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ANWR comments sought BLM announces beginning of SEIS process for coastal plain lease sale program Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
Following a June 1 secretarial order, placing a hold on the oil and gas leasing program in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on Aug. 3 the Bureau of Land Management announced a 60-day public scoping period for the preparation of a supplemental environmental impact statement for the program. The notice of intent to conduct an SEIS “begins the comprehensive analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act,” BLM said. The June 1 order argued that there were legal deficiencies in the final EIS for the lease sale program.
According to the Federal Register notice for the new public scoping period, the purpose of gathering public comments is to determine the scope of issues to be addressed and to identify the significant issues, including any legal deficiencies, in the original EIS approval.
Lawmakers and governor respond Alaska lawmakers and Gov. Mike Dunleavy responded vehemently to the announcement.
“Alaskans for over 40 years have urged Congress to develop and implement a leasing program for the coastal plain,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the secretary is directed to establish two area wide leasing sales, not less than 400,000 acres each in the coastal plain. A distinguished team of career experts and scientists at the Department of the Interior spent thousands of hours over nearly two years developing a full range of alternatives and protective mitigation measures that would apply to all oil and gas activities in the 1002 Area, and now this administration is going to throw it all away and start over because they don’t agree with it. That’s politics plain and simple.”
“BLM conducted years of fact-based, scientific work in developing a durable EIS and leasing program for the non-wilderness 1002 Area of ANWR, as required by federal law,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan “Today, the Biden administration has thrown the work of the BLM career scientists out the window in just another political stall tactic at the behest of radical environmental groups and far-left members of the administration. By initiating this supplemental EIS, the Biden administration is ignoring the will of Congress, the will of Alaskans, and the best interests of the Alaska Native communities on the North Slope.”
“This announcement is another example of the Biden administration attempting to shut down Alaska’s primary industry to appease radical environmental groups determined to turn our state into one big national park,” said Dunleavy. “A supplemental EIS only serves to void the results of the environmental study that was already completed and found that oil and gas development in the 1002 area of ANWR, an area set aside for oil and gas exploration, can take place without harming the environment.”
Very controversial The question of oil and gas development on the ANWR coastal plain has proven very controversial for many years. The region is thought to have major oil and gas potential. But, while North Slope communities and the State of Alaska see the potential for significant economic benefit from energy development in the region, environmental organizations have remained adamantly opposed to development that they argue would cause irreparable damage to the sensitive environment.
The Gwich’in, a Native people of Arctic Alaska and northern Canada, have expressed strong concern about the potential impact of oil and gas industrial activities on the Porcupine caribou herd that calves on the ANWR coastal plain - caribou form a primary subsistence food source for the Gwich’in. And some North Slope residents also worry about possible impacts on subsistence resources.
Proponents of development argue that the use of modern technologies, in particular the use of long-reach directional drilling, can minimize surface impacts, and that exploration and development can take place without significant environmental damage.
Authorized by Congress in 2017 After many years of failed efforts to open the ANWR coastal plain for oil and gas leasing, tax legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in December 2017 required the Department of the Interior to conduct oil and gas lease sales for the coastal plain - the statute mandated at least two areawide lease sales within 10 years, with the first sale taking place within four years and the second within seven years. And the statute limited surface development to 2,000 acres, on the assumption that directional drilling could access a much larger area of the subsurface.
In April 2018 BLM began the development of an EIS for the lease sale program, with that EIS, which is now being challenged, being approved in August 2020. On Aug. 17, 2020, then Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed a record of decision, approving the ANWR coastal plain lease sale program. On Jan. 6, 2021, BLM conducted the first ANWR lease sale. As a result of that lease sale the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority obtained leases for seven tracts, while two companies, Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska, each obtained a single tract.
Climate change executive order However, on Jan. 20 incoming President Joe Biden signed an executive order on climate change that, among other things, halted the ANWR coastal plain oil and gas leasing program. The Native Village of Kaktovik, the only federally recognized tribe in ANWR, later expressed its frustration at what it characterized as a lack of tribal consultation in decisions being made with regard to the ANWR leasing program. The village is located on the coastal plain - its tribal government and village corporation envisage economic benefits from oil and gas developments.
On June 1 the Biden administration suspended the ANWR oil and gas leases, in anticipation of conducting a new environmental review of the leasing program. The Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and the Voice of the Arctic Ińupiat, or VOICE, both expressed their opposition to this decision. VOICE argued that the EIS completed in 2020 had been thoroughly developed.
“Today’s announcement is disappointing as it seemingly ignores the local Ińupiat voices of the North Slope of Alaska, and it fails to consider the beneficial impacts this exploration will provide to our communities,” said ASRC. “Our shareholders and the approximately 9,500 residents of the North Slope directly benefit, given such exploration brings important job opportunities and economic infrastructure support to our remote region.”
AIDEA protested the lease suspension and in June asked for bids on a contract for pre-development permitting and planning work for its ANWR leases. On Aug. 4 the agency issued a notice of intent to award the contract to SAExploration Inc., with Kaktovik Ińupiat Corp., ERC Alaska and SALA LLC to be engaged as subcontractors.
Continued environmentalist opposition Meanwhile, environmental organizations remain adamantly opposed to any ANWR coastal plain oil and gas development.
The Wilderness Society, in a press release responding to the Aug. 3 announcement regarding the new SEIS scoping period, said “everything about the leasing program has been rushed, haphazard and legally questionable” and that it looks forward to Interior “conducting a thorough science-based analysis, which we are confident will show that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would be disastrous for indigenous communities in the region and the Porcupine caribou herd on which they depend, as well as the environment and our climate.”
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