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Court says only Alaska on hold in proceeding against OCS sales
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has responded to a May 11 request by the U.S. Department of the Interior for clarification of the ramifications of an April 17 court order upholding an appeal by the Native Village of Point Hope and several environmental organizations against the U.S. Minerals Management Service 2007 to 2012 outer continental shelf lease sale program. The court said July 28 that its order to withdraw the lease sale program only applies to Alaska OCS lease sales and that the court is delaying its decision on the Alaska sale program while DOI reworks its environmental analysis of lease sales in the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea and in the North Aleutian basin of the southern Bering Sea.
The upshot is that DOI can proceed with its planned Gulf of Mexico lease sale program and that the future of the Alaska OCS program now depends on the outcome of the new environmental analysis.
The lease sale program in question includes the February 2008 Chukchi Sea lease sale that attracted $2.6 billion in high bonus bids, as well as two further planned Chukchi Sea sales and planned sales in the Beaufort Sea and the North Aleutian basin.
Inadequate analysis In its April order upholding the appeal against the lease sale program the court had said that by only using a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration environmental sensitivity analysis of oil spills on shoreline areas DOI had been irrational in determining environmental sensitivity rankings for the lease sale program: The court wants DOI to complete a comparative analysis of the environmental sensitivity of different areas of the OCS, to determine whether any areas should be excluded from oil and gas leasing. And, in its July 28 order, the court requires DOI to provide status reports on progress with the environmental analysis within 60 days and at 60-day intervals thereafter.
“I am pleased with the court’s decision. Consistent with the department’s request, the court clarified that its prior ruling only applies to the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas. We are moving forward with the planned Aug. 19 Gulf of Mexico lease sale,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar July 29. “President Obama has made clear that a comprehensive energy plan that reduces America’s dependence on foreign oil must include domestic production and the court’s ruling allows us to move forward in a balanced way. With respect to the Arctic Ocean and Alaska, we will continue to work expeditiously to address the environmental issues identified by the court in the existing 2007-2012 five-year plan.”
API reaction The American Petroleum Institute, which had asked that the April court order not be applied to the Gulf of Mexico, or to any lease sales that had already taken place under the 2007-2012 program, expressed satisfaction with the court’s July 28 decision.
“The court made the right decision by allowing the continued production of oil and natural gas from Gulf of Mexico leases already issued in the Outer Continental Shelf and to future leases in the Gulf under the 2007-2012 five-year program,” API said July 29. “… We encourage the Department of Interior to move quickly to re-do the environmental sensitivity analysis and maintain all scheduled past and future leasing in Alaska, so that exploration and production activity and future lease sales under the 2007-2012 plan can take place in that state, home of vast oil and natural gas resources.”
But the Native Village of Point Hope, the Alaska Wilderness League and Pacific Environment said that the new environmental analysis will bring to light severe potential impacts of oil and gas development on the fragile Arctic offshore environment.
“This drilling plan and the associated seismic testing, increases in vessel traffic, proposed large onshore and offshore infrastructure projects, and projections of oil spills in our unindustrialized homelands is extremely stressful,” said Caroline Cannon, president of the Native Village of Point Hope, July 29. “Our traditional knowledge indicates that each of these things independently threaten the existence of our traditional culture. We are already facing the consequences of climate change and the industrialization of the Beaufort coast. This cumulative stress may prove to be a tipping point.”
—Alan Bailey
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