Notice2024-10792
Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming
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
May 17, 2024
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentLand Management Bureau
Abstract
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended (FLMPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for federal coal managed by the Buffalo Field Office and by this notice is announcing the opportunity to protest the Proposed RMP Amendment.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 97 (Friday, May 17, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 97 (Friday, May 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43431-43432]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10792]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[BLM_WY_FRN_MO4500178570]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan
Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the
Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
of 1976, as amended (FLMPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has
prepared a Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Final
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for federal coal
managed by the Buffalo Field Office and by this notice is announcing
the opportunity to protest the Proposed RMP Amendment.
DATES: The BLM Director will consider protests to the Proposed RMP
Amendment. Protests must be postmarked or electronically submitted on
the BLM's ePlanning site within 30 days after the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) publication of a Notice of Availability (NOA)
of the Proposed RMP Amendment and Final EIS in the Federal Register.
The EPA usually publishes NOAs on Fridays.
ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS are
available for review on the BLM ePlanning project website at <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510">https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510</a>.
Instructions for filing a protest on the Proposed RMP Amendment can
be found at <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest">https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest</a> and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All
protests must be submitted in writing and mailed to one of the
following by any one of the following methods:
<bullet> Website: <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510">https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510</a>.
<bullet> Regular and Overnight Mail: BLM Director, Attention:
Protest Coordinator (HQ210), Denver Federal Center, Building 40 (Door
W-4), Lakewood, CO 80215.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Bills, Project Manager,
telephone (307) 684-1133; or at the address BLM Buffalo Field Office,
1425 Fort Street, Buffalo WY 82834; email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2a5e48434646596a484647044d455c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="86f2e4efeaeaf5c6e4eaeba8e1e9f0">[email protected]</span></a>. Individuals
in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have
a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United
States should use the relay services offered within their country to
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM prepared the Proposed Plan Amendment
and Final Supplemental EIS to address a United States District Court
for the District of Montana order (Western Organization of Resource
Councils, et al. v. BLM; CV 00076-GF-BMM; 8/3/2022). The Final
Supplemental EIS provides additional land use planning level analysis
that considers no-leasing and limited coal leasing alternatives;
discloses the public health impacts, both climate and non-climate, of
burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas); and completes new coal
screens in accordance with 43 CFR 3420.1-4 to determine the lands to be
made available for further consideration for coal leasing in the
planning area.
The Buffalo planning area is located in Campbell, Johnson, and
Sheridan Counties, Wyoming. The Coal Development Potential Area is
located within Campbell County, Wyoming, and encompasses approximately
48 billion short tons of recoverable BLM-administered Federal coal.
The BLM analyzed three alternatives in detail, including the No
Action Alternative and two alternatives that
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vary the amount of BLM-administered Federal coal authorized to be
available for leasing. The alternatives include:
<bullet> Alternative A (the No Leasing Alternative): the Coal
Development Potential Area would be unavailable for leasing;
<bullet> Alternative B (the No Action Alternative): approximately
48.0 billion short tons of recoverable BLM-administered coal within the
Coal Development Potential Area established in the 2019 RMP Amendment
and Final Supplemental EIS would be available for further consideration
of leasing; and
<bullet> Alternative C: a reduced level of coal (1.24 billion short
tons of recoverable BLM-administered coal) would be available for
leasing within the Coal Development Potential Area.
The BLM further considered three additional alternatives but
dismissed them from detailed analysis, as explained in the Proposed RMP
Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS.
The BLM selected Alternative A, the No Leasing Alternative, as the
proposed plan for allocating BLM administered coal; under this
alternative, no BLM administered coal would be available for leasing
within the Buffalo Field Office planning area. The proposed plan does
not affect the area with coal development potential or the area
determined to be suitable for surface coal mining. Collectively, the
mines have sufficient federal coal leased to meet forecasted production
levels into 2041. The remaining leased coal volume provides time to
advance commercial scale carbon capture and non-thermal coal use
technologies during the planning period.
The BLM published a notice of availability for the Draft
Supplemental EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in the Federal Register on
May 8, 2023, which initiated a 90-day comment period (88 FR 29691). On
May 31, the BLM hosted a public meeting in Gillette, Wyoming, to
present the Draft Supplemental EIS and RMP Amendment to the public and
solicit comments. The BLM also hosted an on-line public meeting on June
5, 2023.
During the public comment period, the BLM received 25 unique
written submissions containing 147 substantive comments. The Draft
Supplemental EIS comments helped the BLM refine the Final Supplemental
EIS and guided the development of the Proposed RMP Amendment.
Protest of the Proposed RMP
The BLM planning regulations state that any person who participated
in the preparation of the RMP and has an interest that will or may be
adversely affected by approval of the Proposed RMP may protest its
approval. Protest of the Proposed RMP constitutes the final opportunity
for administrative review of the proposed land use planning decisions
prior to the BLM adopting an approved RMP. Instructions for filing a
protest with the BLM Director may be found online at <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest">https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest</a> and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All protests must be in writing
and mailed to the appropriate address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section earlier or submitted electronically through the BLM ePlanning
project website as described previously. Protests submitted
electronically by any means other than the ePlanning project website
will be invalid unless a protest is also submitted as a hard copy. The
BLM will render a written decision on each protest. The Director's
protest decision shall be the final decision of the Department of the
Interior. Responses to protest issues will be compiled and documented
in a Protest Resolution Report made available following the protest
resolution online at: <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports">https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports</a>. After resolution of
protests, the BLM will issue a Record of Decision and Approved RMP.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2)
Andrew Archuleta,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-10792 Filed 5-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-20-P
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