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Interior issues NPR-A plan decision Salazar signs off on plan with high levels of environmental protection, allowing oil and gas leasing in about half of the reserve Alan Bailey Petroleum News
To the cheers of a number of environmental organizations, on Feb. 21 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed the record of decision for the Bureau of Land Management’s integrated activity plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, confirming a plan option with high levels of environmental protection. The plan makes about 11.8 million acres of the 23-million-acre reserve available for oil and gas leasing while placing large environmentally sensitive areas off limits, including areas around the Teshekpuk Lake, Smith Bay and Admiralty Bay in the northern part of the reserve.
Two issues In announcing the record of decision, Interior said that the decision addresses two key issues identified when in August Salazar released the findings of the environmental impact statement for the plan. Those two issues consist of concerns about the possible need to be able to construct oil pipelines through NPR-A from future oil developments in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and the need for consultation with North Slope communities over NPR-A planning.
“The record of decision provides explicit confirmation that potential pipelines carrying oil or gas from operations in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas can be constructed through the NPR-A,” Interior said.
And, following further consultations with North Slope communities, the record of decision requires the Bureau of Land Management to establish an NPR-A working group, including representatives from North Slope tribal entities, Native corporations and local governments.
“The NPR-A working group will provide input on the full range of management issues and possible future development in the NPR-A, including pipelines and related oil and gas infrastructure development,” Interior said. The agency also said the working group will act as a forum for gathering scientific information and traditional knowledge about the wildlife population and needs.
The working group “can inform potential adjustments to the boundaries of special areas including, for example, potential future adjustments to the southernmost boundary of the Teshekpuk Lake special area,” Interior said.
In November Bud Cribley, the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska director, said that decisions in the NPR-A plan might be changed “at later dates,” depending on factors such as future development on the North Slope.
Salazar: balance approach The new plan appears to follow an emerging Interior policy of allowing oil development in selected areas of federal land, while closing land where the agency believes that environmental resource values outweigh the benefits of oil development. By allowing future oil and gas development in acreage which, Interior says, contains 72 percent of the undiscovered, economically recoverable oil in NPR-A, while also placing environmentally sensitive areas off limits, Salazar has said that the plan represents an appropriate balance between future oil development and the need for environmental protection.
“The balanced approach under this plan is the result of extensive local input and will help guide the responsible production and transport of the substantial oil and gas resources in and around the reserve,” Salazar said when announcing his signing of the record of decision. “This comprehensive plan will allow us to continue to expand our leasing in the NPR-A, as has happened over the last three years, while protecting the outstanding and unique resources that are critically important to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives and our nation’s conservation heritage.”
Oil potential Interior’s estimate of the amount of undiscovered oil that the plan may make accessible from oil and gas leases derives from an assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in NPR-A that the U.S. Geological Survey has carried out. But some geologists and others in the oil and gas industry have expressed concern that the large areas in the northern part of the reserve now off limits to oil drilling lie over a geologic structure called the Barrow Arch, a major structure that runs east to west under the northern North Slope and that is associated with most of the producing North Slope oil fields. ConocoPhillips has been pioneering oil development in NPR-A, with a plan to develop a new oil field in its CD-5 development in the extreme northeast of the reserve, not too far from the existing Alpine oil field in the Colville River delta. And some people view the gradual extension of the oil infrastructure west into the northern part of the reserve, along the line of the Barrow Arch, to be the most promising means of bringing further viable oil fields on line.
Collision course Unfortunately, the prospective fairway of land in the northern part of the reserve runs on a collision course with what many people view as some of the most environmentally sensitive parts of NPR-A, in particular the area around Teshekpuk Lake, a habitat for huge numbers of waterfowl, adjacent to caribou calving grounds and goose molting areas. And, while the pro-development lobby says that focused land access restrictions, appropriate mitigation measures and responsible development can ensure the continued wellbeing of the wildlife, environmentalists say that the wildlife values are too sensitive to risk the impacts of industrial activity in the area.
Now, with that westward route blocked by protected areas, critics of the new NPR-A plan claim that Interior has, in effect, eliminated from future leasing those areas that present the greatest promise for the discovery and development of new, viable oil resources.
North Slope Borough Following the release of the environmental impact statement for the plan, North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower expressed concern both about limitations on potential pipeline routes through the reserve and about the size of the special protected area around Teshekpuk Lake. Brower said that pipeline restrictions could drive offshore oil developers to use oil tankers rather than pipelines for oil shipment, thus raising environmental risks. And effective permitting coupled with best management practices can enable onshore development to take place without severe negative consequences to the environment or to subsistence resources, Brower said.
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade association for oil producers, expressed its concerns at the signing of the record of decision.
“This decision locks up valuable resources in an area that was specifically set aside to function as a petroleum reserve, and disregards what the people of Alaska asked for,” said Kara Moriarty, AOGA executive director. “While the decision does accommodate for a potential pipeline corridor, it is almost a moot point when the most promising areas of the reserve are off limits to development.”
Delegation criticizes Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, with an agenda to promote what they see as responsible economic development in the state, are less than enthusiastic about the new NPR-A plan. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski characterized the plan as a “decision restricting access to the reserve.”
“I continue to have the same reservations that I had before about the negative impact this plan will have on our national energy security and Alaska’s economy,” Murkowski said. “I don’t support this plan and I don’t agree that a land management plan focused on conservation was appropriate for a petroleum reserve.”
Murkowski also expressed skepticism about Interior’s assurances that the plan will accommodate the construction of oil pipelines from the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
“Even the administration concedes the need to build a pipeline to ensure that the vast oil and gas resources in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas can reach the trans-Alaska oil pipeline system, but the language included in this plan fails to provide the certainty necessary to make sure such a pipeline can actually be built without being held up by endless environmental litigation,” Murkowski said. “Despite the assurances of the administration, this plan puts in place roadblocks to the construction of an economically feasible pipeline project. The unintended consequences of this decision could have broad implications for our economy and energy security.”
Underwhelmed Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, commenting that he felt “underwhelmed” by the new plan, said that Interior had ignored requests from the North Slope village of Nuiqsut to open more of the area south of Teshekpuk Lake for leasing.
“Despite their claims, it is clear the Interior Department yet again has made a decision about Alaska land use that ignores what Alaskans want,” Begich said. “I appreciate the strong and clear language on future pipeline routes through the NPR-A to carry Beaufort and Chukchi oil. But I am left wondering what good a working group will do if they haven’t been doing a good job of listening so far? As Elvis Presley said, we need ‘a little less conversation and a little more action’.”
“Today’s decision by the Department of Interior is yet another game of smoke and mirrors,” said Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. “While the Department of Interior makes a point to allow for pipeline construction through the NPR-A, the potential routes do not appear realistic … The Department of Interior has once again caved to environmental special interest groups, and unfortunately today’s finalized plan will do nothing but further restrict potential oil and gas development in a petroleum reserve established to ensure America’s energy security.”
Environmentalist support A flurry of news releases, all praising the new plan, came from environmental organizations, following Interior’s Feb. 21 announcement. The Wilderness Society, for example, said that it had assisted Interior’s strategy by working with Native groups and providing scientific research about wildlife in the reserve.
“We are pleased to see that the Department of the Interior respects the needs of Alaska Native communities, and the sensitive habitat of special places in the reserve,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska regional director for the Wilderness Society. “Alaska will be well-served by a plan that protects subsistence resources while allowing development in appropriate areas.”
“We thank the Department of the Interior for protecting special areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska,” said Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. “The Department of the Interior has crafted a plan that protects and recognizes the vital role of subsistence, scenic and recreational values, and unique wildlife values.”
“The plan is a huge step for conservation of the western Arctic, an area increasingly stressed by climate change, and provides critical protections for key lands in the reserve and the wildlife dependent on it, including migratory birds from around the world, caribou, bears, wolves, beluga whales, and walrus,” said Martin Hayden, vice president, policy and legislation, for Earthjustice.
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