BLM director responds to GMT questions

Quizzed by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, about ConocoPhillips’ Greater Moose’s Tooth development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, during a July 29 meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Neil Kornze, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said that his agency is progressing the environmental impact statement for the project.

“We are working expeditiously through that process right now,” Kornze said, adding that his agency is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that will be processing a permit for road construction, to see if the Corps can start its review.

“I’m optimistic that the timelines will work out,” Kornze said.

Murkowski expressed concern that a delay in the completion of the environmental document could result in the loss of the coming winter construction season, thus delaying the project by a year or more.

“I’m concerned the date for the release of the environmental impact statement for GMT-1 continues to slip,” Murkowski said. “The EIS must be released in October to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to begin processing the permit to allow for road construction this winter.”

The Corps of Engineers requires at least 120 days to review an application for the dredge-and-fill permit required for road construction, she said. Murkowski said that she is worried that BLM may be deferring completion of its review until after the November election.

Murkowski also expressed concern that BLM may conclude that the project will require road-less construction, an option that she said would render the project uneconomic. Kornze, while acknowledging that the regional and village Native corporations for the area of the project have supported the need for access roads for the development, confirmed that a road-less development is one of the alternatives being considered in the EIS.

“That is something we’re going to have to evaluate,” Kornze said.

- Alan Bailey