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October 2006

Vol. 11, No. 40 Week of October 01, 2006

Court injunction bans NE NPR-A sale

11th hour court ruling stops sale in Northeast Planning Area because of concerns about the impact of developments near Teshekpuk Lake

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The nail biting over the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale came to an end at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 27 when the sale finally got under way. But, as a consequence of a court injunction on the lease sale in the NPR-A Northeast Planning Area, the agency only offered tracts in the Northwest Planning Area. The agency is returning unopened the bids that it received for the Northeast Planning Area.

The issues concerning the lease sale go back to Jan. 11 when Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Chad Calvert signed a record of decision amending the environmental impact assessment for oil and gas leasing in the Northeast Planning Area. The amendment opened for leasing a previously excluded region known as the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, north of Teshekpuk Lake.

The area that was opened has the potential for the discovery of as much as 2 billion barrels of oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Wildlife habitat

But Teshekpuk Lake is a habitat for huge numbers of waterfowl and the area adjacent to it includes caribou calving grounds and goose molting areas.

In the interests of protecting wildlife in the area the final environmental impact statement included stipulations such as a ban on the construction of permanent facilities on 242,000 acres of the 389,000 acres north of the lake.

An additional 47,000 acres of caribou habitat and calving area southwest of the lake were designated for no surface occupancy; there were already 141,000 acres of protected caribou calving habitat southeast of the lake. Caribou movement corridors were also expanded by 9,700 acres northwest of Teshekpuk Lake, reflecting 56,000 acres of corridor protection.

“And the bottom line, for me anyway, is that we have, I think, developed the most environmentally responsible approach to oil and gas leasing that the BLM has ever entertained,” said BLM Alaska State Director Henri Bisson. For the entire northeast NPR-A planning area “we’re talking about a maximum potential disturbance of one-tenth of 1 percent of the area.”

But the opening for oil and gas leasing of the Teshekpuk Special Area triggered major controversy, with fierce criticism from environmentalists.

The North Slope Borough also opposed opening the special area. Borough Mayor Edward Itta said that he supports oil and gas development on the North Slope but that there is plenty of room for exploration in NPR-A without trampling the sensitive area around Teshekpuk Lake. That area, Itta said, should remain off limits.

Lawsuit

On March 10 a coalition of environmental groups, consisting of the National Audubon Society, Alaska Wilderness League, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society, sued in federal court to stop the sale.

The environmental groups argued for a ban on the northeast NPR-A lease sale for several reasons. They said that BLM should have issued a supplemental draft EIS for public comment on the expansion of the sale area; that BLM had not analyzed the full cumulative impacts of opening the area around Teshekpuk Lake, especially the cumulative impacts on the Northwest Planning Area; that the final environmental impact statement did not adequately address the impact of increased oil and gas development on global warming; that the planned lease sale violates the Endangered Species Act by not adequately considering the impact on spectacled and Stellar’s eiders; and that the lease sale would fail to provide “maximum protection” to the Utukok River and Teshekpuk Lake area under the terms of the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act.

Preliminary decision

On Sept. 6 U.S. District Court Judge James Singleton Jr. issued a preliminary decision dismissing all of the plaintiffs’ arguments except for the question of whether BLM had adequately considered the cumulative impacts of opening the Teshekpuk Lake area.

The court said that the outcome of an earlier court case relating to the lease sale in the Northwest Planning Area prevented BLM addressing the cumulative effects as part of the lease stipulations in the Northeast Planning Area. And, having reached that conclusion, the court banned any further agency action “on the invalid EIS in the absence of unusual circumstances.”

The court also dismissed an argument by BLM that the January record of decision did not authorize any ground activities in the disputed area. The court said that consideration of the cumulative effects of the lease sale could result in a need to change stipulations in leases that would have already been issued. These leases “may prove difficult, if not impossible, to change subsequently. This would constitute irreparable injury,” the court said.

Rebuttal hearing

The court invited written arguments in response to its preliminary decision and held a rebuttal hearing on Sept. 21.

Then on Sept. 22 BLM filed a court brief dismissing all of the plaintiffs’ arguments, but saying that, if the court did issue an injunction against the lease sale, that injunction should only apply to the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. Meantime the agency announced that it would proceed with the Sept. 27 lease sale for both northwest and northeast NPR-A, including the disputed Teshekpuk Lake area.

On Sept. 25 Judge Singleton issued a final decision in the case. That decision re-iterated the preliminary decision and banned the whole NPR-A Northeast Planning Area Sale.

“The Secretary of the Interior is enjoined from taking any further action with respect to the Northeast Planning Area under the Record of Decision dated January 11, 2006, pending further order of the court,” the court order said.






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