Feds OK Alaska coastal assistance plan
The U.S. Minerals Management Service has approved Alaska’s Coastal Impact Assistance Program plan, thus opening the way for federal grants for the mitigation of the impacts of oil and gas activities on the outer continental shelf.
The program, established as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, will disburse $250 million of federal funds in each federal fiscal year 2007 to 2010 among six qualifying states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Allocation of funds between those states will depend on the relative amount of OCS revenue generated offshore of each state, but will be subject to a minimum per state of 1 percent of total funds.
And because the bumper Chukchi Sea lease sale that MMS held in February 2008 generated $2.7 billion in federal OCS revenues, that sale will have a significant impact on Alaska’s coastal impact assistance allocation. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Coastal and Ocean Management Web site said that as a consequence of the sale MMS estimated that Alaska’s 2007 allocation will increase from about $2.5 million for 2007 and 2008 to somewhere between $29 million and $41.2 million for 2009 and 2010. The division said it is amending the Alaska plan to reflect the new projected fund allocations and that in mid October it is starting to solicit for projects that might receive funding under the plan.
On Oct. 16 MMS Director Randall Luthi made an official announcement in Anchorage regarding approval of the Alaska plan — Petroleum News will include an in-depth article about the plan in its Oct. 26 edition.
—Alan Bailey
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