Notice2026-03727
Gulf of America, Outer Continental Shelf, Record of Decision To Reaffirm Decisions for Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sales 259 and 261 and Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales and Post-Lease Activities: Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
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
February 25, 2026
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentOcean Energy Management Bureau
Abstract
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the availability of the record of decision (ROD) to reaffirm decisions for Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Lease Sales 259 and 261 (Lease Sales 259 and 261) and its intent to use the Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales and Post-Lease Activities: Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS) for, among other things, a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis that can be tiered to when conducting post-lease and site-specific reviews of plans, permits and other approvals. This ROD concludes the programmatic NEPA process for the GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 37 (Wednesday, February 25, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 37 (Wednesday, February 25, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9296-9297]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-03727]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
[Docket No. BOEM-2023-0046]
Gulf of America, Outer Continental Shelf, Record of Decision To
Reaffirm Decisions for Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and
Gas Lease Sales 259 and 261 and Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and
Gas Lease Sales and Post-Lease Activities: Final Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability; record of decision.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the
availability of the record of decision (ROD) to reaffirm decisions for
Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Lease
Sales 259 and 261 (Lease Sales 259 and 261) and its intent to use the
Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales and Post-Lease
Activities: Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (GOA Oil
and Gas Programmatic EIS) for, among other things, a National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis that can be tiered to when
conducting post-lease and site-specific reviews of plans, permits and
other approvals. This ROD concludes the programmatic NEPA process for
the GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS.
ADDRESSES: The ROD and associated information are available on BOEM's
website at <a href="https://www.boem.gov/oil-gas-energy/gulf-america-lease-sales-259-and-261-supplemental-environmental-impact-statement">https://www.boem.gov/oil-gas-energy/gulf-america-lease-sales-259-and-261-supplemental-environmental-impact-statement</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Helen Rucker, Supervisor,
Environmental Assessment Section, Office of Environment, 1201 Elmwood
Park Blvd. (MS GM 623E), New Orleans, LA 70123-2394, by telephone at
504-736-2421, or by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d3919c969e949c929d96839293b1bcb6befdb4bca5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d69499939b9199979893869796b4b9b3bbf8b1b9a0">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BOEM is reaffirming the decisions for Lease
Sales 259 and 261 as they were held and is also relying on the GOA Oil
and Gas Programmatic EIS for that decision. Secretary of the Interior
Doug Burgum issued Secretary's Order (S.O.) 3423 (February 7, 2025),
which directed the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to the Gulf of
America (GOA) in accordance with Executive Order (E.O.) 14172,
``Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness'', (January 20, 2025).
Throughout this ROD, BOEM uses the new GOA name where appropriate.
However, legacy documents, such as previously published reports and
environmental documents, remain unchanged as the GOM.
On March 6, 2023, in Healthy Gulf v. Burgum, several environmental
nonprofit organizations (plaintiffs) filed a lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia, against the Secretary of
the Interior and BOEM challenging Lease Sale 259.
Additionally, on August 25, 2023, the same plaintiffs filed a
complaint challenging Lease Sale 261. In those complaints, Plaintiffs
allege that the ROD and SEIS violate the National Environmental Policy
Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, and request that the court
find that any bids that BOEM received during the lease sales are not
acceptable, vacate the ROD and SEIS, and vacate or enjoin any leases
executed pursuant to the ROD and any lease activities executed pursuant
to the lease sales. On November 29, 2023, the court stayed the Lease
Sale 261 pending resolution of Lease Sale 259 litigation.
On March 27, 2025, in the challenge to Lease Sale 259, the court
found that BOEM's NEPA analysis for Lease Sale 259 had improperly
evaluated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impacts to the Rice's
whale. Concerning BOEM's GHG analysis, the court found that BOEM had
not adequately
[[Page 9297]]
examined laws and policies postdating its modeling baseline. The court
also found that BOEM failed to address a National Marine Fisheries
Service determination that the Rice whale's habitat extends into the
western and central Gulf of America. The court ordered briefing from
the parties on remedy. The parties' final remedy briefs were filed on
June 6, 2025. Plaintiffs' Remedy Brief modified their request and asked
the court to vacate the SEIS and remand it to BOEM and partially vacate
the leases issued pursuant to Lease Sale 259. Federal Defendants and
Intervenors argued that the analysis can be remedied without vacatur of
the SEIS, the lease sale, or the leases. The Court has not yet issued a
remedy and there is no injunction restraining BOEM's management of the
leases in question.
During the pendency of the above litigation, BOEM was in the
process of preparing a programmatic environmental impact statement for
potential future lease sales and ongoing and future post-lease
activities in the GOA. On August 29, 2025, the notice of availability
for the Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales and Post-
Lease Activities: Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
(GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS) was published in the Federal
Register (90 FR 42243). In addition to the analysis of a proposed
Federal action to hold an oil and gas lease sale offered on the U.S.
OCS within BOEM's GOA Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas, the
GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS also addresses the court's findings
regarding BOEM's previous assessment of GHG emissions and potential
impacts to the Rice's whales. On August 27, 2025, counsel for
Defendants notified the court handling the Lease Sale 259 litigation
that BOEM had completed the GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS, and that
BOEM would begin acting on pending plans.
The GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS also provides the context and
setting of future proposed actions, including future discretionary oil
and gas lease sales, site-specific OCS oil- and gas-related activities,
the potential impact-producing factors associated with these
activities, and the reasonably foreseeable impacts on GOA resources.
BOEM plans to use the GOA Oil and Gas Programmatic EIS for, among other
things, a NEPA analysis that can be tiered to when conducting post-
lease and site-specific reviews of plans, permits and other approvals,
regardless of when the leased area on which the activities are proposed
may have been leased. The Programmatic EIS may also inform
extraordinary circumstance reviews to ensure categorical exclusions are
used appropriately.
After careful consideration, the Department of the Interior decided
to reaffirm the decision for holding Lease Sales 259 and 261 according
to the terms in the notices of sale published in 2023 and to reaffirm
the leases issued as a result of those sales.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. (National Environmental Policy
Act) and 43 CFR part 46.
Matthew N. Giacona,
Acting Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2026-03727 Filed 2-24-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4340-98-P
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