Inlet OCS Planning Area. The proposed lease sale area comprises
224 OCS blocks, which covers an area of approximately 1.09 million
acres.
On September 10, 2020, BOEM published in the Federal Register the
notice of intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS in support of Lease Sale 258.
Publication of the NOI opened a public scoping period that extended
through October 13, 2020. In September 2020, BOEM held a series of
public scoping meetings. The comments received during the public
scoping period were used to inform the scope and content of the DEIS.
BOEM published the notice of availability of the DEIS in the
Federal Register on January 15, 2021, initiating a 45-day comment
period on the DEIS. On February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14008 directed
the Secretary of the Interior to pause new oil and gas leasing on
public lands and offshore waters, to the extent allowed by applicable
law, pending completion of a comprehensive review of Federal oil and
gas activities, including a review of climate and other impacts. After
issuance of the Executive order, BOEM canceled the comment period and
virtual public hearings for the Lease Sale 258 DEIS on February 4,
2021. Since then, BOEM updated its assessment of undiscovered oil and
gas resources of the Nation's OCS (<a href="https://www.boem.gov/2021-assessment-undiscovered-oil-and-gas-resources-nations-outer">https://www.boem.gov/2021-assessment-undiscovered-oil-and-gas-resources-nations-outer</a>) and is
reviewing additional information made available since the January 2021
publication of the DEIS.
Proposed action: The proposed action addressed in the DEIS is to
conduct an oil and gas lease sale on all available blocks in the
northern portion of the Cook Inlet OCS Planning Area (Proposed Action).
Proposed Lease Sale 258 would provide qualified bidders with the
opportunity to bid on OCS lease blocks in Cook Inlet to gain
conditional rights to explore for, develop, and produce oil and natural
gas.
The DEIS analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the
proposed lease sale on the physical, biological, and human environments
in the Cook Inlet area. See 40 CFR 1508.8 \1\ (2019 ed.). The DEIS
describes a hypothetical scenario of exploration, development,
production, and decommissioning activities that could result from the
proposed lease sale and analyzes the potential impacts of those
activities on the environment. The DEIS also analyzes reasonable
alternatives to the Proposed Action. In addition to the Proposed Action
and the no action alternative, BOEM analyzed three alternatives
consistent with internal agency scoping, past public input received
related to the current and prior National OCS Programs and previous
lease sales, and comments received during the scoping period following
the NOI that was published in September 2020. The three alternatives
address potential impacts to the Cook Inlet distinct population segment
(DPS) of beluga whale, the southwest Alaska DPS of northern sea otter,
and the Cook Inlet drift gillnet fishery.
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\1\ Revisions to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) became
effective on September 14, 2020 and apply to any NEPA process
commenced after that date. See 40 CFR 1506.13. Because the NEPA
process for this action began prior to September 14, 2020, the DEIS
was prepared in conformance with the NEPA regulations in effect
immediately prior to September 14, 2020.
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The Proposed Action defers certain areas from leasing due to
potential conflicts with resources of high ecological and subsistence
value. These deferred areas include: (1) The majority of the designated
critical habitat for beluga whale and northern sea otter and all
critical habitat for Stellar seas lions and the North Pacific right
whale located within the Cook Inlet OCS Planning Area; (2) a buffer
between the area considered for leasing and the Katmai National Park
and Preserve, the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, and the Alaska
Maritime National Wildlife Refuge; and (3) many of the subsistence
[[Page 60069]]
use areas for the Native Villages of Nanwalek, Seldovia, and Port
Graham identified during the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 191 process.
In this DEIS, BOEM has examined the potential environmental effects
of activities that could result from the Proposed Action, along with
several alternatives. The DEIS is based on BOEM's estimate of
production potential from the recently national assessment of potential
oil and gas resources in the proposed lease sale area and an associated
scenario that estimates a range of potential oil and gas activities,
including exploration, seismic surveying, on-lease ancillary
activities, exploration and delineation drilling, development,
production, and decommissioning.
Comment Submission: The public and all interested parties,
including Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments or agencies,
are invited to submit written comments on the DEIS and associated
information, including the E&D scenario, through the Federal
eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. In the search box,
enter ``BOEM-2020-0018'' and then click ``Search.'' Select the document
on which you want to comment and follow the instructions to submit
comments and view supporting and related materials available for this
notice.
BOEM does not accept anonymous comments. Your name and contact
information are required to submit comments on the Federal eRulemaking
Portal. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personally identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment, including your personally identifying
information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask BOEM in your comment to withhold your personally identifying
information from public review, BOEM cannot guarantee that it will be
able to do so.
If you request BOEM to withhold from disclosure your personally
identifiable information, you must identify any information contained
in your comments that, if released, would constitute a clearly
unwarranted invasion of your privacy. You also must briefly describe
any possible harmful consequences of the disclosure of information,
such as embarrassment, injury, or other harm. All submissions from
organizations or businesses and from individuals identifying themselves
as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses will be
made available for public inspection in their entirety.
Public Hearings: BOEM will host virtual public hearings on the DEIS
in October 2021. Information regarding these hearings can be found at
<a href="https://www.boem.gov/ak258">https://www.boem.gov/ak258</a>. The purpose of these hearings is to receive
public comments on the Draft EIS. These hearings are scheduled as
follows:
<bullet> November 16, 2021; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (Alaska daylight time
(AKDT))
<bullet> November 17, 2021; 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (AKDT)
<bullet> November 18, 2021; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (AKDT)
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4231 et seq.; 43 CFR 46.415 (2019 ed.).
Amanda B. Lefton,
Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2021-23505 Filed 10-28-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on October 29, 2021.
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