BLM streamlining its NEPA processes

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

In the June edition of its Alaska NEPA newsletter the Bureau of Land Management commented on its efforts to streamline its processes for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. Under NEPA the agency must conduct environmental reviews in response to permit applications for projects that may have environmental impacts. Depending on the potential severity of those impacts, the agency may conduct an environmental assessment or prepare an environmental impact statement.

The length of time taken for a NEPA mandated process, particularly an EIS development, can significantly impact the economics of a project.

Last year Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued an order directing BLM to develop ideas for streamlining its NEPA processes. And Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt set page and time limits for EIS development.

The BLM newsletter says that BLM has made more than 100 recommendations for process improvement, including reducing the duplication of analysis work, fostering greater transparency, and integrating into its processes the needs of stakeholders including state governments, local governments, and tribal partners. The agency has proposed specific actions, such as the establishment of data sharing agreements and the development of national level memoranda of understanding to formalize regular coordination with state and local government associations, the newsletter says.

The agency is also modifying its specifications of categorical exclusions, the types of action deemed not to have significant environmental impacts.

The newsletter says that over the coming months BLM will prioritized its NEPA projects to meet Alaska’s public lands needs and that the agency is developing project timelines that will meet the interior secretary’s goals. Currently the agency is working on a supplemental EIS for ConocoPhillips’ Greater Mooses Tooth 2 development; an EIS for a master plan for the development of ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil discovery, and an EIS for oil and gas leases sales in the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. BLM is also supporting other federal agencies in the development of an EIS for the Alaska LNG project, and has been involved with other agencies in the development of a supplemental EIS for the Alaska standalone gas pipeline.

- ALAN BAILEY