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After Louisiana court injunction BOEM resumes inlet sale work
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
As a consequence of an injunction in the federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is continuing its preparations for an oil and gas lease sale in federal waters of the lower Cook Inlet, originally scheduled to be held in 2021. On Jan. 13 of this year the agency published a draft environmental impact statement for the lease sale, with a public comment period for the EIS scheduled to run from Jan. 16 to March 1. However, on Feb. 4, in response to an executive order by President Biden pausing federal oil and gas leasing, the agency cancelled the public comment period, thus postponing the lease sale indefinitely.
In an Aug. 24 filing with the Louisiana court, responding to the court’s injunction, the Department of the Interior said that it has been reviewing information relevant to its lease sales and anticipates now opening the EIS public comment period for the Cook Inlet sale in September or October. The public comment period had been scheduled to last for 45 days and would be followed by additional work on the EIS, in response to the comments received.
States appealed executive order The Louisiana court case was initiated on March 24 when 13 states, including Alaska, appealed President Biden’s February executive order, arguing that the order contravened the Administrative Procedures Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Mineral Leasing Act. On June 15, in response to the appeal and pending final resolution of the court case, the Louisiana court issued a preliminary injunction, banning the federal pause in oil and gas leasing. On Aug. 16 the Department of the Interior appealed the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
As a consequence of the court injunction BOEM is also restarting its preparations for a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico - the agency had completed a final EIS for that sale, which had been scheduled for March of this year. The agency now anticipates conducting the sale in October or November.
Interior also said that, in response to the injunction, the Bureau of Land Management will continue to plan for onshore lease sales for federal land without the constraint of the Feb. 4 executive order.
Obviously, the eventual outcomes of all of this will depend both on the 5th Circuit response to the appeal against the injunction and on the outcome of the Louisiana court case.
- ALAN BAILEY
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