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Parnell calls for re-start on NPR-A Governor tells Salazar state’s views were not considered; says process defective, needs to start with reassessment of resources Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Alaska is opting out of planning for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and calling for a re-start of the process.
In a Sept. 12 letter, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell called on U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to start over on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and said the letter serves as written notice that the state is “withdrawing effective immediately as a ‘cooperating agency’ from the planning agreement” for NPR-A.
Parnell cited Salazar’s “recent surprise announcement” of the B-2 preferred alternative for NPR-A, “effectively withdrawing millions of acres in NPR-A,” and what the governor called the “complete failure” of Interior to take into account the comments of the state as a cooperating agency “as required by federal statutes, regulations, BLM handbooks and policies.”
He said those actions showed “a complete lack of respect” for the views of the State of Alaska.
Salazar announced alternative B-2 as the Bureau of Land Management’s preferred alternative for the integrated activity plan for NPR-A on Aug. 13. That option provides the highest environmental protection of four alternatives in BLM’s draft plan for the reserve, but with reductions in the sizes of some special areas designated for environmental protection and no recommendations for wild and scenic river designations (see story in Aug. 19 issue of Petroleum News).
Concerns with process Parnell told Salazar the state has “critical concerns with the ‘process’ and how decisions were being made,” and said the state voiced those concerns in 2010 when the U.S. Geological Survey released its new downward estimates of the oil potential in NPR-A.
Referring to a letter he wrote Salazar in 2010, Parnell said the USGS estimate failed in a number of ways, including its failure to include unconventional oil and gas deposits.
He noted that BLM had promised “a collaborative and open process” in its NPR-A planning and National Environmental Policy Act process for NPR-A.
“BLM did not keep this promise,” Parnell said.
Only one or two “meetings of BLM employees with all the cooperating agencies at the table” occurred, he said, and one of those meetings was after the announcement of a preferred alternative. Parnell said that at the latter meeting, BLM employees informed the state that the preferred alternative would not change, despite concerns expressed by the state and the North Slope Borough.
State supported full development Parnell said the state provided comments during the scoping period “in support of a plan that allowed for full development of oil and gas resources in the NPR-A with reasonable mitigation measures,” and cited decades of experience on the North Slope as demonstrating that “exploration and development can occur in the same general areas occupied by wildlife with reasonable mitigation measures. Yet alternatives allowing for areas in NPR-A to be open to exploration and development were not fully considered and included in the range of alternatives.”
He noted that in February the state said in comments that based on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, “BLM was ‘selectively disregarding congressional direction and inappropriately applying agency policy to NPR-A.’ Specifically, the statutes creating NPR-A made it clear there ‘shall not be wilderness reviews or wilderness management in the NPR-A’ and that protective measures for designated areas in NPR-A are limited ‘to the extent consistent with the requirements of the Act for the exploration of the Reserve’ and that Alternative B placed wildlife protection above the primary purpose of NPR-A, exploration and development of oil and gas reserves.”
Parnell said those concerns and comments of the state “were completely ignored.”
In June, Parnell said, the state submitted comments on the draft environmental impact statement, making it clear “the planning process and several alternatives were ‘selectively disregarding’ congressional direction under the NPR-A statutes, ANILCA, the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, and inappropriately applying agency policy to the process.”
Once again, Parnell said, the state’s concerns were ignored.
No advance notice The state and other cooperating agencies received no notice in advance of the August announcement of Interior’s preferred alternative for NPR-A, Parnell said, calling it a “stealth” approach to the preferred alternative which prevented the state, and anyone else, “from suggesting and discussing other alternatives as a preferred alternative or ways to mitigate impacts in areas set aside from development in the B-2 preferred alternative.”
Parnell said the state made good faith efforts, but Interior failed to treat the state “respectfully as a cooperating agency.”
He said federal NEPA statutes and Interior’s own regulations, policies and handbooks required BLM to prepare the EIS in cooperation with both the state and local governments.
Parnell said development of BLM land management plans through an EIS “must be an open and iterative process with BLM at the staff and regional level, actively working in good faith with cooperating agencies to resolve issues, form action alternatives, evaluate alternatives and identify a preferred alternative.”
But, he said, “such a collaborative and cooperative process has not occurred.”
“The only way to cure the defects in the process is to completely start over,” Parnell said. The first step would be “a more accurate assessment” of oil and gas resources in NPR-A involving the state geologist and “possibly other non-BLM geologists.”
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